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FGV Conferences, XXII IOHA International Conference - Oral History in a Digital and Audiovisual World

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RECORDING THE VOICES OF FEMALE VICTIMS OF BOKO HARAM IN THE LAKE CHAD BASIN REGION
EDIDIONG EKEFRE

Last modified: 20-12-2022

Abstract


The activities of Boko Haram have engineered one of the most intense human rights violations in Africa in the twenty-first century. This resulted in serious human rights abuses and human displacement crises in the four Lake Chad Basin countries, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. The majority of those affected are women and children, most of whom are traumatized and emotionally broken, stigmatized, and often neglected by the society. Accordingly, they are denied the opportunity to speak for themselves or they shy away from speaking for fear of societal stigmatization. With an emphasis on the plight of women affected by terrorism in Nigeria, this paper explores the different ways through which digital technology can capture the plights of female victims of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin region. The paper argues that Oral History, through digital technology is essential to get the abused victims of terrorism to speak for themselves and air out their sad experiences. The study makes a distinction between the so-called ‘voices of the voiceless’ and the ‘voices of the victims.’ While the ‘voices of the voiceless’ include voices of human rights activists, non-governmental organizations, and humanitarian workers who speak on behalf of victims without allowing the victims to speak for themselves. In the voices of the victims, the victims speak for themselves, expressing their plights in a more nuanced manner than the voices of the voiceless. Collating ethnographic interviews, the study uses the Oral History methodology to explicate the plights of female victims of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin region. It concludes that it is pertinent for digital technology to be explored in gathering the voices of the victims as it can easily surpass geographical and emotional barriers, therefore bringing their voices to the limelight.


Keywords


Oral History, Digital Technology, Female Voices, Boko Haram Victims, and Lake Chad Basin.