Hashtag Activism: Discontent in Nigeria

Online activism has played a role in protests all over Africa in the past decade. One of the most recent uprisings happened in Nigeria. Since October 2020, when Nigerians took to the streets in various cities to protest against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the hashtag #EndSARS has generated a lot of support on Twitter. This police force has been accused of torturing suspects and killing extrajudicially for years. Who were the people that joined the online protests?

This was the topic of research by a group of Master's students of African Studies at Leiden University with diverse family backgrounds, from South-Africa and Morocco to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Netherlands and Nigeria. They share a common interest in political protest in African countries.

Where are the #EndSARS tweets coming from? Do the senders translate their support in actions besides tweeting their discontent? And what role do women play in these protests?

These questions were put in a questionnaire administered via Twitter on November 16. Over a thousand Twitter users from all over the world responded and filled the query. From the study it becomes clear that #EndSARS gained momentum when the women joined in. Also the particular generosity of the diaspora in the UK, donating more than anyone else to the cause, contributed to the success. The Black Lives Matter movement inspired Nigerian citizens to speak out.

Read the results of the study.

The research was done by master’s students Oussama El Khairi, Shannon Lorimer, Jared Hally and Femke van Zeijl - for the Innovative Research Methods platform of Leiden University.

Photo: Benedict Pawa.