Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Women Organising in Fragility and Conflict: Lessons from the #BringBackOurGirls Movement, Nigeria

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dc.creator Atela, Martin
dc.creator Ojebode, Ayobami
dc.creator Makokha, Racheal
dc.creator Otieno, Marion
dc.creator Tade, Aina
dc.date 2021-12-08T14:59:44Z
dc.date 2021-12-08T14:59:44Z
dc.date 2021-12-07
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-26T08:50:39Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-26T08:50:39Z
dc.identifier Atela, M.; Ojebode, A.; Makokha, R.; Otieno, M and Aina, T. (2021) Women Organising in Fragility and Conflict: Lessons from the #BringBackOurGirls Movement, Nigeria, Gender & Development, 29:2-3, 313-334, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2021.1979323
dc.identifier https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/16989
dc.identifier https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13552074.2021.1979323
dc.identifier Power and Popular Politics
dc.identifier 10.1080/13552074.2021.1979323
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/198790
dc.description Public protests, including women-led struggles, are increasingly gaining a foothold in many parts of the world in response to multiple crises and growing exclusion, in a context of fragility. In the global South, most public protests involve temporary, informal coalitions where people come together and participate in a one-off event. The fluid nature of political space makes sustaining protests elusive because of protest fatigue. Yet, the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG), a women-led movement, headed a long-term protest that focused on the rights of the girl child to education – a direct response to Boko Haram’s gendered terror tactics, in which girls were abducted, forced to abandon school, and get married. This article examines when and how movements crystallise into long-term programmes of action in fragile and conflict-affected societies where state–society relations are weak and government is considered to be unresponsive. We use the case of the #BBOG movement, one of Nigeria’s intense social media-driven and women led action, to examine the mix of pressures it faced, its characteristics, and strategies in situations of fragility, conflict, and closed political spaces. We identify four key strategies that the #BBOG has deployed to keep members coming, garner international support and sympathy, keep pressure on the elite in a safe manner for the movement members, and ensure an independent funding regime for durability and impact. This article finds that #BBOG was able to navigate fragility and the closing civic space in Nigeria by challenging the failure of government to address insecurity in the country, transcending societal barriers including gender, religion, and political class, transnationalising their movement, self-funding, and using social media strategically.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Taylor & Francis Group
dc.rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.rights The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
dc.subject Gender
dc.subject Governance
dc.subject Politics and Power
dc.title Women Organising in Fragility and Conflict: Lessons from the #BringBackOurGirls Movement, Nigeria
dc.type Article


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