A Referential Reading of Traumatic Experiences in an African Dramatic Text: Embers

Abstract

The story in Embers which is based on terrorist activities in Nigeria reveals the power of a creative mind to capture, mediate and express reality of personal traumatic experiences of major characters in this drama.  The creative deployment of traumatic experiences in this text correspond with available pieces of information from different data sources on the terrible activities of Boko Haram terrorist group in the Northeast of the country, capture the disturbing activities of the rapists and sexual/child abusers in some Nigerian cultures, and match up with the horrible maladministration that exists at the Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. With a referential reading of traumatic experiences in Embers, the study tries to decode, diagnose and dissect the various traumatic experiences in this African drama written from an omniscience point of view, with a referential interpretation by using two hypotheses of a formal referential meaning and selected traumatic theories. Consequently, the study critically examines and demonstrates how the playwright has been able to capture and meditate on different traumatic realities and creatively express same with various fictional experiences embedded in this text.  The traumatic experiences so identified are classified under sexual abuse of children, child exploitation/induced child prostitution; abduction and rape of school girls, the post traumatic stress disorder of a junior military officer and the effects of maladministration and outright oppression of the IDP camp officers.