Urban Protest in Oil-age Niger: Towards a Notion of ‘Contentious Assemblages’

Abstract The opening of the first oil refinery in Niger at the end of November 2011 spurred protests and violent clashes between youths and police. These protests turned into urban riots in the days following. In this extended case study, I analyse the processual, performative and affective dimensions of the protests and discuss urban protest and contentious politics in Niger against the backdrop of political machines, a hybrid civil society, the dynamics of intersectionality, and the role of ordering technologies. I argue that influential theories of social movements tend to overlook the heterogeneity, contingency and relational processuality of protest movements, and that taken together, these elements are rather best understood using the holistic notion of ‘contentious assemblages’. Keywords: Collective action, social movements, contentious politics, protest, assemblage, affect, oil, Niger