Are The Lives Of Africans Worth Less?

Bring back our girls is the protest organised against the abduction of the girls, aged between 16 and 18 in Nigeria by an extremist group. The girls were sleeping in their dormitory on 15th April, when trucks manned by the Boko Haram extremist Muslim group, entered the school premises, in Northern Nigeria, and herded the girls into the trucks, driving off while chased by local residents armed with little that could threaten the aggressors. While some of the girls escaped, there are conflicting numbers as to how many managed to return back to safety. There are still more than 200 girls unaccounted for, and assumed to be in captivity.

The people of Nigeria do not think the government is taking any action to search, find and rescue the missing girls. President Goodluck Jonathan made his first comment on the abducted girls on TV, this past Sunday, two weeks after the incident happened. He claims the authorities are searching for the girls. Ms Naomi Mutah, one of the #BringBackOurGirls protest organisers was arrested and that is understood to be because of the First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, accusing the protesters of fabricating the abductions as a means to give the Nigerian government a bad name.

The story is horrifying, and not the lead story for any of the media companies, be they Africa or the rest of the world. A telling sign is my twitter timeline was abuzz with the #MH370 hashtag when the Malaysian airline disappeared, and the story grew legs with all sorts of conspiracy theories trying to explain what has happened to the plane. That kept the story alive for weeks! 

I can count the number of times I saw the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag on my twitter timeline. The world got involved in the search for the Malaysian airline, yet with these Nigerian girls gone missing, there isn't a similar judgement on how the government is dealing with the crisis or an all hands on deck approach in finding where Boko Haram are keeping the girls hostage, even after they have released a video, claiming they will sell the abducted girls.

This morning on Sky News, I heard one of their leading news stories was that UK forensic officers are preparing to start digging around a resort in Portugal where the then three-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing in 2007. A Google search and I can see the story was also being broadcast in Australia today. It is seven years later, and one girl, who was abducted while on holiday with her parents from England, has a whole force trying to find her. Yet just a little over two weeks with these girls from Nigeria, the only decision that has been made that's of significance is arresting one of the protest organisers.

I cant claim to have seen the #Maddie hashtag either, but that story is from seven years ago. I wonder what the prevalance of the hashtags #BringBackOurGirls #MH370 and #Maddie is on twitter? Can I infer that lives of people missing in the East, or Europe are more newsworthy and therefore worth more?  The evidence is the lives of Africans are worth less, but I am sure the colonised mentality of some believe the situation could be worse, if the lives of Africans were worthless.