CASETalks Presents: Emeke Obanor / Mark Sealy – Heroes: Girls rescued from Boko Haram (Virtual)
Saturday, Oct 9, 2021 10 – 11 amSaturday, October 9, 2021
10:00 - 11:00 am CT
via Zoom
CASETalks is a monthly online series that happens every second Saturday at 10:00 am CT via Zoom. Artists are in conversation with curators, historians & other CASE partners.
CASETalks Presents: Emeke Obanor / Mark Sealy – Heroes: Girls rescued from Boko Haram
Emeke Obanor [b. 1972, Delta State, Nigeria] is a self-taught photographer based in the oil-rich, but crisis-torn Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A literature teacher by day, he is committed to showing the world the atrocities happening to girls in his region by Boko Haram, a ruthless terrorist group operating in northeastern Nigeria. In 2014, they abducted 276 female students from a school in the town of Chibok, and many are still missing. In captivity, the girls were radicalized against western education, a system that contributes to independent thinking, and is against Boko Haram’s view of Islam. Some girls gained freedom when they failed to detonate bombs that were strapped to their waists and surrendered to security authorities, while some gained freedom after military raids in their camps. But in the face of unimaginable terror, Islamic extremism, and gender bias, many of the young girls decided to pursue a western education when they regained their freedom. "We were abducted for the choice we made - to go to school," a young girl muttered.
MARK SEALY
Dr. Mark Sealy is the Executive Director of Autograph (1991) and Principal Research Fellow: Decolonizing Photography at University Arts London. Sealy is interested in the relationship between photography and social change, identity politics, race, and human rights. He has written for many of the world’s leading photographic journals, produced numerous artist publications, curated exhibitions, and commissioned photographers and filmmakers worldwide.
CASETalks is sponsored by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation