NANRE NAFZIGER argues the need to honour the dead by remembering them
As the five-year anniversary of the historic #EndSARS protests and the Lekki killings of October 2020 approaches, the stillness and silence across the country is deafening. Many front liners who participated in the protests have moved on with their lives. At the same time, a few continue activism and advocacy through civil society work in government accountability and youth leadership.
However, for the families of the dead, the imprisoned and the permanently injured or maimed, the pain continues. Paradoxically, a movement that celebrated its excellence and uniqueness in history as the‘soro soke’ and ‘coconut head’ generation, differentiating itself from generations past for its willingness to stand up for its rights, has fallen prey to the same historical amnesia that bolstered its ahistorical claims.
Many protesters harshly criticised past generations for their apathy and silence, falsely asserting that they were the first generation that rebelled against government ineptitude and violence, distinguishing themselves from their parents, whom they accused of betrayal. Perhaps unknown to them, these were acts of historical forgetting, an amnesia that draws its breath from the air of ignorance, of lack of knowledge of past struggles that had both birthed the nation and enthroned democratic rule, all of which they claimed to promote and protect. Surely, the collective trauma and its aftermath, inflicted by the government, the lack of justice for the injured, jailed and dead, are all contributing factors to the death of the movement and the historical amnesia that follows.
But what contributes to this unwillingness to remember, to valorise the martyrs of the movement, and to make sacred the day in which they laid down their lives for all of us? Why have we not shown recognition of their names, care for their families, and attention to the battle wounds of those still suffering permanent disabilities from the hail of bullets on that dark night of October 20, 2020? One may point to the lack of history education as it was removed from the school curriculum as general knowledge for decades, depriving generations of historical knowledge and consciousness. Or one may blame the deradicalisation of the student movement, which in its radical heyday was enriched by study groups, lectures, pamphlets, radical publications, and informal learning spaces.
Through collaboration with other pro-democracy forces, students benefited from an intergenerational passing of knowledge and paid homage to past heroes of movement struggle. Yet, even with the reintroduction of history education and new efforts to strengthen student organising, the attempt to enshrine #EndSARS into the annals of history remains a tall – if not impossible – task.
Historical consciousness connects the past with the present to redeem and guide a collective future. Understanding the history of social movements can give guidance to our actions today and our visualisations of future movement building. History is a powerful tool for citizenship engagement and rebellion, and as such is often a highly contested, heavily politicised subject, as we note from the militarised presence at the tollgate each October 20th.
The government wants to erase the story of #EndSARS and disappear the bodies, much like those 103 bodies that were found in the morgue over two years after the massacre, because history teaches us what they do not want us to know. It teaches us that the history of mankind is that of struggle, and that those who dare to struggle, who gather courage and face death, will always be on the right side of history, no matter the outcome of their struggle.
As we approach the fifth anniversary of #EndSARS and the Lekki Massacre, the struggle for justice for the victims remains unrealised. While the small group under the umbrella of #EndSARS United may not fully achieve this quest for justice, we still hold one power – the power to remember, to write the story, to retell it, to make songs of it, and to tell it to our children and their children.
It is in our hands to define the historical narrative and ensure that it lives on in our hearts, minds, and souls forever.
Only through remembering can we truly honour the dead and ensure that their lives were not lost in vain. We carry this obligation, this responsibility, as a sacred task, one that we must bear and carry, always. –
Dr Nafziger is a Pan-Africanist educator, organizer and scholar. She is the co-convenor of the Pan Africanist Activist Collective and a member of #EndSARSUnited. She is currently an Assistant Professor of African/Black Studies at McGill University where she studies Black social movements and history education.
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