SNIPPETS (52)- BY SUMAILA UMAISHA

_From my chats with writers_

My play, _Alekwu Night Dance_, which made the 2013 NLNG Prize shortlist, is an allegorical story about a world going through storms and treacherous waters. Communities are being raped and destroyed and conspiracy theories always come up to either build or destroy them. Rape is one of the most debasing crimes. The play is a statement on that uncontrollable inferno that threatens the fabrics of our existence. I set out to write the story of a ravaged society and found it treading the path of the vulnerability and objectification of the woman. While _Alekwu Night Dance_ speaks about the stereotypical Idoma woman who is a little above mere property, my second play, _Eclipsing Ellipsis_ makes an attempt at breaking the stereotype and showing that, though the woman (society) remains the vulnerable person, some latent strength exists deep within that is capable of making the woman a very strong force to break existing demographics.

© FRIDAY JOHN ABBA