A Male Domain? Gender Bias and Scholarly Production on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in Nigeria
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12700/jceeas.2026.6.2.501Keywords:
IPOB; Gender; Political Violence; Nigeria; Conflict StudiesAbstract
Scholarship on the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has expanded considerably following the group’s proscription in 2017, yet the developing body of literature risks reproducing the masculinised epistemologies that have traditionally marginalised gender from conflict studies. This article examines how gender has been treated across three temporal waves of peer-reviewed literature on IPOB (2017–2026) using a five-theme analytical framework derived from feminist conflict studies. Drawing on 20 studies sourced from Google Scholar and ProQuest, the paper finds that gender remains overwhelmingly peripheral owing to early scholarship’s fixation on securitisation narratives and state responses. However, there has also been a tentative acknowledgement of women’s presence, not as analytical or theoretical sites, but as incidental ones. A gendered turn has, however, emerged since 2023 from engagements with the socio-economic consequences of the sit-at-home order and women’s roles in mobilisation. The budding gender turn entails that several gaps persist, particularly around sexual and gender-based violence, hypermasculinity, and the transnational dimensions of IPOB’s operations. Filling these gaps, the article argues, is not merely corrective but a necessity for effective conflict prevention and de-escalation.
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