Popular Vindictiveness in Maroua: Autoptic Analysis of a Reinvention of Self-Security

Abstract

The question of popular justice in the city of Maroua is part of the trajectory of the limits of the State in terms of security. The weaknesses and shortcomings of the State characterized by impunity or social anomie, the resurgence of insecurities, administrative red tape and poor knowledge of the procedure of the judicial system are at the origin of the divorce of the people from the state judiciary; hence the avalanche of popular revenge. From this observation, there arises the problem of the recurrence of popular vindictiveness. That said, what explains this resurgence of mob vindictiveness in the city of Maroua, how does it manifest itself and what precaution should be taken to limit this new form of insecurity? This problem of popular revenge aims to study the issues that led to the birth of this popular revenge, then its manifestation which has become a new modality of urban insecurity in Maroua in order to propose perspectives. Highlighting the analytical and empirical-deductive approach, this study is based on oral sources, written sources and a participatory observation of scenes of popular revenge in Maroua. Through this work, we aim to show that the advent of popular justice is first perceived as the consequence of the laxity of the State, then a form of popular revenge following the failures of the State in security matters and finally to analyze and show that this is a new mode of growing insecurity in urban areas that the public authorities must eradicate without fail at all costs. This makes it possible to assess the impacts while proposing perspectives in order to avoid raising awareness of the population on what is called the presumption of innocence.