My master’s degree thesis has been published as a white paper by the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

The Lab supported me in carrying out the work – it provided me with travel funds to Nigeria to conduct the research, recording equipment, and copyediting services for the thesis – this is in addition to a year-long award of $10,000 under its research fellowship.

My work focuses on the #AfricansInUkraine campaign led by Nigerian students escaping the war in Ukraine, where they faced racism at the borders. The campaign provided counternarratives and challenged mainstream media reporting through the hashtag (#AfricansInUkraine). It was later joined by activists, and subsequently, the mainstream media, and was integral to forcing Ukrainian authorities and their security agents to open the borders for Black students to leave the country.

The thesis highlighted the impact of popular African hashtag campaigns including #RhodesMustFall, #FixTheCountry, #ThisFlag, #BringBackMutharika, #ShutItAllDown, #EndSARS, and #CongoIsBleeding. These movements resulted in positive changes across Africa.

The work extensively discusses the concept of “Black witnessing,” the evolution of “hashtag activism” and other global social media movements.

My research was inspired by the groundbreaking works of Dr. Allissa V. Richardson, which examines how Black Americans leveraged the latest news production technology to document human rights injustices against them.

You can read the work here.