Religion, identity, and violence in Kaduna State Nigeria

We will study how constructions of religion impact on the formation of gender identities and the significance for participation in violence. Here we will examine links between violence at community, household and state level. Through carrying out participatory action research with community members and religious leaders we will support the development of tools for influencing behaviour leading to changes in gender identities, everyday practices, and violence. Our study bridges gaps between several of this programme's themes. It relates most closely to themes 2 (identity, community, welfare, prosperity) and 3 (religion, violence and conflict resolution).

Our project will explore the relationship of gender identities (ideal sets of characteristics males and females should live up to so as to be accepted within their own communities) to sectarian violence. It focuses on questions such as what gives men such a strong propensity to violence and how is this related to the formation of their identities through their religion. Through action research we will identify how our findings can contribute to public action for reducing violence within communities and families. This should enhance our understanding of how religion can be exploited and made into a tool both for fomenting and reducing violent conflicts.

The research will take place in the capital of Kaduna State, Nigeria, a site of multiple incidences of sectarian violence. The decision to develop this project arose from a joint project in Kaduna between the researcher and her research partner exploring relations between young people's involvement in communal violence and citizenship.

Both research partners have worked on violence and conflict. Abah's knowledge of Nigeria and Harris' work on religion and gender issues come together to provide complementary expertise that makes us a team ideally posed to tackle the intersection of gender identities and sectarian violence.

Violence can be taken as damaging physical force deliberately used against other humans for their humiliation. It is strongly gendered both in who performs it and how. Violence always has meaning and sends messages. The strong influence of religion allows its easy incorporation into identity politics. In Nigeria this is strengthened by coincidence with ethnic divides. Violent conflict has been incited by power hungry elites.

Little attention has been paid to how religions influence the construction of gender identities and still less to their connections to the legitimisation of the use of violence in the name of religion. We will seek to discover how masculinity is shaped by religions and how these are jointly implicated in decisions on whether to participate in violence. We will research women's roles in supporting violence and further explore what participants hope to achieve by violence.

Our research will not merely analyse the problems; it will also seek to reduce violent tendencies by changing patterns of gendered socialisation. It will do this through participatory action research (PAR). In PAR participants use analytical techniques to identify problems and find ways to deal with them. These include tools developed for participatory community development as well as gender training and analysis. Thus, the results of this study should both contribute to theoretical development of this field and provide practical approaches for use in Kaduna and beyond in communities afflicted by recurrent communal violence, including the UK.

We will use ethnographic methods and participatory research, working with Muslim and Christian men and women from ages 19 to 35, and community and religious leaders with whom we have already good relationships. This work will encourage development of tools for influencing behaviour leading to changes in gender identities, everyday practices, and violence. Our outputs will include scholarly and popular publications, dramas, videos and policy briefs.