ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the interface of African spiritism with the security sector, a nexus that results in the mystical re-traditionalisation of security. The operations of two Nigerian ethnic militias, the Egbesu and Bakassi Boys, which articulate and represent the rhetoric of popular responses to the failure of the state to provide public order and socio-economic development, are used to advance the thesis that state failure has necessitated a collective retreat to security re-traditionalisation. There are hardly any prospects that the unfolding pattern of security re-traditionalisation, via the upsurge of diverse local militias that re-invent and embrace African spiritism as an organising instrument of security, will lead to a more dynamic and functional security sector as some uncritical optimists and media documentaries have proposed. The chapter explains the Second Generation conceptualisation of civil militias in the context of conflict-prone societies. Occult belief systems, have substantial impact on current power relations, politics and development in Africa.
