How Nigerian fandoms helped center the #EndSARS movement

By: Denisha Kuhlor

Published: 2021-01-11

As I sit down to write this article, there have been so many tragic developments regarding the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. First things first, may all the protestors who were tragically killed on October 20 rest in peace.

Social media has helped propel the #EndSARS movement to the global stage. It is imperative to highlight the pivotal role that Nigerian fandoms are playing through their collective power in amplifying and contributing to the movement, and in holding their respective artists accountable. I will detail the unique challenges that the #EndSARS protesters face in Nigeria, and how fandoms are problem-solving in real time. Additionally, I will explore how and why Nigerian artists seemed to be more proactively aligned with their fans protesting in comparison to their American counterparts.

What is #EndSARS?

#EndSARS is a movement started by Nigerian youth to protest and call for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a.k.a. SARS. The agency, which was created in 1992, is notorious for frequent occurrences of corruption, extortion and even torturing and murdering those who resist arrest. Previously, the agency had been called to reform in regards to its heinous practices, and the government even claimed to have disbanded the unit — only to incite further violence in 2020. This has led to widespread distrust from the Nigerian youth, who have put forth a list of five tasks and a demand for transparency and accountability as the tasks were adopted.

Nigerian protestors have faced many challenges in pushing the #EndSARS movement forward, primarily from government interference and global lack of knowledge or empathy for Nigeria beyond poverty. To combat these challenges, fans have worked hand-in-hand with local and international artists to gain much-needed momentum.

Africa to the world: Using music as an opportunity for education

Throughout history, Nigerian artists have not been shy about using their music and platforms to critique systemic injustices in their home country. Nigerian artist Fela Kuti, widely known as the pioneer of “Afrobeat,” was subject to his home being constantly raided by the Nigerian government as a result of his politically-charged lyrics. After his death in 1997, Fela’s message lived on — not just through his music, but also through his life story, when his life-inspired musical Fela hit Broadway in 2008.

Leading up to the #EndSARS movement, education through music and culture had become more critical in reframing the monolithic narratives used to paint a picture of Nigeria to global audiences. This is especially true as Afrobeats artists have enjoyed increased visibility and investment from outside of the African Diaspora.

For those not familiar, the African Diaspora is a term to describe the mass dispersion of people from Africa who are now located all over the world, largely due to the transatlantic slave trade. As a result, the African Diaspora comprises people of numerous ethnicities and nationalities — many of whom have little familiarity or knowledge of the social and political dynamics of these artists’ home countries. Especially as Afrobeats artists partner more with their counterparts outside of Africa (i.e. Beyoncé, Luis Fonsi, Russ), the growing popularity of the Afrobeats scene presents a major opportunity for celebrities to leverage their platforms to educate more people.

For many Africans, social media has been a powerful tool in changing the narratives and correcting the misconceptions about their home countries, as well as increasing global travel to the continent as a whole. According to Quartz, Africa’s tourism industry is the second fastest-growing in the world, only behind Asia-Pacific — a feat that arguably has a direct correlation with the rise of social media. In addition, Twitter accounts from Africa tweet more about politics than those on any other continent.

But while Africa’s residents affectionately embrace social media, the technology’s relationship with African governments is lukewarm at best, and tumultuous at worst.

Some governments go as far to restrict access to online communication channels in the period leading up to and during elections. For instance, many were shocked to learn last month that Tanzania was shutting off access to social media ahead of its general elections — a practice that is not new for many African countries.

With social media being many users’ main source of information for global news, the technology’s effectiveness is frequently debated in the height of a protest. While I can not point to evidence to quantify the efficacy of social media activism, I would argue that in places like Africa where transparent information can be hard to access, social media serves as an important tool for grassroots organizations. In Nigeria in particular, social media has been used to bring attention to and catalyze action around many movements including Bring Back Our Girls (fighting against Boko Haram), ineffective polling conditions and instances of police brutality.

Nigeria’s population skews extraordinarily young in comparison to the rest of the world: 70% of the population is under 30, and many are digital natives. As a result, this population places an increased emphasis on social media as a tool, mainly because it is one of the only methods they have seen lead to any semblance of change. The #EndSARS movement reinvigorated the conversation of social media activism, as many protestors in and outside of Nigeria took to platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp and TikTok to call on their favorite artists to amplify the movement.

As I have covered before in my piece “Your Favorite Celebrity is Not Coming to Save You,” fans’ primary expectation for celebrity activism is that the latter use their platforms to bring awareness to issues that both parties deem important. In the context of #EndSARS, fans expected and trusted Nigerian artists to provide resources, and in many ways to serve as a first line of defense when combating the tactics the government deployed when trying to intercept their movement.

Maintaining positive fan sentiment looks different for every artist, but at the bare minimum it requires building awareness of key issues in a proactive and timely manner. One notable aspect of #EndSARS is the true, symbiotic partnership that has emerged between Nigerian artists and their African fandoms, which proved to be very fruitful for the movement. In contrast, the relationships between American artists and African fandoms during this time were not as smooth.

Let’s look at Beyoncé as an example. Many fans were expecting to hear promptly from her, especially off the heels of her Africa-focused visual album Black is King, which included collaborations from Nigerian artists including Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage and WizKid.

But instead, they got a blanket response from her publicist Yvette Noel-Schure, acknowledging the potential dangers of relying solely on the Internet for gauging celebrity activism (screenshot below). “Make it normal to stop judging people’s actions based on posts,” reads the statement. “Posts don’t make you an activist. Actions make you an activist. Whether in the background or out in these streets.”

The statement was later followed up by a post from Beyoncé’s charity initiative BEYGood, acknowledging the #EndSARS movement and detailing some of the ways that they were able to help.

But in regards to her response, many fans, especially those based in Nigeria and across the diaspora, looked at her efforts as “too little, too late.” This was arguably a missed opportunity for Beyoncé and her team to repair the tensions that mounted between the celebrity and many of her African fans following the release of Black Is King. While the visual album was released to a ton of fanfare and press adulation, many of her fans on the continent expressed their discontent that Disney+ was not available in Africa, that Beyoncé had yet to tour in Africa and that the work perpetuated certain stereotypes about Africa.

While these are very real criticisms that beg a conversation, they are ultimately subjective in a way that is quite different from what Beyoncé’s Nigerian fans were asking of her beyond her work itself. The dissonance between Beyoncé and her fans that support the #EndSARS movement illustrates a greater misalignment in Beyonce’s approach to celebrity branding and the heightened expectations these fans developed for Beyoncé to support the continent, given how much she embraced Nigeria in her recent work.

Not swayed by Noel-Schure’s statement, many of these fans took to all social media platforms to ask and encourage Beyoncé to share more information and bring awareness to the #EndSARS movement. This technique is often utilized around any individual with a large following — but a fascinating outcome that many fans themselves did not expect was that African artists leaned on this technique as well.

Tiwa Savage shocked many when she took to her Instagram to “call on Beyoncé and her team” to not be quiet, as “where these creatives are from is on fire.” While Tiwa acknowledged concerns about the potential career ramifications of her speaking out, she countered by saying that the need was too urgent and that things were too dire for her not to publicly ask for help. This reinvigorated fans and led to many coordinated campaigns across the diaspora calling for Beyoncé to highlight the movement.

At their core, it is clear that many fans simply wanted Beyoncé to leverage her platform to amplify their truth. As a result, when Beyoncé released her statement, many fans were upset, and considerably so as the situation in Nigeria had gotten much worse. Only time will tell if the way Beyoncé and her team navigated during this time caused irreparable damage between her and her fans of the diaspora.

It is important to reiterate that much of the backlash or propensity for skepticism towards Beyoncé is attributed not to the size of her celebrity, but rather to the impression she gave to the world about how she embraced and wanted to continue embracing Africa. In contrast, Rihanna was widely embraced and thanked by the diaspora for her Instagram post calling attention to the murders at Lekki Gate. These contrary fan reactions are largely because of the differing expectations around each artist, based on how they have embraced Africa in the past. Beyonce’s enthusiastic embrace of the creative scene in the continent increased her fans’ expectations of her in this moment, in contrast to a celebrity like Rihanna where for many, their only expectation was amplification.

The importance of capital, community and consistency

For the artists who were proactive in advancing the movement, many of their techniques came down to three major pillars: Capital, community and consistency.

Capital

Artists have long donated money and then called on their wealthy peers to follow their lead in times of a crisis. Due to the intervention of the Nigerian government — including blocking bank accounts with direct ties to protest organizers— artists had to get creative around sending money to support the #EndSARS movement on the ground. Cryptocurrency quickly became the most reliable form of money transmission.

Additionally, many Nigerian artists attempted to mitigate the problem by directly providing the resources for which the capital was intended. For instance, Burna Boy quickly rose to action by launching a dedicated charity to help protestors directly by paying for billboards, ambulances and mobile data plans.

Community

Community is at the heart of all protests, and many African artists were thoughtful about ensuring their messaging focused on the broader community beyond just themselves and their own fandoms.

Nigerian artist Davido used his Twitter and physical presence to do this time and time again during the protests. Davido joined protestors in the capital of Abuja, put his life at risk to plead for their release and encouraged folks to walk with him to the legislative building when he got the opportunity to speak to public officials. By understanding the importance of being a participant in the movement and working with his platform to figure out the most effective way to do that, David was able to cultivate a true sense of community.

Consistency

With so much content fighting for our attention online, consistency in amplifying political movements is more critical than ever. It is important that a lot of these techniques still continue to be adopted even after they have benefited from “peak attention” by being top-of-mind in the press and on social media.

Many artists have been working to do this by using every opportunity they have in promoting their music to bring attention to the #EndSARS movement — from Burna Boy releasing a song titled “20 10 20” and dedicating his BET Hip Hop Awards performance to the protestors who passed away, to Davido speaking with Rolling Stone about the protests alongside his new album, A Better Time.

History is still being written, and it will ultimately take time before the results of these actions will be fully illustrated. However, the future looks brighter thanks to the measures that Nigerian fandoms and their diaspora counterparts are leveraging to ensure accountability, amplification and, most importantly, results.