The resistance began three months after the girls were taken out of the school dormitory by Islamic militants and hidden in the depths of a forest. It would end in direct confrontation and disobedience, and an unlikely victory that saved their lives.
But as Boko Haram extremists took them across the bush to fields beyond the reach of any rescue, freedom was years away.
The story of the extraordinary courage of women detained for up to three years by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria has never been told, despite the huge global attention focused on their kidnapping in April 2014.
The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls was tweeted by Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, the pope and others, in one of the most prominent examples of online activism of all time. It brought in the engagement of some of the most powerful states in the world, the sending of hundreds of troops and billions of dollars in military equipment to West Africa.
But now a book, due to be published early next month, will reveal the reality of life for the more than 200 women at the school in Chibok, who have been held hostage in one of the most infamous mass kidnappings in decades.
“We wanted to tell the story of how these women survived, but also the story of why it took so long to free them, despite, or perhaps because of, the social media campaign,” said Joe Parkinson, co-author of Bring our girls back, which is based on hundreds of interviews with students, family members, ex-militants, officers, spies and others involved in his ordeal.
Among the students was Naomi Adamu. Their challenge began when extremists told students to exchange their school uniforms for black, flowing clothing. The 24-year-old kept her blue plaid dress and then, risking a beating or worse, started a diary.
The notebooks she ended up bringing from the forest provided much of the raw material for the book.
Adamu wrote on the days when it was safe, after mandatory Quranic lessons and searching for scarce rations in the forest.
The small act of rebellion gave him strength. When her Boko Haram escorts told her that she would be killed if she did not convert, married a fighter and fathered her children, she refused and was beaten with the butt of a rifle. Her captors did not carry out her lethal threat, nor did she or the others who refused “marriage” subjected to sexual abuse. But they were condemned to hard work as “slaves”.
In mid-2015, with Boko Haram now in retreat, Adamu and his closest friends began to lose their fear of extremists. Inspired by his example, the other hostages also began to fight back, risking scourging with sticks and wire.
“I became the leader of our girls because I was the oldest among them and the most stubborn. Boko Haram wanted me to become an example because they knew that the other girls listened to me – they beat me up, intimidated me and threatened to kill me, but I told them that even if heaven and earth came together, I would not get married “, Adamu told the authors.
Soon, some of the hostages became openly insubordinate, refusing orders and being beaten repeatedly. They began to sing hymns softly when their guards were distracted. Then the singing got louder.
A small group of the most challenging students was separated. Adamu, their leader, was dubbed “the main infidel” by angry Boko Haram leaders.
“When they realized that we don’t wear hijab like the other girls, they hit us and said they would cut off our heads. They forced us to wear the hijab and pray, but together we decided to fake the ceremony. We said Christian prayers and told each other the story of Job, ”said Adamu.
Once again, students were told that they would be killed if they did not submit and convert. Once again, the small group of rebels refused.
“At one point we had seen so many bodies, we were no longer afraid of dying,” he told the authors.
When Boko Haram tried to make others obedient, Adamu helped organize a clandestine supply of rice to feed the resistance. The tactic worked and more and more students began to renounce the faith they said they had adopted out of fear.
But in addition to the forest, students’ rescue efforts were decreasing.
“Twitter generated outrage … but not the real way to free someone,” said Parkinson. Nigeria’s spy agencies canceled a series of initial deals, which would likely have freed all the girls. The president himself suspected the kidnapping was a scam, armed by political rivals. Key informants close to Boko Haram were arrested by Nigerian military personnel. A British spy plane sent to look for women broke down en route to the country. Mutual distrust and precarious relations with Nigerians hampered the work of 38 strong “interdisciplinary assistance teams” deployed by the United States. An unsuccessful air strike at Boko Haram headquarters left 10 of the girls dead and 30 or more injured, some mutilated for life.
But Adamu remained determined to resist. “In part, I was strong because I was angry. I was angry that we were kidnapped before graduation, ”she said. “And I was angry when 30 girls converted to Islam and got married … I felt that some did not fight hard enough. This divided the group and weakened our determination. People accepted that they would not return home, ”said Adamu.
Time was running out. The students were almost starving, their rations were cut again and again. However, there was hope. Boko Haram has been weaker than before since its resurgence in 2009, and increasingly fragmented, with factions divided over what to do with its world-famous hostages.
A small team of Nigerian volunteers led by a diplomat from a little-known department at the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the human security division, was working on an agreement to free the students. In October 2016, a first batch of 21 students was released in exchange for a handful of senior Boko Haram militants. Then, seven months later, another 82. But at least 40 died in the forest. Dozens are still there.
Adamu, defiant to the end, tied his secret diaries to the body to lead them to freedom as she walked through the woods. Moving away, she and the others sang a Chibok song: “Today is a happy day”.
Parkinson, a reporter in Africa with the Wall Street Journal, said the students’ story raised an important question about how to deal with extremists.
“The small team that responded to the global demand to rescue the Chibok girls worked in secret for one of the most discreet governments and smallest states in the world. Its success did not depend on expressing moral judgment loud and clear, but on suspending it. They tried to reason with Boko Haram instead of reporting him, ”he said.
Adamu remains in the north of Nigeria with the ambition to have his own family and open some kind of business. But she is still not sure. Since the kidnapping of Chibok students, Boko Haram has kidnapped more than 10,000 boys as child fighters, as well as a similar number of girls and women, who were used to make ransom demands on their families or forced to marry.
“Our main problem is that Chibok is in danger again … If nothing changes, it will be a short time before one of us is kidnapped again,” she said.