If we tend to think of Italy and Sicily when we think of the term “mafia” and Central America and South America when we think of “cartels” and “gangs”, it would be very reductive to think that these are only such violent and large criminal organizations as there are these places in the world. For several years, another mafia, a Nigerian criminal organization called the “Brotherhood of the Black Axe,” has been raging in several places around the world.
A 1970s student fraternity that founded the Neo Black Movement of Africa
It all started when a group of students from the University of Benin decided to create a group called Neo Black Movement of Africa (NBM in English) in the 1970s. The purpose of the movement was to fight against colonization and liberate the areas that the settlers still owned. It was created by nine students and a professor of history and anthropology with a purely anti-establishmentist and revolutionary aim, at least that’s what the NBM now claims.
An organization that denies being the “Black Axes”.
Since its inception in the 1970s, the NBM has denied any association with the Black Axes. The leader of the current movement has even assured the BBC that they are completely different from the gang as he says they are in no way advocating violence. They state that their logo featuring a black ax can be confusing (same as Black Axe) and that the two movements hail from the same region of the country. However, several surveys show that the organizations were in fact one entity, the “magazine” that the students of the time wrote was even called “Black Ax Magazine”.
abandoned soldiers
The first Black Ax “forces” would be ex-Nigerian Army soldiers abandoned by the Army at the end of the 1970s civil war. And we’re not talking just any soldiers here, it would be a mix between a paramilitary force and the Death Squad, a force specialized in violent and brutal repression of the populace, which in civil wars usually killed civilians to prevent an uprising. It will not surprise you to learn that this paramilitary force dubbed itself the “Black Axe” during the war.
Black Axe: The extremely violent cult-turned-global mafia
An exclusive BBC investigation has revealed that a notorious Nigerian mafia group has ties to more than 10 countries around the world. Known as a “cult” in Nigeria, Black Ax faces accusations of brutal murder, rape and torture across Nigeria. It is linked to organized crime around the world, which includes multi-million dollar internet fraud, drug and human trafficking. The BBC has spent the last 12 months investigating the group. Full movie: https://bbc.in/3p1Qa3u — Read the article: https://bbc.in/3e2nIrW
Posted by BBC News Africa on Friday 17th December 2021
A vast organization…
Over time, the Black Axes began to organize around the country and monopolize certain criminal organizations. But it wasn’t until the ’90s that the gang grew, settling in Sicily and then moving into northern Italy over the years. The soldiers initially begin working as subcontractors for the Italian mafia, initially dealing in heroin and crack cocaine trafficking and using various waves of immigration to expand their ranks up until the 2000s.
An ideology and a sectarian organization
Organization members pledge allegiance to Korofo, a centuries-old deity they also refer to as the Invisible God. This deity would protect them from colonization and act as a “compulsory religion” for members of the Mafia. Structurally, the organization functions like a cult, with the leaders at the top, then the ‘major’ members called ‘Axtkampfer’ (axemen), and the soldiers called ‘Butchers’. Furthermore, the organization prides itself on having spies everywhere, be it in Nigeria or in the other countries where it has a presence. These so-called “eye” spies can be found in many layers of Nigerian society, some even in the government.
A stranglehold on Nigerian universities
Many campuses across the country are under the yoke of various cults (including the Black Axe), and for several decades hundreds of students have been killed, raped, beaten, kidnapped, subjected to extortion or harassed by members of cults (including the Obafemi). Massacre at Awolowo University). But these threats and coercions are not limited to students, members of academies and teachers are sometimes forced to do what is asked of them under duress. In the 1970s and 1980s, various sects (like the Black Axes) arose in the universities and continue to exert crushing pressure on the population there.
A varied (and extremely violent) activity and a gigantic prostitution network
Historically, the Black Axes began their illegal activities with drug trafficking, heroin trafficking flourished there in the 1980s, and cocaine trafficking took off in the 1990s. The drug generally comes from Brazil and South America, ending up on the sub-Saharan coasts, only to be passed on to the rest of Africa and then to Europe in the 1990s, thanks to the alliance with the Sicilian Mafia.
The second major trade organized by the Black Axes is human trafficking. Thousands of women are forced into prostitution in many countries in Europe and are usually lured to those countries by female members of the sect (in Italy alone between 2014 and 2016 more than 11,000 women, many of them minors). The pattern is pretty much the same: we make them false papers, we let them travel and we house them in brothels. Most are scarred on their limbs and sometimes their chests at a religious ceremony in Nigeria before they leave. They are apparently promised a better life in Europe, then are supposed to ‘pay back’ the trip and find themselves prisoners of horrible equipment.
An almost global presence
Black Ax’s criminal activities are therefore not limited to Nigeria, as we have been able to establish that it was also present in Europe, in several countries (Italy, Ireland, France, Switzerland, etc.). In France we know that certain prostitution networks are managed by them, especially in Marseille, but we also find them in the United States and in several other countries.
But Black Ax is becoming “global” through its third criminal activity: Internet fraud. The organization’s cybercrime is no longer a secret as it is used on a large scale. We know that it operates different types of scams on the internet: inheritances, real estate, fraudulent emails, grazers… A series of scams on the internet that you must always be on the lookout for. Black Ax is very well organized in every sector it operates in, which is why several governments around the world are investigating the company in addition to the FBI and Interpol.
Nigerian celebrities who have pledged allegiance to the organization
In Nigeria, the Mafia is famous and powerful, and several personalities in the country have already declared their allegiance to it (actors, singers, public figures and the world-famous rapper Burna Boy). But in the countryside, talking about the Black Ax remains almost taboo, and certain neighborhoods owned by it are even closely guarded and forbidden to the populace. Many politicians and government officials are also part of the Black Axe, which appears to be an open secret to some political opponents, many of whom have evaded assassination.
We don’t really know who’s in charge
There were several crackdowns on key members of the mafia, including six ringleaders arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2021. The problem, however, is that most of those arrested cannot influence their superiors, as the loyalty and religious side are much more threatening to them than prison sentences. As such, it is difficult to ascertain the number and identity of the various leaders, especially as some would even outrank the political figures involved. One thing is for sure, Black Ax is getting bigger and more powerful, and internet scams have helped it spread around the world, making its threat very serious by many governments.