Today marks one month since militants seized over 270 girls overnight at a high school along the Nigerian far northeast town of Chibok. Demonstrations of solidarity have erupted all across the world and on social media, including one staged two days ago by Miami, Florida’s historically Black college Florida Memorial University.
"The day after Mother's Day was a very powerful and serendipitous date,” said Ana Guthrie, one of the organizers of the rally, who was pleased with the 60-person turnout. "My husband – who is a native Ugandan – and I have a 16-year-old daughter and could not imagine her being kidnapped, terrorized and ‘wed’ as a slave ‘bride’,” said Guthrie.
"Lions for Justice,"a Florida Memorial University student organization, invited community organizations such as Impact Miami, Inc., Soul Movement Crew, the Miami Dream Defenders and the Trayvon Martin Foundation, to join them on Monday near downtown Miami’s Stephen P. Clark Center – to raise support and awareness for the missing Chibok, Nigeria girls and their families.
This
region is home to the insurgent group Boko Haram responsible for the
kidnapping. According to reports, armed Boko Haram men herded the girls out of
bed and forced them into trucks. The trucks then entered thick forests
bordering Cameroon.
As
one of the Islamic extremist groups in the north, they publicly claimed to to
assaulting and selling the Chibok girls as "brides” to the rebels.
Since 2010, Boko Haram, which loosely translates to "western education is a sin,” has murdered thousands of Christians and students in northern Nigeria, with the end goal of creating an Islamic state.
Downtown
Miami was alit Monday afternoon as demonstrators prayed, chanted and read the
names of each abducted girl - only first names for their safety - while yelling
"Bring her Back!" in between each name.
The
event ran for 3 hours and while there
were only two Nigerians numbered among the throng, thousands of Nigerians and
Nigerian-Americans have taken to the streets in other areas to demand the
government do more to rescue the abducted girls.
Places with a large population of Nigerian immigrants like Bowie, Maryland, New York, Philadelphia and the UK, have staged and continue to stage demonstrations both physically and virtually. The viral social media campaign housed at http://www.facebook.com/bringbackourgirlsand http://twitter.com/rescueourgirls are central hubs for education and rally-organizing.
Still, there are critics concerning the movement that don’t agree with all the hoopla incited by Western nations.
Jumoke Balogun is the Nigerian-American co-founder and co-editor of compareafrique.com who published a column last Wednesday railing against social media and other protest efforts by Americans.
You might not know this, but the United States military loves your hashtags because it gives them legitimacy to encroach and grow their military presence in Africa. AFRICOM (United States Africa Command), the military body that is responsible for overseeing US military operations across Africa, gained much from #KONY2012 and will now gain even more from #BringBackOurGirls.
Consequently, your calls for the United States to get involved in this crisis undermines the democratic process in Nigeria and co-opts the growing movement against the inept and kleptocratic Jonathan administration. It was Nigerians who took their good for nothing President to task and challenged him to address the plight of the missing girls. It is in their hands to seek justice for these girls and to ensure that the Nigerian government is held accountable. Your emphasis on U.S. action does more harm to the people you are supposedly trying to help and it only expands and sustain U.S. military might.
Laolu Akande, executive director of Christian Association of Nigerian Americans, claims that this kind of critique does not help the matter at all.
"There are mothers who are hurting and girls
who are being held captive against their will and the Nigerian government is
helpless,” said Akande. "If the U.S. can send in special forces, France, UK,
whoever and whatever can be done, must be done.”
Akande claims that the Nigerian government has grown desensitized to Boko Haram’s terrorist acts and only took action when the mothers of the abductees staged a march in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans was instrumental in getting Washington D.C. to recognize Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization last November. Akande said that this was the first step for the U.S. to see Boko Haram as a threat to national security.
Now that this campaign has grabbed the attention of not only the U.S. heads of state but the masses, Akande is hopeful for the girls’ release.
Guthrie hopes that if efforts like FMU’s have done anything, she hopes that the Chibok girls are being told about what a big deal
they are.
"I hope Boko Haram is conveying to the girls how many rally crowds and presidents and prime ministers are making a fuss about them,” she said. "I hope the girls feel our love. I pray that our showers of blessings and pleas for their safe return are transmitted from our hearts to theirs.”