Constructing farmer-pastoralist conflict as Islamization: Transformation and adaptation of resource competition discourse in the Nigerian Benue Valley

The recent escalation of the farmer-pastoralist conflicts in Nigeria has seen a resurgence in the scholarly inquiry into the conflict. Discourse analysis approaches have emerged, but existing studies have yet to examine the transformation and adaptation of the farmer-pastoralist conflict discourse. This study uses constructivist grounded theory to examine the transformation and adaptation of the farmer-pastoralist conflict discourse based on interviews in the Benue Valley of Nigeria's Middle Belt region. In addition, it develops a novel and sophisticated analytical framework to explicate this process which previous studies have yet to do. Thus, this paper advances the existing studies of farmer-pastoralist conflict discourse and explains how discourses interlink, transform and adapt to various social conditions. It shows how Islamisation discourse external to farmer-herder conflict discourse assemblage becomes integrated into the resource competition discourse of the latter through relations of exteriority, transforming the discourse and adapting it to reflect the socio-political conditions of wider Nigerian society. It transforms the farmer-herder conflict discourse by retaining the element of land grabs within the resource competition discourse while disarticulating other elements. The paper demonstrates this by conceptualising discourses as dynamic and interconnected drawing on articulation and assemblage thinking concepts. The territorialisation and deterritorialisation of elements from different discourse assemblages, desires, and narrative framing contribute to this transformation and adaptation of discourse process. It explains this articulation of Islamisation discourse through a novel framing of relations of exteriority, where elements are transferred between discourse assemblages without detachment.