Framing and movement outcomes: the #BringBackOurGirls movement

Abstract

This paper is concerned with two questions: What are the master frames of the #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) movement? Why did the #BBOG attract significant global attention but achieve only moderate success in its goal – the release of all the school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Chibok in April 2014? The paper draws on primary and secondary data to argue that the international attention generated by #BBOG framing had historically specific resonance with local contestations for political power. The reverberation of the framing led to the alienation of key political actors in Nigeria who could have helped achieve the movement’s objective. The involvement of elite women in the movement played a major role in its global popularity but their political activities and loyalties before and during movement activities influenced local perceptions of the movement. The #BBOG’s rhetorical over-reliance on international support for achieving the movement’s objective was a strategic error. The #BBOG experience suggests the need for activists, particularly in the developing world, to recognise the constraints of their political context, work with local actors to achieve objectives, and publicise what ‘international support’ means for movement objectives.