Theatre, Family Planning and Internal Displacement in Nigeria

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Even though studies have shown that men’s attitude towards family planning greatly influence women’s use or non-use of contraception, creating due space at the tables of academia and theater for the exploration of internally displaced men’s role in influencing family planning use remains under-explored. By adding theatrical perspectives and unique case studies from internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria to the existing body of knowledge on internal displacement, this study will illumine in the humanities the long-overlooked nexus between masculinity, internal displacement, family planning and theater. Through an employment of performance ethnography, this research aims to understand the much disregarded importance of men’s role in family planning decision-making among internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria against the backdrop of a spike in IDPs’ birth rates which has worsened the pressure on the under-supplied pool of humanitarian aid in the country. This research also draws attention to IDPs as valuable members of society who possess prized repositories of knowledge from whom scholars, policymakers, theater practitioners and humanitarian actors can learn a lot if only they engage them as people and change agents rather than as mere objects of research and helpless mendicants in perpetual need of aid.

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.”― Leo Tolstoy.

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Published by elaigwuameh

Elaigwu Ameh is a playwright, researcher and social change advocate, currently doing his doctoral studies in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Zimbabwe, where he was a recipient of the Arrupe College Book Prize for graduating with a First Class. Also, he holds an MA in Development Communication from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His research provides marginalized people with an effective space and tool to examine their realities, express their feelings, reframe their perceptions and articulate their issues with a view to emancipating themselves and transforming their environment. He is a recipient of a number of grants, including HASTAC fellowship, Sage Fellowship, Cornell’s Engaged Graduate Student Grant, the Emerging Engagement Scholars Workshop Grant, and Cornell’s Research Travel Grant. His publications include plays, poems, short stories, social commentaries, and academic essays. His short story, “Vagina Protest,” won the 2010 Centre for Human Development/Ford Foundation Writing Competition (prose category), while his climate change–centred play, Climate of Change, emerged third in the Association of Nigerian Authors 2011 drama contest. The play also got a production grant from the United Nations Development Program in Nigeria. In Zimbabwe, Nigeria, India and the US, he has employed theatre as a laboratory for promoting positive change in society. Inspired by his work with underrepresented populations such as prisoners, refugees, leprosy patients, and immigrant farmworkers, Elaigwu now aspires to a career in research and teaching in which he will employ theatre to foster societal reorientation and the common good.

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