We at the UMass Boston graduate program in history are pleased to announce that an article by recent alumnus, Edet A. Thomas, has been accepted to the Pardee Periodical Journal of Global Affairs. Edet’s article will appear in the journal’s forthcoming Fall 2018 issue. A full abstract of his article is below. Congratulations to Edet!
“Wicked and Illegal Traffic”: Newspaper Portrayal of Nigerian Women in the Cannabis Trade (circa 1970 – 1980)
By Edet A. Thomas
Abstract
This paper examines the portrayal of Nigerian women involved in the illegal international cannabis trade by the Nigerian newspaper press between 1970 and 1980, to offer new perspective of historical scholarship on Africa’s role in the global drugs trade. Besides citing oral sources, the researcher analysed news reports, opinion articles, letters to the editor and pictures as published in Daily Times, New Nigerian, West African Pilot, Daily Express and The Punch. Findings suggest that the managers of the newspaper press, guided as they were by patriarchal notions of how women should behave in traditional Nigerian society, took liberties in sensationalizing stories about the suspects. In terms of extent and intensity, there was far more press coverage of cases involving women, who made up only 2% of the 1,169 persons convicted for cannabis-related offences between 1966 and 1975. The paper demonstrates how prevailing socioeconomic conditions shaped the press’s framing of women’s drug-related activities in an era of relative economic prosperity.