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Branding bin Laden

THE GLOBAL “WAR ON TERROR” ON A LOCAL STAGE

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“O s a m a b i n L a de n is my hero.... My wife gave birth to our third child
on 15 September and I named him Osama in honour of Osama bin Laden
who has proved to the world that only Allah is invincible, by exposing
America to shame despite its claim of being the strongest nation on earth.”
This statement by a Muslim from northern Nigeria, which was recorded
by a bbc correspondent in Kano in late 2001, epitomizes the cult status
Osama bin Laden attained in many parts of the Islamic world in the wake
of 9/11 (BBC News 2002). In Nigeria, posters, stickers, and T-shirts with
portraits of bin Laden were already selling extraordinarily well just a few
days after September 11, 2001. Later on, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
inspired screenplays for video movies, and Hausa bards composed songs
in bin Laden’s praise, pledging allegiance to the new “leader of Islam”
(jagoran musulunci) and urging their fans to wage jihad.
The emergence of this type of merchandise can be explained by the
logic of the economic utilization of political events by African cottage
culture industries, a phenomenon for which Walter Armbrust (2007: 8),
speaking of Egyptian culture industries in particular, coined the term
“politicsploitation.” This, however, does not address why these products
were being bought. In this chapter, I explore the communicative functions
bin Laden merchandise fulfilled in Nigeria’s political context between
2001 and 2003 and ferret out why they aroused so much interest in the