Shattered… the rape of innocence and other vices

African societies tend to live under the shadow of inexplicable sexual taboos. So much so that parents cannot discus sexuality issues with their children, who are then left to find out for themselves the best way they can. The result is usually self-experimentation that inevitably leads to catastrophic consequences for the entire family.

Moreover, modernity has become a catch phrase for many monstrous and alien behaviours that conflict with commonsense and decency. Now, the vile phenomenon of sexual predators in cities is so common that parents would have to peel extra lids off their eyes to keep a tab on their children, especially the female ones, just to keep them safe. Sometimes, the harsh socio-economic situation leaves many young women vulnerable to sexual exploitation, sometimes with the active connivance of parents or guardians.

The issue of rape and sexual violence against minors were some of the issues threshed out last week at the Presidential Suite of Eko Hotel, when Paw Sudios staged Shattered, to draw attention to the topical issues of sexual abuse of minors by older and supposedly responsible and respected male members of society. Although older women are known to have violated younger boy, the ratio is heavily weighted against men who commit such violent acts against young girls judging from available statistics, police records and cases in courts that often lead to convictions of male violators.

After the sudden death of her husband, Folake (Bola Haastrup) and her only daughter, Loveth (Goodness Emmanuel), live alone. Folake works for her husband’s friend, Dave (Jide Kosoko), but the pay is meager. She is sometimes behind in paying her daughter’s school fees. Dave readily steps in, but it turns there is a hideous motive that is unknown to Folake.

So that when Loveth returns from school late one day, her mother is distraught with anger. Her sole desire is for her daughter to be of good behavior. And, like most mothers, she believes in being firm and beating some sense into her daughter. Her highhandedness destroys whatever cordial bond there ought to have existed between mother and daughter. This creates a wedge and no love lost between them. Having lost valuable friendship in her mother, Loveth is unable to confide in her only close relation the things that trouble her mind.

This further angers her mother and pushes her into acts of violence against Loveth. With the feeling of not being loved, and a dark burden in her heart she cannot share for fear of social stigma and also because no one might believe her story, Loveth attempts suicide. Folake is scandalised; she almost brings the roof down.

Not even the mature intervention of Folake’s friend and Dave’s wife, Nneka (Bikiya Graham-Douglas), brings any succour to bridge the gap between mother and daughter. There is a storm all round. Folake is beside herself with rage at what she sees as her daughter’s betrayal. She will not listen to Nneka on a sensible way out.

Folake, like most Nigerian mothers, who are religiosity that lacks substance and understanding, goes to her pastor (Patrick Diabuah) for solution to a problem she partly created when she fails to be her daughter’s best friend, with whom to share intimate confidences. Nneka sees the pastor as a charlatan and alerts her friend, but Folake is so taken in. An encounter between Loveth and the pastor is revealing; the pastor is unable to provide answers to the deep wound and thoughts in her heart. Loveth needs medical help, as Nneka rightly suggests but Folake overrules her. Loveth’s encounter with Dave, her benefactor, gives away the telltale signs of a dangerous liaison brewing, when she rejects his gift of school fees. Obviously, she has been tricked to sacrifice her innocence on the altar of his predatory sexual assault.

At the end, Loveth could only confide her shattered life on her school mate, Nancy (Tomi Odunsi Fadina), who, bewildered at the shocking revelation, tells Folake. Stunned, Folake mourns her tragedy in utter disbelief at her total betrayal. But she is at a cross-road; she cannot confront the man who is her benefactor and daughter’s villain at the same time. Thus the unspeakable silence that is the life-wire of rape and all forms is sexual assault is stoked to unbelievable level. Dave is shielded from owning up and paying for his sexual crime against a minor because of who he is in society and as the source of livelihood for Folake and the victim, her daughter, Loveth.

SHATTERED is a socially conscious reformation and advocacy stage performance that tackles heartbreaking experience certain vulnerable members of society suffer. The producer’s statement indicates that Shattered is “…a play about the aftermath of rape. The focus is to get the audience, which is part of society, to understand what the fear of stigmatization, guilt and ignorance does to a victim of sexual abuse…”

Produced by Brenda Uphopho and Directed by Kenneth Uphopho, Shattered is a play that criticises society’s conspiracy of silence at a larger, deeper level of consciousness. It plays up all the wounded emotions that plague a victim and the shattering distrust involved and the wreck a victim can be. The family is not spared in the rollercoaster of emotional surge, as members are left in soul-searching dilemma, how complicit they are in the entire saga. It is this deep well of emotions raked up that make Shattered a must-see play that might begin to price open the veil of conspiratorial silence that incriminates and victimises all of society.

The six-man cast excelled in an unbelievable manner in plumbing the depth of human emotions that the play wrings out. From the hysterical mother, Folake (Haastrup), to an emotionally strung and victimised Loveth (Emmanuel), to a bewildered Nancy (Fadina) and possessed and demented pastor (Diabuah) to the matronly and calm Nneka (Graham-Douglas) and predatory Dave (Kosoko), it was unbelievable class act performance.

The performance at the Presidential Suite of Eko Hotel ordinarily suited and created a marvelous ambience for the performance of the situational play that Shattered is where the audience kept shifting along the performance route from the sitting room to the bedroom and back again to create a fluidity of action and movements. However, for a play that has such an urgent, socially-conscious message of advocacy against an insidious crime, a more open, engaging venue is proposed for a wider audience benefit. As it goes on the proposed tour, it is hoped that such exclusivity is removed for an inclusive audience. In fact, it is the type of production Ford Foundation is looking to sponsor and bring into open spaces like markets, churches, village squares and town halls for larger audiences.

During a brief post-performance conversation, the producer, Brenda Uphopho, asked for reactions from audience members. ‘Sober,’ ‘angry’ and ‘shattered’ were the feedbacks she got as summation of the audience’s reaction. For her, Shattered is a personal story, adding,
“It’s an important story for some of us. It is a personal story of some cast members, a very emotional story. We thought about how this story can change things for victims, how different it is for victims, how hard it is for victims. It happened to me and it took me 17 years to get round to saying what happened to me. It takes a long time for the healing process to take place.

“A time was when HIV/AIDS was so huge and the silence about it so big in this country. But we kept on talking about HIV/AIDS and solutions started coming. We need not cringe or judge when we hear about rape incidents. We take action so as to save other would-be victims. That is my responsibility; that is your responsibility!”

Also before the show started proper, a documentary video on Mirabel Centre was screened, showing the counselling works the centre does to help rape victims adjust to normal life again.