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Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
A Final Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts in Conflict Facilitation and Organizational Change, Process Work Institute, Portland, OR
Local notes
http://www.processwork.org/files/Finalprojects/Udo_O_2012.pdf
INTRODUCTION
This contextual essay accompanies a creative acting piece that I chose to do for my final project in Process Work. The play about which this essay is written, is my story. It is the story of my evolution into the person I am. The story takes place in time but transcends time in its recollection of my identity and way of life of my people. It is located at a time in history marked by imposed and abusive tendencies of colonization and evangelization. It is a story about the pain, the struggle and the triumph. In that context, it mirrors the story of everyone who has ever lost their voice, been spoken for or been marginalized by another person or group. Twelve years ago, I was invited to fill a major role in a play called, Not in My Season of Songs, written and directed by Awam Amkpa, a Nigerian playwright and New York-based University professor. It was the story of an Irish woman and a Nigerian man who grew up in different cultural contexts thousands of miles apart but were dealing with similar imposed realities of colonialism and
oppression. I was introduced to the character of Yakubu when I played him as the lead role. Yakubu grew up at a time when his home country of Nigeria and people were colonized. He watched his people get taken advantage of, lose their freedom and begin to let go of their cultural norms and values in favor of the western European values of the colonizers. He was disheartened and outraged but soon learned in Mandela's words that "you have to learn the ways of your enemy to beat him". (Mandela, Invictus) He took advantage of the education that was available, including some time in the United Kingdom. He studied and became a successful cartographer who eventually used his knowledge and expertise to rally against what he called the irrational drawing and redrawing of the Nigerian map. Yukubu was a successful Nigerian elder statesman who grew up with hopes and dreams for himself and his people only to be confronted by a paradox between his new-found “modern” life and the destruction of his cultural structures and constructs. Initially, he chose to ignore the tension and found himself face to face with deep questions arising from his professional life. For Yakubu, it was not enough to be the obedient intellectual and professional he had become. In fact, those labels were what got in the way of his finding his voice and addressing his issues of internalized oppression and marginalization. By the time I met Yakubu he was unapologetically African in his thinking and ways. His anger and rage were now turned not only to his target of displeasure - everything "white" but Africans that he believed had sold out by adopting any reflection of "whiteness". For two weeks in the fall of 2000, I was Yakubu. I embodied who he was and I became his voice. I ceased to be Okokon. I found myself angry, outraged, frustrated and impatient. I was right and the rest of the world who subscribed to the western colonialist and Christian missionary mindset were wrong and evil. That play was the avenue for lessening the pain, protecting me and reclaiming the identity of my people. When it was done, I went back to my life as a Nigerian who is now also an American living in the United States. That was until I enrolled at the Process Work Institute. This work is the expression of my emergence from the rubble of internalized oppression through my process work training into the person, man and global citizen that I am today.
INTRODUCTION
This contextual essay accompanies a creative acting piece that I chose to do for my final project in Process Work. The play about which this essay is written, is my story. It is the story of my evolution into the person I am. The story takes place in time but transcends time in its recollection of my identity and way of life of my people. It is located at a time in history marked by imposed and abusive tendencies of colonization and evangelization. It is a story about the pain, the struggle and the triumph. In that context, it mirrors the story of everyone who has ever lost their voice, been spoken for or been marginalized by another person or group. Twelve years ago, I was invited to fill a major role in a play called, Not in My Season of Songs, written and directed by Awam Amkpa, a Nigerian playwright and New York-based University professor. It was the story of an Irish woman and a Nigerian man who grew up in different cultural contexts thousands of miles apart but were dealing with similar imposed realities of colonialism and
oppression. I was introduced to the character of Yakubu when I played him as the lead role. Yakubu grew up at a time when his home country of Nigeria and people were colonized. He watched his people get taken advantage of, lose their freedom and begin to let go of their cultural norms and values in favor of the western European values of the colonizers. He was disheartened and outraged but soon learned in Mandela's words that "you have to learn the ways of your enemy to beat him". (Mandela, Invictus) He took advantage of the education that was available, including some time in the United Kingdom. He studied and became a successful cartographer who eventually used his knowledge and expertise to rally against what he called the irrational drawing and redrawing of the Nigerian map. Yukubu was a successful Nigerian elder statesman who grew up with hopes and dreams for himself and his people only to be confronted by a paradox between his new-found “modern” life and the destruction of his cultural structures and constructs. Initially, he chose to ignore the tension and found himself face to face with deep questions arising from his professional life. For Yakubu, it was not enough to be the obedient intellectual and professional he had become. In fact, those labels were what got in the way of his finding his voice and addressing his issues of internalized oppression and marginalization. By the time I met Yakubu he was unapologetically African in his thinking and ways. His anger and rage were now turned not only to his target of displeasure - everything "white" but Africans that he believed had sold out by adopting any reflection of "whiteness". For two weeks in the fall of 2000, I was Yakubu. I embodied who he was and I became his voice. I ceased to be Okokon. I found myself angry, outraged, frustrated and impatient. I was right and the rest of the world who subscribed to the western colonialist and Christian missionary mindset were wrong and evil. That play was the avenue for lessening the pain, protecting me and reclaiming the identity of my people. When it was done, I went back to my life as a Nigerian who is now also an American living in the United States. That was until I enrolled at the Process Work Institute. This work is the expression of my emergence from the rubble of internalized oppression through my process work training into the person, man and global citizen that I am today.