{"id":176437014,"date":"2014-05-22T03:02:27","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T08:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176437014"},"modified":"2014-05-22T03:02:27","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T08:02:27","slug":"nigeria-bringbackourgirls-the-truth-about-girls-lives-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/05\/22\/nigeria-bringbackourgirls-the-truth-about-girls-lives-in-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"NIGERIA: #BringBackOurGirls: The truth about girls lives in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The truth about girls lives in Nigeria<\/span><\/h1>\n

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BY\u00a0MSAFROPOLITAN<\/span><\/a><\/strong>
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In March this year,\u00a0GirlHub Nigeria<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>invited me to give a talk during Social Media Week Lagos, which I started\u00a0with a prayer I\u2019d written for little girls. I\u2019d like to share it with you bearing in mind that it is not religion specific.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear God, may the next generation of girls not grow up to worry about the same issues that our generation of women worry about, may they not grow up to fight the same struggles that we are fighting. May they come of age into a world that will not discriminate, violate or restrict them from reaching their fullest potential. May they rejoice in their humanity. May they live freely and wholly and contribute to making the world a more interesting and just place.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, the events that have taken place in Nigeria in the past few weeks make the prayer seem utopianist. Yet the truth is, in a country where\u00a0only eleven percent of girls complete secondary school\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and where\u00a0a quarter of girls are married before the age of fifteen<\/span><\/a>\u00a0the prospects for girls were bleak even before the\u00a0abduction of hundreds of girls by Boko Haram<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A significant amount\u00a0of Nigerian girls live\u00a0under a\u00a0strict patriarchy where their lives predominantly serve the purpose of servitude to men: fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands, you name it. Don\u2019t get me wrong, both girls and boys are impacted by Nigeria\u2019s cultural, political and economical landscape but make no mistake about it: gender is not a secondary \u201cspecial\u201d concern of the Boko Haram insurgency\u00a0\u2013 it has everything to do with it. First, because war and conflict always strengthen male dominance: from Serbia to Syria to Somalia, what all conflict situations share in common is that they\u00a0put more men in power and extract more women from it<\/span><\/a>. Furthermore, using girls\u00a0as pawns, sex slaves and general caretakers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is a way not simply to assert ideological beliefs but to assert\u00a0malecentric<\/em>\u00a0ideological beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0important because while the\u00a0#BringTheGirlsBack campaign<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is first and foremost a campaign to return the abducted girls and fight against the imminent threat of Boko Haram and the lesser-known\u00a0Ansaru<\/span><\/a>\u00a0it is also a campaign about creating a more just, safe Nigeria. At least to my sensibilities, #BringBackOurGirls signifies a shift in awareness in the Nigerian psyche that has much to do with demanding better leadership and accountability, and, this should include gender equality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The past decade has seen many positive developments for women in Nigeria and Africa at large. Together with financial and technological growth, there have come changes in attitudes: African societies are seeing\u00a0an increasing amount of women leaders in politics<\/span><\/a>, culture, entrepreneurship and so on. And there is a rare opportunity to make women part of the political, social and cultural fabric of society. However,\u00a0this will only be sustained if we create a better future for girls.<\/span><\/p>\n

In practical terms, this might mean any number of things: protesting, advocating and raising awareness; mentoring a girl; lobbying that laws that protect girls are\u00a0enforced; advocating that schools teach girls about leadership; creating apps for girls; crowd funding to write a children\u2019s book for girls. Or just simply stopping when you see a little girl looking shy and sad, to tell her that she is beautiful, strong and that she has the right to flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n

What matters is not\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0we do per se but that we understand that the safety and thriving of girls in Nigeria goes hand in hand with\u00a0the safety and thriving of Nigeria itself. Boko Haram knows this truth about girls\u2019 lives in Nigeria: that is why they have taken our girls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please add your thoughts to the conversation!<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"minnasalami<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Minna Salami is a Nigerian-Finnish writer and the founder ofMsAfropolitan<\/span><\/a>, a multiple award-winning blog covering contemporary Africa and Diaspora society and culture from a feminist perspective. Minna is a member of the\u00a0Duke University Corporate Education Global Learning Resource Network<\/span><\/a>. She is also a contributor to the\u00a0Guardian Africa Network<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and a\u00a0Huffington Post contributor<\/span><\/a>. Her main areas of expertise include extensive research and writing on gender issues in African society; media and popular culture in an African context; speaking engagements, university guest lectures as well as providing workshops and master classes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of Minna\u2019s clients include The Guardian UK, The Independent, Channel 4, ARISE TV, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Humboldt University, University of Warwick, University of Berlin, University of Northampton, University of Westminster and TVC Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to founding MsAfropolitan in 2010, Minna had many\u00a0years of branding, marketing and project management experience in the creative industries, across different countries and continents. In this role, Minna successfully oversaw campaigns for clients such as The Oxford Literary Festival, Heart FM, International Masters Publishers and Simon & Schuster. Minna has lived and worked in Nigeria, Sweden, Spain, New York and London, where she now resides.<\/span><\/p>\n

For two years, as a complement to the blog, Minna ran The MsAfropolitan Boutique,\u00a0an online shop selling a wide range of products made by women of African heritage. The shop was launched as a tribute to the African Women\u2019s Decade 2010 \u2013 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

Minna received a Master of Arts with Distinction in Gender Studies from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She is also a graduate of Lund University\u2019s Political Science Bachelor\u2019s Program.<\/span><\/p>\n

For work inquiries, please\u00a0get in touch.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

View upcoming\u00a0speaking<\/span><\/a>\u00a0engagements.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also\u00a0subscribe\u00a0<\/span><\/a>to posts and updates to get a feel of topics and analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

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>via:\u00a0http:\/\/www.msafropolitan.com\/2014\/05\/the-truth-about-girls-lives-in-nigeria.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Msafropolitan+%28MsAfropolitan%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/       MAY 7, 2014         The truth about girls lives in Nigeria   BY\u00a0MSAFROPOLITAN \u00a0 In March this year,\u00a0GirlHub Nigeria\u00a0invited me to give a talk during Social Media Week Lagos, which I started\u00a0with a prayer I\u2019d written for little girls. I\u2019d like to share it with you bearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176437014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176437014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176437014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176437019,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176437014\/revisions\/176437019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176437014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176437014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176437014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}