BRING BACK MY LITTLE SISTER
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So I feel it is only fitting to begin this blog post by
ranting about the kidnapping of about 284 girls in Northern Nigeria. These
girls according to a article written by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times (read it here),
had gone to school to take their final exams when they were abducted by night
in their dormitories by a militant terrorist group known as Boko Haram that is anti-Western
education, especially the education of the girl child. I do not want to repeat
this story as there is already a lot about it online that you can read about in
links I will provide below. However the story gets even more infuriating when
the Militants tell of their intent to sell of these girls as child brides to
fellow soldiers for as little as $12, for Kenyan readers, is about Ksh. 1000. (I’m
sorry I get so mad every time I read that! That is less than a pair of cheap
jeans!?)
I am sure we all find this story very VERY shocking,
international media has come under fire for giving this story so little
coverage until recently. Placing stories such as that of a racist basketball team
owner (whose story I find also very enraging you can also read that right here ) as being of more
importance than that of 300 lives. As much as I do feel that they should give
the story attention I feel they are doing too much, not to be callous but here
is why:
I do not know about you, but when I am in trouble the first
people I look to for help are my parents, brothers and family. Having grown up,
of course I am acquainted with and know people who have more money than my
family who I can ask for help from but I do not. This is because my family
should be the ones most concerned about my welfare when I am in trouble I should
not have to ask, they should come running to assist me because in the same
scenario, I would do the same for them. When something horrible happens to my
family I am outraged and I take it as a personal offence and will do anything
in my power to ensure that everything turns out okay
Unfortunately I do not see Africa (myself included) doing
much to assist these girls! To be fair of course the Nigerians are protesting
to help their own as well as other Africans in the diaspora throwing in their
two cents with the help of a #hashtag and some protesting but I don’t see
anything being done by us Africans here in Africa. What are we doing to show we
are concerned by our fellow young African sisters?
It pains me to see women from Europe and the Americas all
around the world (not to be racial) but yes! Women who have white skin, blue eyes
and straight hair so aggrieved and infuriated by this while we who look soo
similar to these abducted school girls sit in our houses and watching Telenovas
and then go on to get offended by lack of international support. The
international community has its own problems. As a African family we need to do
something to show support and solidarity of the #bringbackourgirls cause.
So my female African Feminists (inclusive of men) help me
out here? What can we do to support the rescue of our little sisters? Something
proactive that can be done with what little resources we have? Remember Nigeria
is our sister, and when trouble comes to your sister’s home, its highly
probably you are next. So leave comments and ideas on how we can assist in the
plight of our sisters.
If you want to know more about this story you can educate yourself by checking out these links:
ALSO for ideas for inspiration on what the rest of the world is doing check out this link below
6 Things You Should Know and Do to Help #SaveOurGirls
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This is really sad and devastating to watch and hear about and these are incredibly sober thoughts Mimi.. :-) It felt great reading.. almost like your devastation seeped through to the reader, awakening them to act.. any way they can.. :-/
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have learn that the reason that there is not much that we can do to get the girls back to their homes is because the issue is more political than we would expect it to be and the buck stops with the Nigerian government.
Over the years, the govt of Nigeria has more than ill treated the illegal group Boko Haram. There have been cases of extra-judicial killings, cases of burnt homes and excessive use of force. The government’s strategy against them has resulted in very little credibility in terms of being able to deliver the improvement in governance or service delivery needed to address Boko Haram’s grievances. Hence, this situation has been aggravated. While before, it would have been much easier to negotiate with Boko Haram, now, it is not, yet the only plausible and sane way to get the girls out would be through negotiations. A military option would be throwing dice for more than 250 lives.. not knowing how many would survive at the least.
Further more, Nigeria lacks regional strategy that would involve co-operating with its neighbours, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, where the girls are supposedly being sold. If they did, policing of borders to prevent such vices would be sufficient to at least rescue some of the girls.
Anyway, it is a governmental problem. It is a governmental crisis, and the best we can do is put pressure on the AU to help Nigeria sort out this crisis... and yet the AU is a toothless bulldog.. #Sigh!
DeleteThank you so much Kas for expressing your views. It is really frustrating to know that these girls are pawns in a political struggle and that there is not much that we can do in the sense that we cannot personally go and #bringbackourgirls or become a part of a specific cause that will directly bring these girls to safety.
On the other hand I want you to consider this: What if we had just 30 girls missing who were let’s say American or European? We have seen how Western Allies rally together when even just 3 journalists are jailed in a foreign hostile country, now imagine 30 preteen to teen girls being abducted and sold off as child brides, there would be complete panic!
The sad thing is 10 times that amount of girls HAVE gone missing in Northern Nigeria and guess what? Africa is quite undisturbed. Maybe I am being too radical in my thinking and it is just way too much to ask for African Governments to at least show concern at the bare minimum but what is even more disturbing is that you cannot place all the blame on any government because a government will act upon the concerns of its citizens, and we as African citizens are content with lending a “sigh” or a soft click of the tongue and feel that this is adequate because quite frankly we are not from Northern Nigeria and our daughters and sisters are quite safe and snug in their dormitory beds.
Maybe what we can do to help is call on our governments to lend their support in whatever way they can! even if it is just sending a supportive message in the bare minimum! Or like my friend Betty suggested, talking about it in the upcoming Economic Forum in Abuja. Maybe if we as citizens are not so complacent, our governments will not be either. We need to do something, anything really, that will show that Africans care for Africans.
I agree with Mimi. We (rest of African countries) lay in our comfy beds at night unperturbed by the thought that this may one day happen to us.
DeleteWe forget that we have Nigerian neighbors who may or may not have sisters, cousins or nieces who may be among the 276 still missing. We meet our Nigerian neighbors in the street and give the occasional "heh, pole" and go about our day not thinking of the kind of mental suffering they may be going through. pressuring our governments to lend a hand is indeed exactly what we need to do but the question is how. Should we have rallies? Should we have charity walks? Should we hold expensive dinner parties like they do when looking politicians are looking for support? Or maybe we should email our president and be like, "hey..how about a little help here?" Are we even really sure that they would respond to any of our efforts?
The problem is not what to do or how to do it, the problem lies when we give this power to our governments and/or our politicians. its not a surprise that they may (or may not*giving benefit of the doubt*) sit in their fancy offices, have their lavish dinners and forget what the whole cause is all about. Others may go to the extent of using the fact that they will lend a hand to their own benefit in the future..say a political campaign in order to get a ministerial seat.
I realize I seem pessimistic about our governments helping but this is how i see it. We live in a world where everyone wants something in return of a good deed. Whatever happened to the days when good deeds were just that..GOOD. I feel asking for help from even NGO's may be a good deed because they may not want much in return. Also how to get the attention of our leaders and reach out to their humanity as most of them have daughters and may hear the plight of a Nigerian parent.
I feel ashamed that i had no idea about what happened to the girls, thanks for the information and for spreading the word. Hope that more of us will try to do something in our own small ways. Kudos!
ReplyDeleteWow! This is eye-opening, Mimi. I know your target audience is primarily your fellow African women, but this touched me deeply too. I felt the same when Typhoon Haiyan hit us last year. We got so much foreign aid, but our own people were lax in their attempts to help the typhoon's victims.
ReplyDeleteYou are right! There should be more outrage about these missing girls! I know many atrocities of these nature occur in Africa. The little I know about Joseph Kony tells me that hardly enough is being done to stop these crimes against young women and children.
This political issue that is ruining the lives of many Nigerian girls shouldn't be treated as just another headline. As I said earlier, so many atrocities of this nature occur over there. It has benumbed the sensibilities of people. Their sympathies are not so easily won. And that is NOT okay.
I salute you for raising your voice. I know many other young women like yourself will join you in protesting the apathy of those closer to home and, most importantly, challenge those in power who CAN do something about it, to take the needed action.
God bless in your endeavors to make a difference. My prayers are with you.