While the Boko Haram conflicthas reached a certain level of culturation saturation, what is known about theconflict remains patchy. This collection, featuring interviews with 47 peopleof all genders, ages and a variety of religious backgrounds, foregrounds therealities of those who are living through the conflict and presenting thehumanity of all concerned. Even as theydiscuss the conflict, their narratives also reflect realities beyond violence,making this an essential cultural archive. From age hierarchies and the cultureof deference to elders to high levels of gender inequality and gender-basedviolence; from frustrations with government to unhappiness at community leaderswho are seen as corrupt, politicised, and uncaring; and from the links andconnections between people across national boundaries to how people mobilise tosupport one another, often at great personal danger.
The lives of the women, soldiers, famers and fishermen of the Boko Haram conflict, told in their own hand. Introduction
1.
This is what has
become of Maiduguri
2.
Not the society
we want
3.
Let me leave now
before they bring fight here
4.
The world was in
our hands
5.
My whole life was
their own
6.
Still hungry to
survive
7.
I didnt know
what aikin Allah was but it sounded good
8.
Run and leave it
for the child
9.
Because of
climate change and because of conflict
10.
Freedom for me
11.
They prayed on me
12.
We take care of
each other
13.
At least I have
gotten my children
14.
If not, I would
have died
15.
I believed we
would change the world
16.
We decided, its
life or death for us
17.
There is so much
I do to avoid problems
18.
My life here does
not have any sense
19.
We came to hate the whole society except them
20.
It felt good to have this power
21.
I have no freedom
22.
Any country with
this level of insecurity is no longer a country
23.
Safely like before
24.
So different from the world we knew
25.
They were real elders - my future is with them
26.
Having a mind of my own
27.
We must stand up and fight for our rights
28.
To keep away the hopelessness
29.
Like the hameji of before
30.
I dont think we are Nigerian
31.
I am like family
to them and they will not abandon me
32.
Determined to do
all I could to protect them
33.
The one who saved
her daughters life
34.
How lucky he is
to have me as a wife
35.
A job reserved
for women
36.
If they just
stopped stigmatising
37.
It was only for a
moment I felt sad
38.
It seems that
everyone is engaged in doing evil
39.
Nobody knows what
happened to me in the bush
40.
To focus instead
on the bright future ahead of me
41.
The bloodshed in
this land
42.
The last time I
saw my daughter
43.
What keeps women
there
44.
The Borno we knew
45.
The way to regain
peace
46.
I never expected
war to be like this
47.
At least here, I
have freedom
Acknowledgements
Chitra Nagarajan is a journalist and writer who writes on climate change, conflict, feminism, foreign policy, migration, Nigeria and the wider Lake Chad region, race and sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. She has written for The Guardian, New Humanist, New Internationalist, This is Africa and Ventures Africa and appeared on Sky News and the BBC World Service. She co-edited She Called Me Woman: Nigerias Queer Women Speak, a book of narratives published by Cassava Republic Press.
