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I could start this article off by chastising white-owned major media networks all over the world for grieving over the terrorist attack in France that claimed the lives of 17 people in the Charlie Hebdo offices, yet paid little to no attention to the estimated 2,000 Nigerian civilians who were butchered at the hands of the terrorist group Boko Haram. Any anger directed at the media would be more than warranted at this point. But, the reason I’m not going to write that article is not only because I’ve written it before, but also because that doesn’t even begin to frame the problems with the lens with which we choose to view Africa. If history has proven one thing time and time again, it’s that the Western World truly does not care about what occurs in Africa (unless they’re making a profit), and while it may seem apropos to attach the #BlackLivesMatter campaign to this major media neglect, it would be wholly disingenuous. Our continued lack of interest in addressing and assisting African nations has been a problem for the more than three decades I’ve been on Earth — and it’s NOT solely a problem of white male privilege. Nobody — Black or white — in North America cares about Africa.
“Care” is the noun central to this argument. Many people are interested in what happens in Africa, but once complexity and research are introduced, it becomes easy to see that we truly don’t care. Analogically speaking, interest is akin to watching a TV show you’ve heard good things about, while caring is watching an episode of that show, then binge-watching the previous seasons on Netflix to fully understand the plot and the characters. When it comes to incursions in Africa, we’ll tune in for the episode, but once you try to explain the backstory and list the extensive cast, we disengage, because the many issues on the massive continent can be so damn convoluted. When you really think about what the word “care” entails, it should be clear to even the most casual of observers that many of us are unable or unwilling to simultaneously humanize African lives in a meaningful and substantive way, while also lending our absolute attention to the complexities of their predicaments.
Many talented writers have openly asserted that race is the predominant reason the massacre in Baga, Nigeria has not drawn as much attention as the tragedy in Paris. However, that’s very shortsighted and doesn’t address the multiple layers of complexity that separate both attacks. In France, the response to the terrorist attacks has been swift and categorical. From the 3.7 million citizens who participated in the anti-terror protests along with world leaders to President François Hollande declaring war on terrorism, the storyline is clear and simple: France will not stand for any atrocities against their citizens.
But, in Nigeria, things are simply not that clear. The day after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan issued a statement decrying the “dastardly terrorist attack.” Yet, Jonathan made no mention of Boko Haram, which had already begun slaughtering innocent men, women, and children in Northern Nigeria. He has been remarkably quiet on the issue and the only statement to come out of his office is spokesman Doyin Okupe questioning the “actual death toll” on Twitter. In fact, days after the nearly 300 schoolgirls were kidnapped in Chibok in April, touching off the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, Jonathan remained silent for three weeks. And much worse than the silence were the words of his wife, Patience Jonathan, who said, “You are playing games. Don’t use schoolchildren and women for demonstrations again.” She has continually claimed that the recovery efforts are little more than an attempt to smear her husband’s “good name.” And that’s only the start to the incredibly intricate issues facing the besieged country.
As a result of the prominence of white Western ideology in our school system, we are never given an accurate depiction of how large Africa truly is, and how unique and expansive each country is. Nigeria is not a small place in land or population. It is a country with 173.6 million people, 250 different ethnic groups, a huge income inequality gap, and an equal Christian and Muslim representation. However, the biggest distinction you can make of the country is the division between the north and the south. Southern Nigeria boasts higher school enrollment and graduation rates, a higher employment rate, the title of the nation’s commercial and media hub, extensive oil reserves, and a litany of other statistics that makes it appear to be a much “better” place to live.
Meanwhile, in Northern Nigeria, things are far from promising from a socioeconomic perspective. The North has a larger population, but some conditions in this area are not only bad compared to the rest of the nation, but represent some of the worst living conditions in the entire world. With a severe lack of investment in agriculture, the Northern economy is in a tailspin, and conditions are becoming far worse, especially since religious tensions run a lot deeper in the North than they do in the South. Twelve Northern Nigeria states have adopted Sharia Islamic law, which possesses some very troubling ideologies on women, homosexuality, and even free thought. As far as most southerners are concerned, Northern Nigerians are strange and “backwards.” And most northerners fear that their richer countrymen to the south are trying to take full control of the country. And just when you thought things couldn’t get any more confusing, enter zoning.
In Nigeria, zoning is the informal political practice of power sharing within the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to appease the interests of people in both regions by rotating the presidency between north and south. Basically, when the president is a southern Christian, the vice president is a northern Muslim, and vice versa. So when northern President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died on May 5th in 2010, it created a tense situation as his southern Christian vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, was sworn in to replace him, despite the fact that many northerners feel they were cheated out of their full term in office. Now that a new election is coming up, you can see why things are becoming incredibly tense and why Jonathan is very focused on winning this election. The North feels threatened, cheated and like they’re on the verge of seeing their religious and social values under attack. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, enter extremism.
Boko Haram was founded in 2002 as a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist sect that advocates for the strictest form of Sharia law, seeking a full Islamic state in Nigeria, free of the “westernization” they believe is occurring in the “rich, elite, Christian” south. The full name of their sect is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means: “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad.” Boko Haram, loosely translated from the region’s Hausa language, means “Western education is forbidden.” So when you consider that these sorry excuses for men already feel religiously, geographically, and politically oppressed and combine that with their troubling views on women, you can see why kidnapping schoolgirls and killing schoolboys can become the logic of the demented extremist. But to make things even worse, the current Nigerian government is so steeped in their own corruption that even crafting the “good guy/bad guy” narrative that most governments and media use to drive political interest and action is impossible. Jonathan controls the Nigerian media with such an iron fist that it is easier to hear about the actions of Boko Haram outside of Nigeria than it is being a resident there. Why, you ask? Well, since Jonathan’s opponent in the upcoming election, General Muhammadu Buhari, is running on Jonathan’s inability to keep Nigerians safe, you may want to make things appear as rosy as possible.
If you are still reading this article, I commend you, because there are many people who proved the point my point by bailing out long before now. The problem is complex, which means the answer to this solution will be far from simple. If you think mass bombings are the answer, you’re either uninformed or simply an idiot. If you think strict U.S. military intervention is the sole answer, you don’t fully understand what’s going on. I’m not sure that anyone has the definitive answer on how to topple regional Muslim extremism in a way that could remove the threat, while allowing Nigeria to grow and prosper, especially in the hands of a corrupt president. From seemingly a million miles away, most of us either look at Nigeria and throw our hands up in helplessness and frustration, or just avoid paying it any mind because it doesn’t affect us directly.
But seeing as those actions are not new in any way, shape, or form, what’s with this new modern day shock at African tragedies being ignored by much of the Western World? My youthful baptism into viewing the intentional African ignorance in our society began during the shaky coverage of Rwanda. After the mass genocide that left nearly 500,000 to 1 million people dead, I remember asking my parents one question that no was able to answer: “Why weren’t we talking about this before it happened?” At 11, I knew better than to assume that this happened over night. And during and after the massacre, it seemed as if everyone around me was more concerned about Hakeem Olajuwon‘s chances of winning his first NBA title, than caring about the citizens from his home continent. A year later, I saw the same apathy play out in our collective dissonance towards Ebola, which ripped through Zaire in 1995.
While we can, rightfully, point our fingers at prejudicial major media, the truth is that most people simply don’t care about Africa and it’s an affliction that affects people of all races — including African-Americans. It’s instances like this that make the effects of the transatlantic slave trade so visibly disastrous, because it’s not the proximity that divides our hearts — it’s our collective lack of consanguinity in the Black community. Israel is far away, but Jewish citizens in first world nations, especially America, have made it an area of great interest amongst the most powerful people in their countries, despite representing only a small minority of the citizens. But countries like Nigeria go ignored because there’s no one to advocate for their causes besides the small immigrant, first generation, ex-pat and specifically-focused scholar crowd who keep themselves abreast of everything that happens. The way to overcome our collective apathy is by caring enough to get educated today, and allowing our hearts and minds to guide us in staying informed and opinionated. This is not just about inventing and tweeting a hashtag, this is about our collective efforts to refuse seeing any African nation have their struggles ignored and reduced by major media and policymakers.
Let’s do our part, and then force everyone else to do theirs.
