The people with iron skin: protective charms, traditional religion, and vigilante authority in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This article explores the use of protective charms among the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) in the megacity of Lagos. The use of charms, which vigilantes refer to as African traditional security methods, involves the deployment of amulets to protect the human body from bullets (Ayeta) and sharp forces (Okigbe) as well as for use in territorial fortification, crime investigations, interrogation, and punishment. Informed by the new materialist notion of actor-network theory, I analyse how in the setting of the VGN’s oath-taking ritual performances, vigilante subjects, priests, charmed objects, and traditional deities have formed a dynamic relational network. I argue that the configurations of this relational network have redefined vigilantes’ security practices and generated new social relations with their communities, which reinforce and consolidate their authority. This article also examines how some VGN leaders articulate the discourses of Africanisation and heritagization to explicate their adoption of charm practices. I suggest that the aforementioned discourses are conscious strategies employed to ease the tension that arises from the mixture of security practices with elements of traditional religion by VGN members, most of whom are adherents of institutionalised Islam and Christianity.