Applied theatre, ethnic conflict and resolution in Nigeria: The experience of itamo-olokuta community of Ogun State, Nigeria

This paper critically examines the application of “follow-up” in theatre for development (TfD) engagement in Itamo-Olokuta, a community faced with perennial intra-ethnic conflict in Ogun State, Nigeria. Follow-up is an aspect of theatre for development that hasto do with rigorous independent study carried out by the TfD facilitators at the level of Post–TfD experiment, to measure the outcome of the developmental issues highlighted and discussed during the TfD experiment. Through the adoption in Paolo Freire’s Critical Consciousness Theory and performance analysis, the paper interrogates how applied theatre can be deployed as an interventionist tool to advance resolution of intra-ethnic conflict. Findings reveal that, if properly harnessed and managed, this form of theatre can be utilised to spur on members of a community to actively participate in actions that could lead to the mitigation of their perennial internal conflict and problems. However, the positive essence of the TfD exercise could result in failure, if the follow-up stage fails due to the nonchalant attitude of the community members to activate the lessons learned during the TfD workshop in the community. In conclusion and based on this experience, the study created and applied social impact follow-up (SIF) model for effective follow-up exercise in the community.