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Contribution short abstract:

The paper delves into the broad concepts of theatre and reintegration, emphasizing the powerful role of playwriting. By analyzing the dialogue and nuances of characters in the play, it uses these insights as a guide to propose innovative strategies for reintegrating refugees into host communities.

Contribution long abstract:

Nigeria has long struggled with issues of displacement caused by insurgency. However, the role of theatre in addressing refugee crisis remains a seldom-studied area. While plays have been written to depict these issues, the analysis of such works to uncover deeper meanings and nuances within their dialogue is still underexplored. In a society heavily affected by insurgency, where countless individuals are forced to flee their homes in search of safety from insurgents, what role can theatre play in the reintegration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) into host communities? Soji Cole’s Embers is widely regarded as a literary contribution to the discourse on the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. However, this study interprets the play as an exploration of the challenges involved in reintegrating refugees into host communities. What sub textual representations of reintegration difficulties are conveyed through the characters in the play, and what insights do they offer? The aim of this chapter is to leverage the transformative potential of theatre to propose innovative strategies for reintegrating IDPs into host communities. By using theatre as a medium to explore humanitarian issues, this study demonstrates how playwriting can address the emotional, social, and cultural aspects of reintegration. Employing a qualitative approach with content analysis as a tool for data collection and interpretation, this study delves into the challenges of reintegration as captured in the subtext of Embers. These challenges are used as a foundation to propose innovative strategies that theatre can deploy to facilitate the reintegration of IDPs into host communities.