A nuanced investigation into the humanitarian realities beyond the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
Two Wall Street Journal reporters examine the geopolitics surrounding the tragic 2014 kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram.
Bringing together years of investigative reporting and the diaries of some of the victims, Parkinson and Hinshaw detail the relationships among terrorism, geopolitics, social media, local conflict, and American military intervention. In 2014, Boko Haram, led by a deeply disturbed and avid YouTube user named Abubakar Shekau, kidnapped 276 Nigerian schoolgirls from their dorm in the middle of the night. What followed was a uniquely 21st-century phenomenon tied to and distorted by social media in novel ways. The authors describe how the international interest of the events on Twitter affected the reality of hostage negotiations and prospects for release. In fact, the millions of well-intentioned tweets to #BringBackOurGirls actually endangered the girls further, emboldening Shekau to keep them as prized hostages. This “hashtag activism,” write the authors, impeded rescue efforts, as “the intense global focus on whether the girls would be rescued was part of why they couldn’t be.” The authors, both seasoned journalists, occasionally slip into overly detailed descriptions and spend more time than necessary on secondary actors, which disrupts the narrative momentum established by the girls’ diaries. At times, the text reads like a collection of articles. Ultimately, however, the authors effectively distill the myriad experiences into an intricate portrait of an unprecedented global event. Parkinson and Hinshaw recount the atrocities endured by the girls without undue sensationalism, and they artfully explore the fascinating relationship between social media and the girls’ testimonies. They also offer an engaging analysis of how the #BringBackOurGirls campaign morphed into a full-scale American military intervention. In light of the proliferation of hashtag activism by individuals and corporations following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, this exploration of the unintended impact of social media activism is both poignant and relevant.
A nuanced investigation into the humanitarian realities beyond the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-293392-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.
An Egyptian Canadian journalist writes searchingly of this time of war.
“Rules, conventions, morals, reality itself: all exist so long as their existence is convenient to the preservation of power.” So writes El Akkad, who goes on to state that one of the demands of modern power is that those subject to it must imagine that some group of people somewhere are not fully human. El Akkad’s pointed example is Gaza, the current destruction of which, he writes, is causing millions of people around the world to examine the supposedly rules-governed, democratic West and declare, “I want nothing to do with this.” El Akkad, author of the novel American War (2017), discerns hypocrisy and racism in the West’s defense of Ukraine and what he views as indifference toward the Palestinian people. No stranger to war zones himself—El Akkad was a correspondent in Afghanistan and Iraq—he writes with grim matter-of-factness about murdered children, famine, and the deliberate targeting of civilians. With no love for Zionism lost, he offers an equally harsh critique of Hamas, yet another one of the “entities obsessed with violence as an ethos, brutal in their treatment of minority groups who in their view should not exist, and self-decreed to be the true protectors of an entire religion.” Taking a global view, El Akkad, who lives in the U.S., finds almost every government and society wanting, and not least those, he says, that turn away and pretend not to know, behavior that we’ve seen before and that, in the spirit of his title, will one day be explained away until, in the end, it comes down to “a quiet unheard reckoning in the winter of life between the one who said nothing, did nothing, and their own soul.”
A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593804148
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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