Final year theatre Arts students of the Kogi State University (KSU) in Ayingba have presented a play that depicted the life and challenges of Imane, a neglected Igala community in Olamaboro Local Government Area, where the natives lack basic amenities.The play is in fulfilment of the requirements for a compulsory course – Community Theatre.
Life in Imane, a sprawling town in Olamaboro Local Government Area of Kogi State, was the theme of a play by Theatre Arts students of Kogi State University (KSU) in Ayingba. The play is in fulfilment of the requirements for a compulsory course – Community Theatre.
The dwellers of the agrarian Igala community left their chores and gathered at the Town Square to watch the drama, depicting their community’s history.
The drama presented a fabled character, Ochimane, said to be the first inhabitant and founder of the community. To expand the territory, the drama depicted how Ochimane courted individuals, such as Atoko, to bring about 30 other villages that make up the five clans in Imane.
Today, these clans produce the traditional rulers in the community, who is also called Oda-Ojiji – the name of a powerful king highly revered by the natives.
As dramatised in the play, the Imane tradition places high responsibility on the king to settle disputes and make pronouncements on the community’s challenges. The king’s proclamation is final, because he is believed to be the intermediary between the natives, their ancestors and the deities of the land.
For the natives, it was an exciting moment, learning their culture and history from the play.
The essence of the community theatre is to show how it can be used for critiquing socio-economic and political problems. The course is also aimed at facilitating collaboration between Town and Gown to address common challenges.
The students and their lecturers spent weeks living in the community and understudying its ways of life. Under the guidance of their lecturers, the students used their sojourn in Imane to learn the history and culture of the people. They also assessed the level of infrastructure and took note of the amenities the community lacks.
After days of rehearsals from scripts generated from their research, the students used folklores, songs, oral narrations and theatrical dramatisation to carry out their presentation.
The humorous presentation softened the atmosphere, provoking laughter among members of the audience. The play began with selected Igala folk songs, which the natives sang along. The songs, as composed by the students and their tutors, set the tone for the play.
The cast also employed comedy and satire to drive home their point.The students brought to the fore issues that stifled the community’s development for years.
Through the drama, the five clans were revealed in line with oral tradition.They are Aloga, Idede, Okolikotu, Agaliga and Abo. It was learnt that the community is populated by Idoma people because of trade by barter and inter-marriages between the Igala and the Idoma.
Imane has been without potable water for years, the play revealed. It was learnt that the community only has Oliba stream as its only source of water. The stream is many kilometres away from the town centre.
Water vendors regularly supply the community water in tankers. The play suggested the need for members of the community to stop depending on the stream as the only source of water. It urged them to make efforts sink boreholes as alternative water source.
The play also captured the plight of girls, who are waylaid and robbed of proceeds of their hawking by idle and uneducated youths.
As depicted by the drama, teenage girls are vulnerable to out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Many others are forced into early marriage by their parents and other influential family members.
Some of the issues highlighted in the drama included infrastructural decay, misuse of available infrastructure, carefree attitude towards public facilities, illiteracy, theft, mugging, drug abuse, and shallow knowledge of history, among others.
The people applauded the students for their “ingenuity and brilliant presentation” of their communal life. They said the drama opened their minds to the idea that could help them solve their challenges. They promised to ensure that the issues raised are addressed.
source; nation
