Between God and the state: Pentecostalism and articulated sovereignty in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the Niger Delta has been the scene of armed struggles between militants and other armed groups aimed at controlling natural resource revenues in Nigeria. After nearly a decade of violence, the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) was successful in disarming and co-opting the militant groups. This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Port Harcourt during 2016 with one Pentecostal group instrumental to the PAP’s success. The former militants in this group, now born-again, use Christian language and concepts to discuss the reasons for their agreement with and adherence to the PAP. However, while collaborating with the government on some important tasks, they also use the language of religion to criticize some of its actions. I argue that it is precisely through these ambiguous negotiations that sovereignty, articulated through diverse authorities, is constructed as a representation, replacing trust in government with faith in God’s plan.

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