Boko Haram Demands Our Attention

On January 3, Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria killed thousands of civilians in the village of Baga. Yet the Western media paid scant attention to the massacre, focusing on a different terror crisis unfolding in Paris. Starting on Wednesday, January 7 at the offices of satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, France experienced three days of violent terrorist attacks. The bloodshed in Paris captured much of the world's attention, with 1.6 million people, including more than 40 world leaders, attending marches. While this attention was merited, the comparative lack of attention given the attacks in Nigeria is deplorable.

In and of itself, the world's response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks is laudable. As an attack on a symbol of the freedom of press, the terror attacks in Paris deserved such attention, and the global outpouring of solidarity with the people of Paris was nothing short of historic. We all should stand firm in the value that newspapers and ordinary citizens should be able to publish their thoughts without fear of violent retribution.

But even as nations as disparate as Israel, Palestine, and Mali came together in solidarity against terrorism in Paris, terrorism in Nigeria went largely ignored. The attacks in Nigeria amounted to several days of unremittant terror in several communties. In the town of Baga alone, Boko Haram killed an estimated 2,000 civilians,  with that number calculated after defense groups had given up counting the bodies. Amnesty International identified this attack as Boko Haram’s deadliest massacre.

In the immediate aftermath of  the Charlie Hebdo killings, the media paid little attention to the historically horrific events in Nigeria. Even the Nigerian media largely ignored the massacre in Baga. As media analyst Ethan Zuckerman pointed out, this apathy extended to the country’s political leaders: Nigerian President Goodluck E. A. Jonathan expressed sympathies to the French, but for many days remained silent on the events in Baga.

This discrepancy in attention should disturb us not only because of the human suffering largely gone unnoticed, but also because of the ideology behind Boko Haram's terror. At the root of the organization’s beliefs is the nefarious idea that Islam forbids practices deemed by them to be Western, including voting, fashion, and secular education. In truth, these values are neither opposed to Islam, nor exclusively Western. Yet Boko Haram attempts to distort Islam to harm Nigerian people and institutions, showing no compunction in atacking impoverished communities and schools.

Boko Haram’s attacks cut against many of the values we should most esteem: education, freedom, social opportunity, and political engagement. Whether kidnapping schoolgirls or slaughtering entire villages, Boko Haram is irredeemably opposed to the idea that communities can better themselves through education and economic progress.  They also stand as a grave obstacle to Nigeria’s upcoming elections. Dr. J. Peter Pham, director at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, points out the violence in Nigeria’s northeast will deter “at least 1.5 million people” from voting.

In light of the severity of both it ideology and its actions, Boko Haram warrants much greater attention, both here at Harvard and around the world. In Nigeria, communities are standing against this terrorist group in an effort to preserve the ideals that we are fortunate enough to live everyday. They deserve our support no less than the people of Paris, and we must ensure that they have it.