Women, Violence, and Social Activism: From Aba Women’s Protest to #EndSARS Protests

Nigeria has a rich history of struggles for self-determination and social change. As a patriarchal and male-dominated society, women in Nigeria rarely get to champion social change or assume public leadership roles because of the predominance of socio-cultural beliefs and assumptions that confine women’s socio-political participation to the private sphere rather than the public sphere. Until recent years, Nigerian women’s roles and contributions to social change have been limited and primarily underreported due to the lasting impact of the hierarchical and marginalising colonial gender order. Following increased awareness of women’s influence on social change, this paper examines the participation of Nigerian women in uprisings and social movements that have challenged the status quo. The paper focuses on the historical analysis of three significant protests spearheaded by Nigerian women from the colonial to post-colonial era. The paper draws on the propositions of African feminist theory and HabermasHabermas, J.’ Public sphere scholarship to highlight areas of similarity and divergence in the methods and outcomes of the three social movements and the impacts of these movements on the Nigerian socio-political landscape.