Who told the Nigerian DSP and the bulk of Nigerian populace that dreadlocks and tattoos were foreign to our culture?
The popular #EndSARS campaign began in December of 2017, after a Twitter user narrated his ordeal of intimidation and extortion at the hands of police officials, which lead to other Nigerians, including celebrities and public figures, coming out to share their experiences at the hands of officers belonging to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad, also known as SARS, is a branch of the Criminal Investigation Department that is under the Nigerian Police Force. According to Wikipedia, the squad is structured to combat robberies and solve cases involving violent theft, kidnapping, cattle rustling, etc. It would be safe to say that on no public record or directive does it state attributively that members of this squad are allowed to harass people, charging them with unfounded crimes and extorting money from them because of the way they looked, the type of cars they rode in, the piercings and tattoos on their skin, or the hairstyles they adorned. It also isn’t disclosed that it was legal for members of this squad to physically assault their victims, and go as far as shooting them if they resisted.
All of this was not exclusively stated, but when the former Lagos State Police PRO, Chike Oti said, “SARS is doing well,” to an Al Jazeera reporter just after the outpour of testimonies on social media, and the PRO for SARS headquarters also defended the squad, implying that the protest on social media with the #EndSARS hashtag was misguided, then it became clear the stand of authorities on the humanitarian violations of their officers.
According to the PRO for SARS, “The Special Anti-Robbery Squad have been doing very well in fighting violent crimes in the country in recent times which has resulted in a reduction of violent crimes nationwide.” All of these came after about a week of online protest and a public call for justice was all the evidence of the orientation that the government had given the Squad.
These statements by Public Relation Officers couldn’t have meant any less if the Inspector of Police had just gone out to pat the backs of every SARS official. These gun-toting marauders continued to parade the nation, in their usual fashion of harassment, accusation of being a fraudster, then extortion at gun point—or worse, murder.
Over the years, several discussion topics have centred around the issue of SARS harassment, and the popular hashtag was never left dead for too long before it would be fanned alive by another event, backed up with evidential photos, videos and detailed narration. In spite of all these, only a little had been done on the side of the police force in curtailing the illegal activities of this police band.
The populace, eagerly expectant for some sort of strict intervention by the federal government were only met with a brief suspension of the squad that was only effected for a few weeks, before the squad resumed with full force and more viciousness than before. It is said that lack of caution from a parent is the definition of support. Sadly, the nation soon understood the meaning of that.
On the last day of March 2019, a group of police men from the Special Anti-Cultism Squad, in the Mangoro Area of Lagos State arrested a young man sporting dreadlocks. They began assaulting their victim, and in that event, a police officer known as Sergeant Godwin Orji fired a bullet that killed one Kolade Johnson who was trying to intervene.
This particular killing caused a nationwide uproar and another round of social media protest. Nigerian artiste, Burnaboy, in his performance at the New York Apollo Theatre, asked fans to give a one-minute silence for Kolade Johnson who was shot by the police back in Nigeria. On social media, amidst the condolences and cry for justice, a huge question was posed to request how sporting a dreadlock was a crime. Then the answer came.
The current police public relations officer for Lagos State, Bala Elkana confirmed to BBC reporters in the heat of the matter that “young people stand a greater risk of being arrested because of their dreadlocks, hairstyles, clothing or tattoos.”
He also intensified this by saying that “tattoos and dreadlocks are strange to our culture… especially in Nigeria.”
With the ethics of public relations, and the general popularity of the Nigerian police, it was wonderful how these statements seemed like the right way to lower the body of the dead into the ground.
The interview has some statements from Elkana cautioning police officers from harassing citizens, but notwithstanding that many murders, assaults and illegal arrests by the police are built on the false premise that dreadlocks, hairstyles, tattoos and looks in general are not cultural. This highly placed police officer only succeeded in affirming the actions of blood sucking killers in police apparel and limiting the rights of freedom of association and movement of a citizen.
This false affirmation by police is the same credo that a whole large percentage of middle-aged Nigerians subscribe to.
Imperialism from the colonial ages demanded that men of the British Royal Army, born-again Christians, and clerical officers shaved and cropped their heads in order to look “clean and tidy”. However, history that dates back to centuries before note that African men are known to culturally groom and keep their hair. They left it in locks, and plaited it in styles, or left it in a fro—most commonly known as an Afro.
A human being’s hair is one very distinct attribute that gives a person his/her definition and style. Being black and African, our position on however we want to regard our hair would determine our general outlook, culturally. Being denied this expression of identity, and being criminalised persistently for it, a Nigerian man can only gauge the worth of his life against the desire to represent something truly cultural.
The Nigerian Police Force in their error should note that either lost or newly found, culture remains a people’s way of life and that way of life is individual, just as it is societal. They should therefore move in that line to enforce discipline in their ranks, while setting up measures to check the activities of their Special Forces and Squads.
In July, a Police Reform Act was passed, however, there has been little to no changes in the spate of developments. Young people still get harassed by police in my country, and our real cultural hairstyles are still criminalised. It is saddening that it’s these same ghosts and bones of colonialism that make us jump from nightmares that we still trip over on the steps of our front doors.
Image credit: AMISOM / Ilyas Ahmed
It’s quite alarming that what defines us as Africans is what we Africans are using against ourselves. It’s backward thinking in my opinion. I hope we can be able see the light and realise all these things are cultural values and not mere trend. Thank you for this article, Lawal Salami.