196 african appropriations
vis-à-vis the south. For lack of local faces, bin Laden was appropriated
as a symbol of political and religious aplomb—if not by all, at least by
those who bought bin Laden merchandise. Admittedly, there were stick-
ers showing the face of Ahmed Sani, the governor of Zamfara state, who
had sparked the sharia debate in 1999 and was later proclaimed mujadidi
(religious reformer; Last 2008: 41). But Sani was a civilian and therefore
did not possess any militaristic qualities. On the other hand, bin Laden’s
public image combined war and religion. That is, he exhibited qualities
wh ich, to t h is poi nt, had been a l lotted to t wo d i fferent categor ies of nor t h-
ern Nigerian identification figures—domestic dictators, with the power
and violence they once wielded, and religious leaders, with their spiritual
rallying of the flocks.
IMAGES OF BIN LADEN AS MESSAGESFrom 2001 to 2002, images of bin Laden were used in northern Nigeria
for communicating religious and political messages on a number of levels.
First of all, those who affixed such stickers and posters to their motor-
cycles, cars, shop walls, and homes expressed an awareness of belonging
to the global community of believers as well as their approval of political
Islam and its radicalization—which meant an association with bin Laden
in particular. This key message was the basis for two additional messages
directed at two different categories of audiences inside and outside the
Muslim community of northern Nigeria. Addressees inside the commu-
nity were the local elites who were expected to make a far greater personal
commitment and give their wealth to the community. Until then, none of
them had endeavored to do so. This referenced bin Laden as an exemplary
model of a pious and unselfish leader, qualities most Nigerians missed in
their own leaders. Identifying with bin Laden meant expressing a critique
of the elite lifestyle in the name of religious orthodoxy, which implicitly
referred to bin Laden’s fight against Saudi Arabia’s ruling dynasty. Young
men used images of bin Laden to communicate their radicalism and their
dissatisfaction with the general conditions they found themselves in,
just as a generation earlier had done with stickers of General Buhari and
Sheikh Abubakar Gumi. Addressees outside the Muslim community were