Hidden Narratives of Transnational Organised Crime in West Africa

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project asks whether crime of a transnational and organised form exists in West Africa, and investigates the understandings of it held by people on both sides of the line between crime and control. The project assumes that the ways criminal and state actors speak about and understand their roles, i.e. their 'narratives', provides a helpful entry point into a better understanding of the everyday reality of participating in and seeking to counter criminal activities. The project is built on the investigators' observation that much of our understanding of transnational organised crime (TNOC) in West Africa is based on official reports, statistics and other largely detached assessments about this phenomenon. Using the cases of drug trafficking and people smuggling, the project seeks to uncover the 'hidden narratives' of TNOC in West Africa in order to better understand the practices around TNOC. The project asks three overarching research questions in this regard: (1) Is there such as thing as TNOC in West Africa? (2) What are the local narratives and understandings around it? And finally, (3) how useful are our conceptual tools for understanding TNOC in this regional context? This is a particularly timely project given that the case study cities of Agadez (Niger) and Lagos (Nigeria) are sites through which rapidly evolving flows are passing: in Agadez, thousands of irregular migrants transit on their way to Libya and Europe, while in Lagos new and old forms of drug trafficking including opioids satisfy local consumption but also markets in North America and Europe. This project will focus on media reporting about TNOC but supplement these with unofficial or informal narratives from state actors (e.g. policymakers, law enforcement officials), as well as what we call 'market insiders' (e.g. smugglers, traffickers). This data will be analysed by focusing on common threads about how these actors understand their work, their relation to the other side of the crime/control divide, and the legality and ethics of their work. The project also seeks to connect these micro-level narratives to draw conclusions about the broader governance of TNOC in West Africa and explore how a rethinking of TNOC in the light of the uncovered narratives can help to inform and improve related policies in West Africa and beyond.