Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Prolegomenon: The White Widow—The Kenyan Westgate Mall Attack

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 1-16

3. The United States: Pivotal in the Terrorism Debate in Africa

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 17-43

4. Conceptualising Securitisation

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 45-58

5. The Invisible College

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 59-92

6. Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 93-136

7. Writing Insecurity: Representations of Muslims and Islam in the South African Print Media

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 137-175

8. Conclusion

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages 177-199

9. Correction to: Expertise, Epistemes and the Construction of a Suspect Community

   • Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

   Pages C1-C1

10. Back Matter

    Pages 201-247

    PDF

This book uses Securitisation Theory to explore how Muslims have been constructed as a security issue in Africa after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. These attacks became the rationale for the US’s Global War on Terror (GWOT). The centrality of Africa as an arena to execute the GWOT is the focus of this book. 

This book explores, particularly, how western-centred security discourses around Muslims has permeated South African security discourse in the post-apartheid period. It claims that the popular press and the local think-tank community were critical knowledge-sites that imported rather than interrogated debates which have underpinned policy-initiatives such as the GWOT.

Such theorisation seems contrary to the original architects of securitisation theory who maintain that issues become security concerns when institutional voices declare these as such. However, this book confirms that non-institutional voices have securitised the African Muslims by equatingthem with terrorism. 

This book illustrates that such securitisation reproduces partisan knowledge that promote Western interests.

• Security
• Securitisation
• Terrorism
• Muslims
• South Africa
• Clash of Civilisation

“Research on terrorism remains deeply Eurocentric and there is a real gap in our understanding of the material and discursive impact of the war on terror on Africa. Manufacturing Terrorism in Africa provides a much-needed critical analysis of the ways in which the war on terror discourse has come to dominate security discussions in South Africa, and the important actors involved in the securitisation of Muslims. Theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich and always interesting, this book adds greatly to our knowledge of the globally dominant terrorism discourse and its damaging effects on community relations and counterterrorism policy-making. Highly recommended.” (Professor Richard Jackson, Director, The National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, New Zealand)

• Cape Town, South Africa

  Mohamed Natheem Hendricks

Dr Mohamed Natheem Hendricks, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. His interest in security matters was sparked by debates related to Regional, Water and Human Security.

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