When Law Coexists with Control: Social Liability and Violence Under Divergent State Regimes in Nigeria and Uganda

This article examines why gender-based and honor-related violence persists in African contexts despite the presence of formal legal protections, through a comparative analysis of Nigeria and Uganda. Drawing on network theory, legal pluralism, and gender scholarship, the study advances the analytical distinction between social capital and social liability to explain how informal governance systems regulate women’s lives through coercive forms of social control. In Nigeria, fragmented state authority and legal pluralism allow kinship, religious, and community networks to dominate enforcement by default. In Uganda, similar outcomes emerge under a more centralized state that frequently aligns with moralized community authority in matters of gender, family discipline, and sexuality. Using demographic and health survey data, documented cases of lethal violence, and human rights reporting, the analysis demonstrates why legal reform and internal relocation repeatedly fail as protection strategies in network-dense societies. The findings show that women’s dependence on social capital for survival becomes a mechanism of vulnerability when conformity to gendered norms is perceived to break down. By placing Nigeria and Uganda in comparative dialogue, the article demonstrates that social liability does not depend on state weakness alone, but arises wherever social capital is embedded in systems of moral regulation that prioritize collective order over individual protection. The study contributes a generalizable framework for understanding the persistence of violence against women across divergent political contexts.