Washington, DC — Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, writing for the BBC, argues that Western media distorted the 2014 Boko Haram kidnapping of more than two hundred girls sitting for high school examinations. Based on conversations with some of the freed schoolgirls, she argues that the episode was not so much an attack on female education, as portrayed in Western media, but rather banditry gone wrong. A consequence of Western media attention was that it inflated Boko Haram's prestige and set the stage for its later use of female suicide bombers.
Nwaubani's perspective on the nature of Boko Haram differs from that of many observers. She downplays the religious or ideological dimension of the movement, its ability to recruit, and its strength. However, her criticism of Western media's treatment of the Chibok episode is well placed.
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