Bring Back Our Girls

The April 14, 2014, raid on a public secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria, by the Boko Haram terrorist group left the school razed to the ground. 276 school girls, who were preparing for an examination, were lined up at gunpoint and forced to march into trucks. 57 girls jumped off or escaped in the days that followed.

The response from the government was lethargic: The military at first denied the abduction even happened, an early claim of rescue was recanted, and a stakeholders’ meeting called by the First Lady turned emotional and rather comical at the Presidential Villa.

The campaign succeeded in transforming a long-term, unaddressed problem to an issue requiring imminent action.

The Bring Back Our Girls campaign sought to achieve a two-fold objective: stand in solidarity with the parents and affected communities, and hold the government accountable for its failure to protect its citizens by its inadequate response towards the insurgency that has embroiled the country since 2009. The abduction was the tragic peak of a wave of terror on public properties, especially schools, by the Boko Haram.

The campaign utilized both online and offline organizing. Online organizing was framed by the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which became viral both in Nigeria and internationally.

The online campaign started as offline activities were peaking. The first action was a march towards the National Assembly in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, organized and led by hundreds of women. Street tactics gained traction, from small community meetings to local protests, all of which gave the the hashtag even more prominence. This connected online efforts to the tactics on the ground. To bring about a more organized rhythm, regular outdoor gatherings or “sit-outs” were agreed upon and held daily in Abuja, and weekly in Lagos. Those sit-outs continue five years later, albeit with lower attendance. Nonetheless, the campaign succeeded in transforming a long-term, unaddressed problem to an issue requiring imminent action and attention by capitalizing on popular mass anger at that moment in time (see: THEORY: Al faza’a [a surge of solidarity]).

The campaign announced a call to action that empowered people to take part each from their locations and according to their capacities (see: PRINCIPLE: Create many points of entry). Suggested actions included pressuring governors and Members of Parliament, as well as symbolic solidarity actions. The call even characterized actions by location, both home and abroad. When the outrage became global, high profile people like Michelle Obama, Alicia Keys, and Angelina Jolie adopted the hashtag, while Parliaments across the world lent their voices to the demands of the movement.

From the time of the incident until April 2019, another 107 girls were successfully reunited with their parents through a combination of state-level negotiations and military force by a new presidential administration that took power in 2015.