13/03/2025
Author: Silas Udenze
Programme: Doctoral Programme in Arts and Humanities
Language: English
Supervision: Antoni Roig, Fernanda Pires de Sá
Faculty / Institute: Doctoral School UOC
Subjects: Communication
Key words: Activism, EndSARS, Nigeria, Memory, Social media
Area of knowledge: Arts and Humanities
Abstract:
This multidisciplinary research explores the EndSARS movement in Nigeria through memory studies, focusing on the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and its human rights abuses. Using a qualitative, digital ethnographic approach, the study spans three years and includes interviews with eleven participants. It examines how Instagram and WhatsApp were used during the EndSARS protests and their anniversaries in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The research shows that EndSARS represents broader socio-economic challenges like youth unemployment, poverty, and corruption, concepts termed ""implicit collective memory."" Instagram and WhatsApp were used for not-entirely performative activism, acting as dynamic newsreels and facilitating private activism, especially via WhatsApp. The study highlights EndSARS's episodic nature, driven by high-visibility events that sustain public interest. It concludes that EndSARS embodies a dual nature of collective memory—both retrospective and prospective—and underscores the need for future progress to address these enduring challenges.