Reading on Boko Haram: A Journey in the Inter‐Disciplinary Study of Islam in Africa

A review article based on three recent recent books on Boko Haram, all published in 2018 and based on sharply different disciplines/methodologies. The first, by Alexander Thurston, is a classical historiography; the second, by Michael Nwankpa and Abdulbasit Kassim, is a sourcebook of texts produced by the movement's leadership; the third, by Scott MacEachern, is a long-term history of violence in the Lake Chad based on a mixture of archaeological findings and ethnography. The article argues for the usefulness of the three as a journey in the multi-disciplinary field of studies on "Islam in Africa".