Assemblage Thinking: Understanding Farmer-Herder Conflicts in the Nigerian Benue Valley

Existing farmer-herder conflicts (FHCs) studies in Africa have been examined using diverse approaches, from environmental security and political ecology to discourse analysis. Currently, limited studies use a framework capable of integrating these perspectives. The study examines the farmer-herder conflicts in the Benue Valley of Central Nigeria using the assemblage approach because of its capacity to integrate diverse approaches to studying the conflict. Assemblage theory focuses on the relations between non-human and human elements, materiality, and discourse in understanding social phenomena, which is vital to understanding the various dimensions of the FHCs. This thesis uses assemblage theory to analyse the environmental, social and political elements, materiality and discourses surrounding the conflicts. The study uses a rhizome approach to assemblage ethnography involving unstructured and semi-structured interviews, field observation and documentary analysis. I argue that the conflict is primarily a resource competition assemblage (RCA) encompassing eco-violence assemblage and social production elements but has been the coded through neo-Malthusian narratives. I argue that the neo-Malthusian narratives shrouds specific ethnic alliances and territorial struggles linked to the RCA. Considering that the eco-violence assemblage and social production elements reflect the environmental security and political ecology perspectives of the FHCs, respectively, I argue for reducing the theoretical disagreement between the two perspectives using assemblage thinking. Furthermore, the thesis analysed the attempt to recode the RCA as emanating from “cattle mobility”, linking this new coding to changes in the moral economy of farmers and herders. This research shows the essential exchanges between eco-violence assemblage and religious crisis, recoding the RCA as efforts towards Islamisation through land grabs dubbed Fulanisation. The emergence of Fulanisation and cattle mobility notions heightened the sense of territoriality constructed around indigeneity. Tracing the colonial and postcolonial territorialisation roots of indigeneity in Nigeria, I argue that power relations and perception of actors’ alliances complicate the FHCs. Additionally, I contend that boundary disputes, indigeneity tensions and farmer-herder conflicts in the Benue Valley are highly linked and mutually reinforcing. In conclusion, using the assemblage approach helps to trace the emergence of the FHCs, their interaction with other issues and conflicts, and the transformation that constantly shifts the conflicts’ manifestation and dynamics.