For many observers, the predation of Boko Haram, unsparing and venal in its manifestation, is shocking, and it seems to lack a local historical frame of reference that would help make it understandable. For others, Boko Haram’s self-declared jihad resonates within a long, local, contested historical memory of religious militancy. This book makes sense of these two seemingly contradictory perceptions. It explains Boko Haram’s simultaneous connection to, and disconnection from, a complex history of religious dissidence and militancy in Northern Nigeria. It also answers the question of where the militants came from, what inspired and motivated them, and whether there is a local history of militant religious rebellion that could both illuminate and challenge Boko Haram’s self-proclaimed jihad. Moses E. Ochonu analyzes the rise and evolution of the Boko Haram movement within and against the contentious religious pasts of Northern Nigeria.
Moses E. Ochonu is Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in History and Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University and author, most recently, of Emirs in London: Subaltern Travel and Nigeria’s Modernity.
“Moses Ochonu addresses important, rarely asked questions about the Boko Haram movement grounded in the concerns of local people, not global jihad-watchers or Western policymakers, and is highly sensitive to the context of northern Nigeria’s society and history.”—Paul Naylor, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, Saint John's University, Minnesota
“This is the first book length study that is historically anchored and comprehensively examines the discourses articulated by Boko Haram, challenging the interpretation that the insurgent group arose due to any given single factor.”—Mohammed Bashir Salau, author of Plantation Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Historical and Comparative Study
“Through brilliant interpretations of historical events, this book connects, both circumstantially and inspirationally, the current Boko Haram rebellion to a long history of Islamic reform and insurgency in Nigeria.”—Nimi Wariboko, Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics, Boston University
"Boko Haram is a unique and important contribution to the literature on this movement as it is a multidimensional study combining and contextualizing intellectual, social, and political developments in northern Nigeria to explain the creation of the insurgency."—Jennifer Lofkrantz, author of Ransoming Prisoners in Precolonial Muslim Western Africa
“Ochonu’s brilliant and urgent book offers a sweeping, masterful analysis of Boko Haram. Through penetrating research and eloquent insight, he situates the insurgency within northern Nigeria’s longue durée, revealing how history, faith, politics, and global forces converge. Essential, transformative reading for understanding insurgency in Africa and beyond.”—Nwando Achebe, University Distinguished Professor and Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, Michigan State University
"Boko Haram: The Past of the Present Upheaval tells you all that you are likely to want to know—and probably more—about one of the world's most controversial insurgent movements. Thoroughly researched, clearly written, and brilliantly laid out, this book will put us in Ochonu's debt for a very long time."—Abiodun Alao, Professor of African Studies, King's College London and author of Rage and Carnage in the Name of God: Religious Violence in Nigeria
288 pp.6 x 9
9780520417694$29.95|£25.00Paper
Feb 2026