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Photography, Facebook and Virtualisation of Resistance in Nigeria

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Photography, Facebook and Virtualisation of Resistance in Nigeria PHOTOGRAPHY, FACEBOOK AND VIRTUALISATION OF RESISTANCE IN NIGERIA BY GEORGE EMEKA AGBO A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History University of the Western Cape November 2016 Supervisor: Professor Patricia Hayes i DECLARATION I declare that Photography, Facebook and Virtualisation of Resistance in Nigeria is my own work and has not been submitted for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete references. George Emeka Agbo 11 November 2016 Signed................................ i ABSTRACT Nigerian post-independence history (1960 to the present date) is steeped in socio- political upheavals. The majority of the citizens are frustrated with the injustice, inequality and fraudulent politics that pervade the country. The central argument of this thesis is that these conditions are critiqued through the photographic practices produced on Facebook. Through the circulation of photographs and the conversations around them on the social media platform, Nigerians demand social change. The sociality that underpins the visuality of social networking is explained by Ariella Azoulay’s notion of “civil discourse,” which theoretically organises the thrust of this thesis. The formulation suggests that the photograph is an outcome of the interaction among many individuals. It is a site of exchange, a process which I have argued to be reinforced by digital and internet technology. For five years, I have followed the visual social production on Facebook in the context of virtual participant observation, downloading photographs and the comments that go with them. A number of the photographs and the accompanying comments are analysed with semiotic tools to understand the key concerns of Nigerians. To explain how the agitation is presented, and the efforts invested in the production, I have reflected on the related questions of technological mediations and appropriations. A network of digital infrastructure conditions the creation and editing of the photographs and their dissemination and meaning-making processes on Facebook. Again, the Nigerian example demonstrates how state failure fuels activism, insurgency and counter-insurgency, all of which are actuated by digital photographic production. In this situation, the photographic image is burdened with the task to produce violence and to counter it. What ultimately emerges are complex relations among people, photography and technology. I conclude that the virtual movement presents possibilities for socio-political transformation in Nigeria. From the perspective of photography, this thesis contributes to the debates in social media activism and how it is shaping politics in Africa. It demonstrates the possibility of reading the tensions in an African postcolony through the connected digital, visual and social practices of the ordinary people. We are prompted to acknowledge the influence of digital infrastructure in the political use of the image. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Akin to how photographic meaning is treated in this study as constitutive of the views of many, the project is itself an outcome of the relations among different individuals and institutions. Professor Patricia Hayes did more than supervise this work. She taught me that there are critical ways to think, to read and to write. And she patiently led me through these processes. She linked me to many intellectuals by sharing my research with them, facilitating my attendance at scholarly events and literally buying me books. For those rare dispositions, I will ever be grateful to her. I am also indebted to Professor Premesh Lalu, the Director of the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), the platform on which this project was funded. Professor Lalu, Professor Ciraj Rassool, Professor Leslie Witz, Professor Suren Pillay, Professor Uma Dhupelia-Mesthrie, Professor Andrew Bank (the Head of History Department), Dr. Heidi Grunebaum, Dr. Paolo Israel, Dr. Nicky Rousseau, Dr. Ruchi Chaturvedi, Dr. Marijke du Toit, Dr. Annachiara Forte, and Dr. Noёleen Murray gave me immense intellectual support. Apart from her connection to the Ivan Karp and Corinne Kratz Fund that also gave me funding, Emerita Professor Corinne Kratz of Emory University USA provided me with a lot of scholarly materials. So did Professor Richard Vokes. Kratz and Professor Ismail Qadri of the University of Minnesota (UMN) read through some chapters and gave useful feedback. I am grateful to them, and to the management of and friends at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Global Change (ICGC), UMN: Professor Karen Brown (Director of the centre), Professor Helena Pohlandt-McCormick, Virgil Slade, Janeke Thumbran, Jess Farrell, Elliot James, Paul Vig, and Gabriale Payne. Their assistance enabled me to participate in the International African Studies Conference held in April 2016 at UMN where a paper drawn from this thesis won the best student paper prize. ICGC and CHR funded my participation in the event. My interaction with a number of other fellows and students at the University of the Western Cape was useful to me: Dr. Aubrey Graham, Dr. Paige Sweet, Dr. Maurits iii van Bever Donker, Dr. Isabelle de Rezende, Dr. Ross Truscott, Dr. Philip Abidoye, Dr. David Mwanza, Dr. Kate Highman, Riedwaan Moosage, Mwayi Lusaka, Alberta Whittle, Mary Mbewe, Bianca van Laun, Aidan Erasmus, Lovisa Nampala, Michelle Smith, Wilton Schereka, Luvuyo Ndvuzo, Lauren va De Rede, Nokuthula Zinyengere, Tigist Shewarega, Stanley Mutetwa, Kudzai Mugadza, Comfort Mtotha, Anthony Ambe, Emmanual Ogbuabo, and Kenechukwu Ikebuaku. Administratively, Lameez Lalken of the CHR offered me the kind of assistance I never experienced in my career. At times, she would sort out my registration, flight, accommodation, stipend, and other logistics even before I asked for help. I will thank her all my life. I also appreciate the assistance of Hanifa Banderker of CHR, Villeen Beerwinkel of the Arts Faculty, and Jane Smidt and Janine Brandt of the History Department, UWC. Again, the following families cared for me throughout my stay in Cape Town: Mr. and Mrs. Simon Esiagu, Mr. and Mrs. August Engelbrecht, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Booise, and Mr. and Mrs. Pascal Sandituma. I am thankful to them. I am also grateful to Associate Professor Okechukwu Nwafor of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Nnamdi Azikiwe Univeristy, Awka, Nigeria. “Big Brother” as I call him has been the lamp that lights the roadway of my international academic pursuit. Dr. Chidi Ugwu, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) gave me wonderful insights throughout the writing of this project. He is an amazing scholar. I sincerely thank him and my “ogas” and colleagues at UNN: Professor Krydz Ikwuemesi, Professor Okpan Oyeoku, Emeritus Professor Ola Oloidi, Emeritus Professor El Anatsui, Professor Vincent Ali, Professor Ozioma Onuzulike, Professor Damian Opata, Professor Nnanyelugo Okoro, Dr. Chijioke Onuora, Dr. Eva Obodo, Dr. Godwin Uka, Dr. Chukwuemeka Nwigwe, Dr. Greg Ezea, Dr. Ifeanyi Ezema, Dr. Boniface Ugwuishiwu, Dr. Ngozi Odo, Dr. Festus Abonyi, Engr. Samson Ugwu, Mrs. Ebere Ogbuabo, Uche Onyishi, Nnaemeka Egwuibe, John Kc. Ugwuanyi, Livinus Kc. Ngwu, Trevor Morgan, May Okafor, Chukwunonso Uzoagba, Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, Stella Elejere and Dr. Godson Diogu who did not live to see me return to Nsukka from this journey. The list is long but cannot still accommodate iv many others, whose thoughts I needed, both offline and on Facebook, to think about the “Nigerian problem” on which my research is based. Joe Ike Ogugua allowed me to use his Patrick Ogugua Memorial Centre (POMEC). Although he did not live to see the outcome of the research, I am thankful to him and his family, Mrs. Ogugua and Ifechi Ogugua. I also thank the staff of the National Museum, Lagos, especially Mr. Pedro Austin Taye (the librarian), Lizzy Abbah and others in the library section for assisting me to find information. I was also given access to the library of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, where I found a lot of materials on photography in Nigeria. I thank Bisi Silva the director and Kemi Aderinto the librarian who assisted me. I am grateful to the staff of the African Artists’ Foundation, Lagos for providing me with some materials and for organising the exhibition in which my participation helped in the formation of this research idea. Again, thanks to all those whose online posts and interviews were used in this thesis. Meanwhile, I appreciate Fortune my wife, whom I fondly call Treasure, and my sons Agozie and Somto. They accepted a family split between Nsukka and Cape Town. Had they failed to understand, this dream would not have been realised. And I thank all those who assisted them in my absence: My mother Victoria, Christian Agbo (my cousin), Ebenezer Ezugwu (my friend and in-law), Mrs. Ifeyinwa Asogwa, Mr. and Mrs. Nnaemezie Asogwa, Mrs. Chinyere Ndubuisi, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Iloabuchi, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Ebubeogu (my in-laws), Mr. and Mrs. Damian Ogbuabo, Mr. and Mrs. Zebulum Achiuwa, Iheanyi Achiuwa, Jimmy Onyishi and Candidus Onyishi. Most importantly, I acknowledge the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) for the Andrew Mellon fellowship award that facilitated the execution of this project. The research was further supported by an Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Award through the African Critical Inquiry Programme, a partnership between CHR, UWC and
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