Terrorism, Politics, and Human Rights Advocacy

Abstract This book provides an insider–outsider analysis of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) movement. The #BBOG was formed through a coalition of elite women and middle-class allies to advocate for the rescue of over 200 high-school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. The book argues that the #BBOG is a global leader in ‘lives matter’ advocacy and a new episode in African women-led rights movements. Based on multi-year empirical research, the book demonstrates how the #BBOG transformed the Chibok kidnapping into an international cause and a social problem in a sociological sense and inadvertently created a social problem industry. This work is an in-depth engagement with the organizational structure, decision-making, repertoire of protest, framing, internal dynamics, and divisions within the #BBOG. The #BBOG is far more than a social media phenomenon: the movement deploys a hybridized communication process, which seamlessly combines the social media with traditional media. The BBOG was enmeshed in toxic presidential politics and an ideational battle with the military and two successive Nigerian governments regarding the rescue of the Chibok girls. State repression against the #BBOG and the movement’s outcomes and impact are explicated. The #BBOG contributed to the first electoral defeat of an incumbent president in Nigeria’s history. The #BBOG experience speaks to the texture of the African state, its military architecture, party politics, and challenges to human rights advocacy. The findings have implications for peace and security in Africa, the war against terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin, perpetuation of social problems, and social movement outcomes.