Boko Haram, Asylum, and Memes of Africa

This opinion piece examines evidence that Boko Haram is being invoked in asylum and refugee contexts. The author suggests that Boko Haram has emerged a meme of contemporary Africa, insofar as it appears to have become a cultural reference tool for wider anxieties and jeopardies, one that is transmitted by repetition and replication. The Boko Haram meme may benefit asylum-seekers and refugees who struggle to document their experiences or sustain their narratives of persecution, and has implications well beyond Nigeria and the continent of Africa.