Thread by @HumAngle_

A Nation Mourns: Young Nigerians Grapple With Collective Trauma In Wake Of Unrest

[THREAD]

On the night of Tuesday, October 20, Jerry O* witnessed scenes that seemed straight out of a movie.

Men of the Nigerian army fired live rounds at protesters holding up Nigerian flags and singing the national anthem in a Lagos suburb, the crack of gunfire drowning out ..

the demonstrators’ quaking voices. The sound followed Jerry as he ran from the spot where he was crouched, eyes catching motionless bodies and shells on the floor. It roared behind him as he escaped the bloodletting in the pitch-black night.

Two weeks later, Jerry is only

starting to move on from the events of what is now called ‘Black Tuesday’. Like him, many young people who advocated for the disbandment of a rogue police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), have been thrown into shock by the army’s response to peaceful protests.

“They came with the intention to kill as many people as possible,” Jerry told HumAngle a few days after the shootings, the shock of the night still palpable in his voice. “I could see soldiers pick bodies, they were ahead of me and I was hiding in a bush. People tried to

harge at them but they would fire many rounds and people would run back.”

To cope with Black Tuesday, Jerry said he has sought professional help. It is all he, like many others who witnessed the events of that night and the violence that followed, can do to stay sane and to

heal. In turn, dozens of mental health organisations have stepped up to help, spreading ‘mental first-aid’ tips on social media channels and on messaging platforms like WhatsApp. 
Psychologist Chinyereugo Udensi of Neem Foundation says there’s no hard data yet, but that many

patients have “reached out a lot” concerning the events of October 20 and what followed. Many can’t sleep, she said, and feel anxious about the violence. Because many mental health organisations reached out to people for help, practices like hers were not overwhelmed, she said.

West Africa’s biggest economy and most populous nation descended into chaos following the Tuesday killings. Public anger at the state and security forces morphed into widespread killings, looting and arson resulting in violence that Lagos and other south-west cities have not seen

in decades.

Thousands of young people had taken to the streets in the country from October 7, demanding an end to police brutality and state-wide repression of young people.

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