Congratulations to Dr. Silas Udenze on the publication of his first book, Nigeria's EndSARS Activism and Implicit Collective Memory (July 2026, Springer).
Drawing on both rigorous scholarship and firsthand experience, Udenze provides a pioneering exploration of the 2020 protests against Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) through the lens of memory studies. The book examines how protesters mobilized digital platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp to organize, document, and sustain resistance, while also highlighting the deeper socio-economic factors of youth unemployment, poverty, systemic corruption, and persistent police brutality that fueled the movement. Udenze introduces the concept of “implicit collective memory” to describe the shared socio-economic trauma underpinning the EndSARS protests, offering a fresh and interdisciplinary perspective on activism, digital resistance, and collective memory.
Silas Udenze is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. He earned his PhD in Humanities and Communication from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain in 2024. His research is at the intersection of media and communication studies, anthropology, and sociology, focusing on contemporary and historical socio-political movements in Africa, with particular attention to digital activism and mnemonic practices. His work has appeared in leading journals such as Media, War and Conflict, Africa Spectrum, and Memory Studies, and he has presented at major international conferences including AoIR, ECREA, CAAS, EASA, and the Memory Studies Association.