I was one of the many young protesters that went out to exercise their civil rights in the fight to #EndSars. Peaceful protests all over Nigeria have been taking place and have in some cases met with violence from the police and indifference from the government by large. The day before I went out to protest, I remember seeing tweets from a few womxn explaining they had been harassed or sexually assaulted while protesting. Albeit scared, I readied my protection methods and still tried to ‘ginger’ myself into going out. You see, I felt a responsibility not only to myself but to every other youth I share community with. Our protest day started off with encouraging words, we were guided on our approach (walking distance, things to look out for etc). Then, the speaker reminded everyone that nobody was to be seen harassing womxn. Anybody who did that would be met with a just response from the other youth at the scene. That moment in itself was pivotal as I perceived assent largely from members of the group and a general commitment to protecting all the women involved.
During the Lekki toll gate block that saw Sanwo-Olu slithering out of his worm-hole to safeguard the investments of the ruling class, a video surfaced of a person who had been caught sexually assaulting a womxn being answered with righteous anger by a small crowd. A few blows were thrown and he was asked to go home. In this social climate, womxn who protest run the risk of facing state violence and regular, everyday male violence we take on to exist in the world. In a country like Nigeria where police are also known to sexually assault, batter and label womxn as prostitutes to indict them with crime, violence takes on a formidable cloak. Womxn come to fear the police, not only because they may extort us but also because the threat of sexual violence is all too real.
At a base level, the police in Nigeria feel that they can harm people endlessly and nothing will come of it. Just a few months ago, police in Abuja were found to have sexually assaulted multiple women using sachets of water as ‘barrier methods’.
When womxn are sexually assaulted by regular men, they do not go to the police because they run the high risk of being sexually assaulted once again. Sexual violence exists to rob womxn of our agency and reminds us that no matter what, good womxn must not protest. Good womxn do not shout and good womxn definitely do not advocate for their rights. While outside protesting, people would often look at me strangely. There are also people who would comment in lines of “if this one faces sexual violence, then she would seek out a policeman”. If policemen are there to protect womxn from violence, why do they commit the same acts as civilian men do against womxn?
As if to add to my anger, I came across a post by bbcnewspidgin featuring two men of around the same age talking about their experience with SARS. One of the men, a chef by profession, was profiled as a yahoo boy despite showing his ID in defence. The other was profiled as being gay by SARS. They were both taken, promptly beaten and had money extorted from them. When I looked in the comments (which is what we should not do for the sake of sanity) I saw that there was a wide range of disparaging comments about the man profiled as gay and a whole lot of sympathy for the chef, who was perceived as presenting more masculinity. Many users said that while they felt somewhat sorry for the man who was profiled as gay, they were pretty sure that he was indeed homosexual. Other users flat out said they did not care that this person was met with violence.
Here, we have people against a certain injustice ready to justify its existence so long as it was weaponized against a community they oppress. The problem with thinking like this is as long as oppression exists to make one group of people suffer, it will surely catalyse into a piece of the pie for everyone. For example, TERFS sought to discriminate against trans womxn but found that cis women who were not feminine enough (read: thin/full-chested/white) started facing discrimination when they themselves were also profiled as ‘undercover men’.
The problem with thinking like this is as long as oppression exists to make one group of people suffer, it will surely catalyse into a piece of the pie for everyone
Such is the same for men who are anti-SARS but okay with state-sanctioned violence against queer people, as they soon found that police officers would simply push the parameters of perceived queerness to fit whatever bill desired at the time. It is an indictment to society at large when men feel the need to dress overtly masculine simply because they do not want to fall clutches to the harm of police. Regardless of our personal identities, it is up to each and every one of us to fight against police violence because the state does not reason what you look like before it decides you deserve death. Privilege may shield for some time, but it is not guaranteed forever. We are all at risk and we must all take a stand. Cishet men must support womxn and queer people by ensuring that other men do not harm vulnerable populations while protesting and focus remains on the real, pressing matters at hand.
