br anding bin laden 193first three actors according to personal conviction. A l-Qaeda’s media ma-
chinery staged bin Laden as a belligerent, holy warrior, unselfishly com-
mitted to fighting the cause of the Muslim plight. In bin Laden’s iconic
self-stagings, an ak-47 automatic rifle and a camouflage uniform served as
visual synecdoches for bellicosity. The Nigerian poster publishers added
numerous types of other weapons—all the way to airplanes featuring
bin Laden as a pilot or commander-in-chief. For Nigerian audiences, bin
Laden in uniform referenced a number of “strong men” whose portraits
on stickers and posters had circulated before; among them domestic mili-
tary rulers, such as Murtala Mohammed, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim
Babangida, and Sani Abacha, as well as foreign dictators, such as Muam-
mar al-Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein. The latter had already been quite
popular at the time of America’s first Gulf war in 1991. I remember the
merchandise for sale at Kano’s central market at the time: Qaddafi post-
ers and locally produced calabashes, which were decorated with carved
and painted portraits of Hussein. Some of the young people I spoke with
back then viewed Qaddafi and Saddam as anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist
social rebels who fought against the economic and cultural hegemony of
the West on behalf of the poor and marginalized of the world. This would
somehow relate the two dictators to bin Laden, who was viewed in the
same light about a decade later. On the smaller national level, domestic
military dictators became identification figures for similar reasons. All
of them were, or still are, Muslims hailing from the north, who—while
ruling the country with an iron hand—ensured the north’s political domi-
nance over the predominantly Christian south, which many northern
Nigerians feel is better kept in check.
Al-Qaeda’s media machinery was equally careful in crafting bin Lad-
en’s public image as a righteous Muslim. This was also accomplished
metonymically by way of visual synecdoches. Both the terrorist’s iconic
self-stagings and the Nigerian merchandise frequently show him wearing
a turban and caftan; Koran, prayer beads, long beard, and the raised index
finger of his right hand (as a gestural profession of faith) signify deep reli-
giosity. The iconography of these pictures has parallels to visual represen-
tations of prominent, late spiritual leaders venerated in northern Nigeria
for decades. These include Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the Senegalese muqad-
dam (teacher) of the Tijaniy ya brotherhood; Sheikh Nasiru Kabara, the