The #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria and Political Force of Image Production and Circulation on Social Media

Abstract

For many years, the unit of the Nigerian Police Force, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was accused of violent crimes and violation of human rights of citizens. One wondered if SARS had dual operational duties – to kill and dehumanise those it ought to protect. Between October and November 2020, multitude of Nigerian youths took to the street to demand for abolition of SARS, thus #EndSARS protest. Photography was at the heart of the social movement. Employing digital methods including compositional analysis and audience interpretation, this paper examines a selection of #EndSARS-related photographs and their accompanying comments retrieved from social media in relation to the impact on the street demonstration. I investigate the modes of creating the images and how they produce political effects. I argue that the use of images in the #EndSARS protest illuminates the rising conviction among Nigerians that photography can aid in the transformation of their precarious living conditions. These include the use of the camera in the conventional sense of framing the fleeting world. Others are digital editing of photographs, staged production and appropriation of images that may have no connection with the protest. Then, I analyse as political act the sense of obligation with which the images are produced and circulated. These lines of enquiry contribute to the emerging work on how photography and social media are converging to transform the political sphere.