Rectifying Jihad: Governance, Leadership & the Making of Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP)

Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 4pm to 5.30pm

Debates on African jihadist movements have often prioritised radicalisation, criminal economies or a global-local nexus linking insurgent groups to transnational networks. This paper advances a governance-centred framework – ‘Jihad governance’ – that helps to analyse how authority is produced and contested under insurgent conditions.
Drawing on Okulunganya (‘Rectification’), a rare internal document of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), it reconstructs the removal of Jamilu Mukulu and the rise of Musa Baluku as a juridically grounded process. It shows that leadership change is justified not through democratic selection or ideological rupture, but through demonstrated incapacity and failure of governance.
The paper further argues that ADF’s alignment with the Islamic State functioned as an institutional solution to a leadership crisis. By analysing governance and internal jihadist’s reasoning, the paper offers a good account of how African jihadist movements adapt and endure.
Dr Abdulhakim Nsobya is a postdoctoral researcher at Queen's University Belfast working on the ‘Governing Jihad in Africa’ project. His research focuses on religion, politics, and media in Africa, with particular attention to how religious ideas shape authority, governance, and social life in contexts of conflict and political transformation.

Speaker(s): Abdulhakim Nsobya (Queen's University Belfast)

Series: Northeast Africa Forum seminar series

Venue: African Studies Centre - Seminar Room - Seminar Room African Studies Centre 13 Bevington Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6NB United Kingdom

Department: African Studies Centre (Unit)

Organiser: Jason Mosley

Host: Northeast Africa Forum

Register here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/7c0029a0-29fb-4925-985f-ee2a2ba268dd@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91