323
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Articles

The jihadists are coming! Abyssal thinking and spatial politics of un/knowing in Ghana’s terrorism discourse

ORCID Icon
Pages 620-647 | Received 26 Dec 2022, Accepted 15 Aug 2023, Published online: 23 Sep 2023

References

  • Abdel-Fattah, R. 2020. “Countering Violent Extremism, Governmentality and Australian Muslim Youth as ‘Becoming terrorist’.” Journal of Sociology 56 (3): 372–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783319842666.
  • Adarkwah, S. B. 2020. “Counterterrorism Framework and Individual Liberties in Ghana.” African Journal of International and Comparative Law 28 (1): 50–65. https://doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2020.0301.
  • Afrobarometer. n.d. “Ghana.” Accessed December 24, 2022. https://www.afrobarometer.org/countries/ghana/.
  • Agordzo, B. K., and J. A. Osei-Tutu.2016. Marching to the Polls: Securitizing Electoral Processes in Ghana. In Managing Election-Related Conflict and Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana, edited by K. Aning, et al., Vol. 2 10–21. Accra, Ghana: Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre.
  • Amoore, L. 2013. The Politics of Possibility: Risk and Security Beyond Probability. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Amoore, L., and M. De Goede. 2008. “Introduction: Governing by Risk in the War on Terror.” In Risk and the War on Terror, 21–36. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203927700.
  • Atta, F. K. 2022. “Understanding Africa’s Terrorism Debacle: A Critical Analysis of Counterterrorism in Burkina Faso.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 16 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2022.2121365.
  • Attuquayefio, P., and L. Darkwa. 2017. “Political Vigilantism and Democratic Elections in Ghana: The Fourth Republic in Perspective.” In Selected Issues in Ghana’s Democracy 1, edited by E. A. Bossman. and A. K. D. Frempong, 79–91. Tema, Ghana: DigiBooks.
  • Attuquayefio, P., and O. B. Frimpong. 2022. “Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism in Ghana–Projecting the Utility of Citizens’ Engagement.” African Journal of Terrorism and Insurgency Research 3 (1): 31–50.
  • Aubyn, F. K. 2021. “The Risk of Violent Extremism and Terrorism in the Coastal States of West Africa: Assessing Ghana’s Vulnerabilities, Resilience and Responses.” Conflict Trends 3:14–21. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-accordc_v2021_n3_a3.
  • Ayelazuno, J. 2007. “Democracy and Conflict Management in Africa: Is Ghana a Model or a Paradox.” African Journal of International Affairs 10 (1–2): 13–36. https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=314712259.
  • Azumah, F. D., D. A. Apau, S. Krampah, and E. Amaniampong. 2020. “Strengthening Public Resilience and Border Security Management Against Terrorism: A Case Study of Elubo Border in the Western Region of Ghana.” African Journal of Terrorism and Insurgency Research 1 (2): 43–63. https://doi.org/10.31920/2732-5008/2020/v1n2a3.
  • Baldaro, E., and E. L. Lucia. 2022. Spaces of (In-)Security and Intervention: Spatial Competition and the Politics of Regional Organisations in the Sahel, Territory, Politics, Governance. https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2022.2097303.
  • Bamba, R. 2014. “The emerging threats of terrorism in West Africa: An analysis of Ghana’s response.” MA thesis, University of Ghana, Legon. http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/27452.
  • Bøås, M., and F. Strazzari. 2020. “Governance, Fragility and Insurgency in the Sahel: A Hybrid Political Order in the Making.” The International Spectator 55 (4): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/03932729.2020.1835324.
  • Bongne, F. 2016. “Perception of Residents of Accra And Tema of the Link Between International Migration and Terrorism.” PhD diss, The University of Ghana. http://ugspace.ug.edu.gh/handle/123456789/22792.
  • Breen-Smyth, M. 2014. “Theorising the “Suspect community”: Counterterrorism, Security Practices and the Public Imagination.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 7 (2): 223–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2013.867714.
  • Buzan, B., and O. Waever. 2003. Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security 91. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Buzan, B., O. Wæver, and J. De Wilde. 1998. Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685853808.
  • Çapan, Z. G. 2017. “Writing International Relations from the Invisible Side of the Abyssal Line.” Review of International Studies 43 (4): 602–611. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210517000341.
  • Charbonneau, B. 2017. “Whose ‘West Africa’? The Regional Dynamics of Peace and Security.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 35 (4): 407–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2017.1365117.
  • Chukwuma, K. H. 2021. “9/11 and the politics of counter-terrorism: writing temporality in (to) counter-terrorism rhetoric and discourse in Nigeria.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 14 (4): 421–424.
  • Chukwuma, K. H. 2022. Critical Terrorism Studies and Postcolonialism: Constructing Ungoverned Spaces in Counterterrorism Discourse in Nigeria. Critical Studies on Terrorism. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2022.2048990
  • Dan Suleiman, M. 2022. “Forecasting Jihadist Terrorism in the Sahel.“ In 2022 Counterterrorism Yearbook, edited by K. Theodorakis, and G. Savage, 9. Canberra, Australia: Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
  • Dan Suleiman, M. 2017a. “Eurocentrism, Africanity and ‘The Jihad’: Towards an African Worldview on Jihadism. Méthod (E)s.” African Review of Social Sciences Methodology 2 (1–2): 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/23754745.2017.1354556.
  • Dan Suleiman, M. 2017b. “Global Insecurity and Local Conflicts in Ghana.” Peace Review 29 (3): 315–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2017.1344759.
  • Dan Suleiman, M. 2020a. “What Makes Islamist Movements Different? A Study of Liberia’s NPFL and Nigeria’s Boko Haram in West Africa.” Terrorism and Political Violence 32 (1): 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2017.1351957.
  • Dan Suleiman, M. 2020b. “Degrees of political extremism in West Africa.” The Australasian Review of African Studies 41 (1): 106–126.
  • Dei-Fitih, R. Y. 2018. “The Ghanaian Perceptions about Transnational Terrorism and Islam and their Implications for Christian-Muslim Community Coexistence: The Case of the Madina Community.” Master’s thesis., Norwegian School of Theology.
  • de Montclos, M.-A. P. 2020. “The Nigerian Military Response to Boko Haram: A Critical Analysis.” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 10 (2): 65–82. https://doi.org/10.2979/africonfpeacrevi.10.2.04.
  • Dumbe, Y. 2019. “Islamic Polarisation and the Politics of Exclusion in Ghana: Tijaniyya and Salafist Struggles Over Muslim Orthodoxy.” Islamic Africa 10 (1–2): 153–180. https://doi.org/10.1163/21540993-01001006.
  • Eagleton, T. 1983. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Fairclough, N., and R. Wodak. 1997. “Critical Discourse Analysis.” In Introduction to Discourse Studies, edited by T. A. van Dijk, 258–284. London: Sage.
  • Fierke, K. M. 2015. Critical Approaches to International Security. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
  • Flowerdew, J. 1999. “Description and Interpretation in Critical Discourse Analysis.” Journal of Pragmatics 31 (8): 1089–1099. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00049-1.
  • Freedman, L. 2004. “War in Iraq: Selling the Threat.” Survival 46 (2): 7–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/773667906.
  • Gallie, W. B. 1956. Essentially contested concepts. In Proceedings of the Aristotelian society (Vol. 56, pp. 167–198). Aristotelian Society, Bedford Square, London.
  • Glynos, J. D., A. N. Howarth, and E. Speed. 2009. “Discourse Analysis: Varieties and Methods.” (ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Review paper), National Centre for Research Methods Southampton, United Kingdom.
  • Government of Ghana. 2019. National Framework for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism in Ghana. Accra: Government of Ghana.
  • Government of Ghana. 2020. National Security Strategy: A Secure and Prosperous Ghana, with Regional, Continental and Global Reach and Influence. Accra: Ministry of National Security.
  • Gyampo, R. E., E. Graham, and B. Asare. 2017. “Political Vigilantism and Democratic Governance in Ghana’s Fourth Republic.” The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs 44 (2): 112–135. https://www.jstor.org/stable/45341742.
  • Hardy, C., B. Harley, and N. Phillips. 2004. “Discourse Analysis and Content Analysis: Two Solitudes.” Qualitative Methods 2 (1): 19–22. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.998648.
  • Higazi, A., B. Kendhammer, K. Mohammed, M.-A. Pérouse De Montclos, and A. Thurston. 2018. “A Response to Jacob Zenn on Boko Haram and Al-Qa‘ida.” Perspectives on Terrorism 12 (2): 203–213.
  • Hülsse, R., and A. Spencer. 2008. “The Metaphor of Terror: Terrorism Studies and the Constructivist Turn.” Security Dialogue 39 (6): 571–592. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010608098210.
  • Jackson, R. 2005. “Security, Democracy, and the Rhetoric of Counterterrorism.” Democracy and Security 1 (2): 147–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/17419160500322517.
  • Jackson, R. 2007. “Constructing Enemies: ‘Islamic Terrorism in Political and Academic Discourse.” Government and Opposition 42 (3): 394–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2007.00229.x.
  • Jackson, R. 2012. “Unknown Knowns: The Subjugated Knowledge of Terrorism Studies.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 5, no. 1: 11–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2012.659907
  • Jackson, R. 2015. “The Epistemological Crisis of Counterterrorism.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 8 (1): 33–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2015.1009762.
  • Jamil, U. 2017. “How Muslims Became Corn.” ReOrient 2 (2): 175–189. https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.2.2.0175.
  • KAIPTC (Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre). 2021. “Ghana Needs to Respond to Small Arms Challenges Carefully—Prof Aning”, October 12, 2021. Accra: KAIPTC, accessed June 20 2022. https://www.kaiptc.org/ghana-needs-to-respond-to-small-arms-challenges-carefully-prof-aning/.
  • Krause, K. 1998. “Theorizing Security, State Formation and the ‘Third World’ in the Post-Cold War World.” Review of International Studies 24 (1): 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210598001259.
  • Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space, Translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Longi, F. Y. 2014. “The Kusasi-Mamprusi Conflict in Bawku: A Legacy of British Colonial Policy in Northern Ghana.” Ghana Studies 17 (1): 157–176. https://doi.org/10.1353/ghs.2014.0004.
  • Meyer, M. 2001. “Between Theory, Method, and Politics: Positioning of the Approaches to Cda.” In Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, 14–31. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020.n2.
  • Mignolo, W. D. 2009. “Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and Decolonial Freedom.” Theory, Culture & Society 26 (7–8): 159–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276409349275.
  • Mohammed, I. 2022. “Decolonialisation and the Terrorism Industry.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 15 (2): 417–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2022.2047440.
  • Mynster, C. M. 2023. “Assessing Threatening Uncertainties: Counterterrorism and Everyday Practices of Preemptive Policing in Ghana.” Security Dialogue 54 (2): 137–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106221130668.
  • Mythen, G., and S. Walklate. 2008. “Terrorism, Risk and International Security: The Perils of Asking ‘What if?’.” Security Dialogue 39 (2–3): 221–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0967010608088776.
  • Njoku, E. T. 2021. “The State of Terrorism Research in Africa.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 14 (4): 502–505. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2021.1983113.
  • Oando, S., and S. Achieng’. 2021. “An Indigenous African Framework for Counterterrorism: Decolonising Kenya’s Approach to Countering “Al-Shabaab-Ism.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 14 (3): 354–377.
  • Owusu, E. S. 2022. “The Superstition That Dismembers the African Child: An Exploration of the Scale and Features of Juju-Driven Paedicide in Ghana.” International Annals of Criminology 60 (1): 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/cri.2022.2.
  • Parliament of Ghana. 2012. “Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Act, 2012 (Act 842).“ Accra: Government of Ghana. https://www.mint.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Anti-Terrorism-Reg-L.-I.-2181.pdf.
  • Prah, P. K. W., and T. Chanimbe. 2021. “Ghana’s Readiness to Combat Terrorism: Strategies of Security Institutions.” The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs 23 (3): 367–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800992.2021.1968582.
  • Pratt, D. 2015. “Islamophobia as Reactive Co-Radicalisation.” Islam and Christian– Muslim Relations 26 (2): 205–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2014.1000025.
  • Prempeh, C. 2022. “Hijab is My Identity”: Beyond the Politics of the Veil: The Appropriations of the Veil in an Inner-City Muslim Area of Accra (Ghana) Since the 1980s.” Journal of Africana Religions 10 (1): 20–46. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/845940.
  • Ramsay, G. 2015. “Why Terrorism Can, but Should Not Be Defined.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 8 (2): 211–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2014.988452.
  • Roberts, A. 2015. “Terrorism Research: Past, Present, and Future.” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 38 (1): 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.976011.
  • Sageman, M. 2014. “The Stagnation in Terrorism Research.” Terrorism and Political Violence 26 (4): 565–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2014.895649.
  • Santos, B. D. 2007. “Beyond Abyssal Thinking: From Global Lines to Ecologies of Knowledges.” In Review, Vol. 30 1 45–89. New York: Binghamton Universityhttp://hdl.handle.net/10316/42128
  • Solomon, H. 2015. “Critical Terrorism Studies and Its Implications for Africa.” Politikon 44 (2): 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2015.1041671.
  • Sowatey, E. A. 2005. “Democracy and Peacebuilding in Ghana: Paradoxes and Challenges.” African and Asian Studies 4 (1–2): 107–136. https://doi.org/10.1163/1569209054547247.
  • The Commonwealth and National Peace Council. 2022. Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism Practitioners’ Guide: Training for Ghana National Peace Council. Accra: The Commonwealth Secretariat.
  • The Independent. 2019. “Ayawaso Violence Probe: Dr. Kwesi Aning Appears Before Emile Short Commission”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bri31ffPKho. Accessed May 1, 2020.
  • UNOWAS (United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel). 2020. Briefing of the Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel to the Security Council: ‘Despite Positive Political Developments, the Region Continues to Witness a Devastating Surge in Terrorist Attacks’. January 9. https://unowas.unmissions.org/briefing-special-representative-west-africa-and-sahel-security-council-“despite-positive-political Accessed June 15, 2023.
  • Van Dijk, T. A. 1993. “Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis.” Discourse & Society 4 (2): 249–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002006.
  • van Es, M. A., N. Ter Laan, and E. Meinema. 2021. “Beyond ‘Radical versus moderate’? New Perspectives on the Politics of Moderation in Muslim Majority and Muslim Minority Settings.” Religion 51 (2): 161–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2021.1865616.
  • Žižek, S. 2009. Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. London, UK: Profile Books.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.