


The authors’ insights put a human face to the incident, while also underscoring that while they were victims, the girls were not passive, showing great courage in challenging their captors. They laid out the intersecting story lines covered in the book, namely on the involvement of Boko Haram, a profile of the girls themselves, and the race to free them, including the little-known negotiations spearheaded by Swiss diplomats and a group of intrepid Nigerians, including one who was jailed for several months by the Nigerian government for his trouble. In their remarks, Parkinson and Hinshaw noted how the book remains timely for concerning reasons, as over six hundred Nigerian students have been abducted since December 2020. Africa Center Director Ambassador Rama Yade welcomed participants and Distinguished Fellow Ambassador J. On Tuesday, April 13, the Africa Center convened a private event with Wall Street Journal reporters Joe Parkinson and Drew Hinshaw for a discussion of their recently published investigative book Bring Back Our Girls, chronicling the infamous abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in 2014 and the resultant social media-driven advocacy campaign and international response. ApReflecting on the Bring Back Our Girls movement
