Performing Spiritual Solidarity: Christian Music and #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria.

The rising wave of protests throughout the world demands a deeper understanding of, as well as new perspectives on, the phenomenon and its impact on society. Hence, I spotlight the #EndSARS protest to understand new forms of social protest in contemporary Nigeria. In so doing, I examine how protesters mobilise religious infrastructures of prayer, music and procession to shape and sustain the protest. By focusing on prayer walk activities during the protest, I analyse how Christian music shapes the sound space and the atmosphere of local struggles. The study draws evidence from ethnography conducted during the prayer walk activities in Ibadan, Nigeria, and other archival resources including social media. By illuminating religious nuances of the #EndSARS protest that remain underexplored in scholarly and popular writings about the protest, this study provides the analytical lens to understand how people's lived religion is implicated in their everyday socio-political struggle. I argue that the prayer walk constitutes a symbolic and sonic site for Christian protesters to perform spiritual solidarity with other #EndSARS protesters through the agency of Christian music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]