“The Real Story about the Wrong Photos in #BringBackOurGirls”
by James Estrin for The New York Times
This piece once again raises troubling issues of representation and generalization regarding Africa and Africans. The Boko Haram kidnappings are more than troubling, but the groundswell of demands to “do something” and the resulting discourse on militarization in many quarters recalls the Kony 2012 campaign to militarize northern Uganda and neighboring countries. The current discourse oversimplifies religion (in the form of Islam and shari’a) as well as Nigerian history and contemporary politics. Are we witnessing the construction of another Kony 2012? What can religious and nonreligious actors inside and outside of Nigeria do to reshape the debate?