Defragmentation of Memories of Child Abuse by Nigerian Pastors

Abstract

Most social media platforms are redesigned by the activities of netizens in the digital space. A lot of scholars have reported on the issue of child abuse, but few have paid attention to the issue of defragmentation of memories. Defragmentation of memories is a process that piles the various fragments of child abuse perpetrated by some Nigerian pastors under a single autobiographical thread. Through the application of autobiography and trauma theories, this paper examines instances of abuse of child rights by Nigerian pastors. It interrogates how @Chika-Blairssen and her collaborative narrators through autobiographical testimonial-tweets on the same thread portray the damage that the actions of some Nigerian pastors have on the psyche of children. It further accounts for how tweet-autobiography is created, shaped, and transmitted to netizens. This study further observes that @Chika-Blairssen and her collaborative autobiographical writers, through their tweet-autobiographical defragmentation of memories, poke the conscience of society. It claims that aside from the thematic focus of this study, the form of the (auto) biographical narratives is the distinctive characteristic of African digital autobiography.