The #EndSARS movement rocked Nigeria and the world in October 2020. To many, it was unexpected, an aberration, and a possible spark for a new rise in youth activism in the troubled Nigerian state. Young people came out in their thousands across the country and the world to signal to the Nigerian government an end to their tolerance for state sponsored violence. However, this came to an abrupt end with the Lekki massacre on October 20th. How do we understand the youth uprisings of 2020? Were they an anomaly, a moment, or the start of a long term rebellion? The #EndSARS movement is significant in understanding the deep generational divide, historical consciousness and the loss of social movement history, class warfare and the ebb and flow of social movements in the deeply divided country. It speaks also, to the global impact of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the summer rebellions of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd and the re-emergence of Pan-Africanism and Black Internationalism in new and interesting ways

R. Nanre Nafziger

Nanre Nafziger holds a PhD in Education Theory and Policy and Comparative and international Education from the Pennsylvania State University. Nanre’s research agenda has three areas of focus 1) decolonizing history education in the African/Black diaspora, 2) critical studies of political education within Black student and social movements, and 3) youth engagement in education policy and practice through Youth Participatory Action research. As an engaged and committed Black scholar and activist, she brings interdisciplinary research and teaching expertise and experiences building social equity and justice in formal, informal, and community education contexts in Nigeria, the United States, and England. Nanre’s research contributes to debates on critical education policy studies, decolonial approaches to education, anti-racist pedagogy, critical race theory, critical youth studies, and Black social movements.