It is patient that we note that
terrorism is not a “nowadays” affair. It is a primordial activity that predates
the contemporary civilization.
While global attention is focused on
embassy bombing, aircraft waking and 9/11 terrorist –attack kind of terrorism,
equally devastating terrorist activities with equally devastating terrorist are
daily swept under the carpet in Africa1.
In order to enhance better
understanding of the historical development of suicide bombing and terrorism,
we shall not deal with suicide bombing as a separate concept of terrorism. It
shall henceforth be viewed as part of terrorism.
According to Dr. Boaz Ganor2,
“Suicide attacks are not a new phenomenon and they have exponentially increased
over the past two decades. May countries all over the world have been forced to
contend with the phenomenon of suicide attacks”. Dr Genor further stated that
“Radical Islamic activities chose this method for attacking civilian and
military targets in various countries, such as turkey (hectinya, Irag, Britain,
USA, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, India etc.
Suicide attacks have clearly become
the most dangerous modus operandi of modern terrorism3. It is the
newest stage in the development of bombing attacks, which have been used by
terrorist for many years. The typical type of bombing attacks carried out in
the 1970s and 1980s were time bombs.
In bombing attacks, the perpetrators
would snuggle and plant the explosives in their targeted milieu and then wait
outside the targeted envious until lots of people gathered near the
bomb-centred area. Only then would they detonate the incendiary object. The
suicide attack on the other hand and like the smart bomb, is the most
sophisticated tactic used by terrorist organizations since it provides timing
and location of the attack (which were the flaws of bombing attacks) and
therefore, produces the maximum number of casualties and damage4.
Suicide attacks were experienced
during the period of the cold war A As Dr. Ganor puts it;
Interestingly
enough, however, what occurred during the
Second World War as a sub-intended
or quasi- suicidal condition had by the time of the cold war, with nuclear weapons on both sides,
crystallized into institutional
suicidal behaviour and led to adoption of
suicidal
doctrines by both sides. Because as we all know and there is no point in
dwelling on this at length
here it is the predicament of nuclear deterrent stragies that they depend on the mutual threat of suicide. In its purest form this is
know as “mutual assured destruction” and
in its popular form as “the balance of
terror”5.
Terrorism
has been on the international agenda sin 1934, when the League of Nations took
the first major step towards outlawing the scourge by discussing a draft
convention for the prevention and punishment of terrorism. Although the
convention was eventually adopted in 1937, it never came in force6.
This however suggests that terrorism is not a recent activity. It has been in
existence from time immemorial. Historically, it has been noted that suicide
attackers have been used by both secular and religious groups. The Tamil
tigers, a secular group carried out most ruthless campaign of suicide attacks
in the 20th century, but causalities internationally, notably as a
result of attacks by Palestinian groups against Israelis and by organizations
in various countries believed associated with or incited by Al Qaeda7.
It will be necessary if we know that
terrorist activities were not historically carried out by men alone. The use of
women as suicide attackers is not historically unprecedented, but its frequency
among groups such as the Sir Lankan Tamil Tiger (or LTTE), the Turkish
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and now the Palestinian Fatah- affiliated
al-Aqsa martyrs’ Brigades and Chechens, may indicate a social broadening of the
phenomena. While organization is predominant in the execution of the attack,
over time in cannot recruit and sustain itself without the acquiescence of the
larger soceity8.
As we have seen so far, phenomenon
of suicide attacks/terrorism have lengthy pedigree. For example, among the
earliest groups that have been toughly studied, the Muslim Assassins (also know
as Ismalis- Nazaris) operated from 1090-1275, C. E9. They prepared
their members to die int eh execution of an attack, deliberately seeking
martyrdom as they used daggers to kill their victim10. They (the
assassins) assured themselves publicity by attacking prominent officials in
public places, usually on holy days when there were many witnesses 11.
The group’s description
of the assailants as “fedayeen” (meaning consecrated ones or dedicated ones)
and their admiration for martyrdom in the course of killing is an often cited historical
precursor for some of the suicide attacks by Islamic terrorist organization
seen today12.
Another historical example of the
use of suicide attacks is found among Muslim communities in Asia during the
eighteenth, nineteeth and early twentieth centuries, particularly on the
Malabar Coast of southwestern India, in Atjeh in Northern Sumatra, and in
Mindanao and Sulu in the Southern Philippines. Muslims in these region engaged
in suicidal Jihads aimed at inflicting punishment and instilling fear among
European colonial powers. In all these places, the perpetrators engaged in
religious rituals prior to carryout the attacks, aspired to a perceived heroic
status of martyrdom, and carried out their killings as religious acts intended
to serve the interest of their own community. In each case, a shift to the use
of suicide attacks followed a period of unsuccessful open warfare against the
militarily much stronger Europeans. The suicidal jihad against civilians was
seen as a means desperate counter attach and even a means of keeping awareness
of the cause alive13.
It seems we have dwelt so long on
the historical development of terrorism in other continents making Africa a
saint free from the exponential “malady” of terrorism. This is not true.
Terrorism in Africa as it is in other continents like Asia and Europe, has had
a long history from the Sherifian dynasty of the Alawites and Filali in Morocco
to the regencies of Algeria Tunisia and Libya under the effete suzerainty of
the sultan of turkey, the berber- Arab population of North Africa experienced
of one form of terrorism after another, even before colonial rule. The French
invasion of Algeria in 1930, the establishment of French rule in Morocco in the
1900s and their occupation of Tunisia in 1880 were all characterized by one
terrorist act after the other. The journeys of independence in most countries
of Africa also strewn with one act of terrorism after the other. In countries
of East Africa most especially Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, international
terrorism coalesced in the bombing of US, embassies in 1997. In Southern
Africa, notably South Africa, Botswana, Rhodsia and Zimbabwe, apartheid
orchestrated terrorism as important state policy. The West and control Africa
may not have had embassy bombing or the 9/11 type terrorist attacks, they have
nevertheless witnessed cases of aircraft hjacking, hostage taking and other
mind-boggling terrorist actions. The 1921 Oke-Ogun uprising involved commando-
like guerrilla tactics and bush-action, which ensured the decimation of more
than ten thousand souls in three weeks Jesse and Odi events in Nigeria are two
examples of state terrorism, which have placed Nigeria in the global terrorist
map. Post-independence Africa today ranks seventh in global terrorists’
incidence, third in global terrorists injuries and fourth in global fatalities
recorded between 1997 and 2007. Africa, unarguably, is no stranger to terrorism14.
In the light of the above brief
history of terrorism globally, it can be deduced that terrorism did not start
today. And if enough caution is not taken, the world will be but a the mercy of
terrorism. Linus Ifeanyi in an article
to presented on Wednesday, September 28, 2011 entitled the impact of terrorism.
In Nigeria in view of the recent. Attacks by Boko Haram, stated that “the word
terrorism was first used in France to describe a new system of government
adopted during the French revolution (1789- 1799). From that time on, terrorism
has had a decidedly negative connotation. The word, however, did not gain wider
popularity until September 11, 2001, when Osama Bin Laden masterminded a
terrorist attack on united state”.
Terrorism summarily has had on
ancient pedigree. But aroused international or global consciousness after the
September 11rh (2001) incidence by the Osama led Al Quaeda insurgent group at
the world Trade Centre. Before the 9/11 (as the world trade centre incidence is
popularly called), most terrorist activities were carried out by freedom
fighters. This freedom fight could be to protect one’s religious belief, to
protect one’s civil right, to maintain one’s superior position in race,
ethnicity and religion.
It has been observed historically
that the first acts of what we now call terrorism were perpetuated by a radical
offshoot of the zealots, a Jewish sect active in Judea during the 1st
century AD15. The Zealots resisted the Roman Empires rule of what
primarily involving assassination Zealots fighters enemies in board daylight,
often in crowded market places or on feast days- essentially wherever there
were people to witness the violence. The Jewish Zealots used terrorism to
resist the Romans by killing many Roman soldiers and destroying Roman property
between 1090 and 1272 an Islamic movement known as the Assassins used similar
tactics in the struggle against the Christian (rusaders who had involved what
is today part of Syria16. The Assassins embraced
the same notions of self-sacrifice and suicidal martyrdom evident in some
Islamic terrorist groups today. They regarded violence as sacramental or divine
act that ensured its perpetrators would ascent task (Rapport 1981). There is a
popular lore among the southern Nigerian Christians, though apocryphal, that
jihadits believe that when they die in the course of executing their sacred
obligation in a Jihad will be made comfortable in heaven and will be given
seven virgins as wives.
Until the French revolution
(1789-1799), religion provided the main justification for the use of terrorism17.
This situation changed however as nationalism anarchism, Marxism and other
secular political movement emerged during the 1800s to challenge divine rule by
monarch 18.
Modern
terrorism was initially antimonarchical embraced by rebels and
constitutionalist during the late stages of the French revolution and in Bussia
by the peoples will Hoffman 1998).
1 Adeyemi,
Bukola, Oyeniyi Terrorism in Nigeria Groups, Activities, and politics, A. B.
Oyeniyi vol. 1, vol1 Quertery 2010
2 Founder and executive director, international policy
institute for counter-terrorism (ICT)
6 www.wkipedea.com/terrorism
7 Audrey Kurth Crown, Terrorist and sucidie attacks
order code RL32058 August 28, 2003
9 Ibid
10 David Rapprot, “Fear and Trembling. Terrorism in
three Religious Traditions, American Political Sceince Review, Vol. 78, No.3
(September 1984) pp. 658-677
11 Ibid
13 Stephen F. D. “Religious Suicide in Islamic Asia
Anti-colonial terrorism in India,
indonesia, and the Philippines”,
Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 32, vol. March 1988) pp. 37-59