74: Nigeria and Global Solidarity Against Police Brutality

In October of last year a brutal killing at the hands of Nigerian police was captured on video. It quickly went viral across the country, across, Africa, and then around the world. The police involved in the killing belonged to Nigeria’s SARS unit, short for “Special Anti Robbery Squad”. The notorious SARS unit has long been known for acts of extortion, abuse, sexual harassment and violence, torture, and murder, and as the #EndSARS hashtag started to trend on social media, young Nigerians poured out onto the streets to protest and to voice their outrage against SARS and against the corrupt and oppressive system that it has come to exemplify. 

The #EndSARS movement started to gain more international attention as members of the massive Nigerian diaspora organized protests and raised supports, and as parallels between the demands of Nigeria’s youth and the demands of #BlackLivesMatter became more prominent.

Our guest today, Rinu Oduala. A 22 year-old woman in Lagos, Nigeria, Rinu played a key role in the viral #EndSARS campaign, helping to mobilize both Nigerian youth and international support. This episode should be a valuable source of information not just for those following Nigeria and Africa, but for those who wish to see systemic change against police brutality and impunity, and government complicity, around the world.

This episode also marks our first selection for Black History Month. Look for more episodes in February and be sure to check the links to previous episodes below.

Additional Resources:

Previous Episodes to Check Out for Black History Month:

73: Africa, Race, and Racism in the Aid Community (2 of 2)

This episode is the second of a two-part conversation with Tity Agbahey. Tity is an attorney and a staffer at Amnesty International. Based in Senegal, her current work focuses on central Africa, though her previous work has focused elsewhere on the continent, and her life and travels have taken her to points beyond.

This pair of episodes should appeal to two types of listeners, those who know what it feels like to be the only one who looks like you in your university class, in your staff meetings, or on a discussion panel at a conference, and those who don’t but who want to understand.

This is also a conversation about colonialism, paternalism, and racism in one of the last places you should expect to find it, in the international aid and development sector. It’s also a conversation about the world’s general ambivalence towards African suffering, the benefits and limitations of African to African-American solidarity, privilege within an African cultural context, racism in France, internalized colonialism, an African perspective on racism in the US,  and everything else we could think to get off of our chests during a very open conversation.

72: Africa, Race, and Racism in the Aid Community (1 of 2)

This episode is the first of a two-part conversation with Tity Agbahey. Tity is an attorney and a staffer at Amnesty International. Based in Senegal, her current work focuses on central Africa, though her previous work has focused elsewhere on the continent, and her life and travels have taken her to points beyond.

This pair of episodes should appeal to two types of listeners, those who know what it feels like to be the only one who looks like you in your university class, in your staff meetings, or on a discussion panel at a conference, and those who don’t but who want to understand.

This is also a conversation about colonialism, paternalism, and racism in one of the last places you should expect to find it, in the international aid and development sector. It’s also a conversation about the world’s general ambivalence towards African suffering, the benefits and limitations of African to African-American solidarity, privilege within an African cultural context, racism in France, internalized colonialism, an African perspective on racism in the US, and everything else we could think to get off of our chests during a very open conversation.

Also it is in no way our intention to suggest that the opinions and points put forth in this episode represent the full depth and breadth of views held by 1.3 billion Africans. This is not the first, and it will certainly not be the last conversation about Africa and its 54 nations on this show, and we sincerely hope that you will check out our back catalogue and listen to previous episodes on related topics, from contemporary politics and economics in Zimbabwe, social entrepreneurship in the DRC, the Fulani people, and the role of women in Sudan’s ongoing revolution, to name just a few.

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