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cars going by
cars going by
I'm Christine McHugh.
I'm a theater director and a life coach. And I've combined these two forms
to help people explore
their stories. In this case today we're working with
a wonderful man whose name is Okokon Udo
He is Nigerian American. He is a leader in the
leadership field. He is a great facilitor and a coach. He is telling
the story about how he came to understand the roots of colonial
oppression in his Nigerian historical background. And how
that has been internalized through society, through family,
through just decades of generational understanding
about identity. How he has come to realize that that is
a way that he perpetuates oppression within himself.
My wife Lydia asked me why I have brought her
to this God forsaken country.
I told her it is my duty.
That refusing this posting is akin to spitting
on his majesty King George's the 5th face.
So it's been a really deep exploration of identity.
In particular the
story or the voices that
keep us from being our full and excellent selves.
I'm at a place to serve God and country.
and I am in Nigeria as
the undersectary of the governor general as my sovereign
request. I did not invest time and
in foreign service to throw it all away by God.
Lydia says these people are savages.
and that violence is in the air.
I am Okokon Udo and I am here to perform a one man
show on internalized oppression. The title is
Attractive Children: One Man's Unmasking
of Internalized Oppression. So it's a story
that I'm going to be telling. We have brought
the rule of law to this country. We have united
the north and the south. And most
importantly we have brought them redemption
through the Word of the Lord our God.
This story that is going to come through in the play
is the story of my life. It is
a slice of my life that has had significant impact on me.
It is how the experiences that
my country went through with colonialism
and the whole missionary activities have impacted
how my people feel about themselves.
The experiences that they have continued to have that has self doubt
you know embedded in who they are. I have been greatly inspired
by the writing of Lord Lugard.
And I would want to read a part of it that speaks to
the character of this Nigerian.
In character and temperament
typically African of this red type is a
happy, thriftless, excitable person.
Lacking in self control, discipline and foresight.
Naturally courageous and
naturally cautious and polite. Full of personal vanity
with little sense of verocity. Fond of music
and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewelry.
His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings
of the moment and he suffers little from the apprehension
for the future, or the grief for the past.
His mind is far nearer to the animals
world then that of the European world is sharing.
And they exhibit something of the animals
placidity and want of desire to rise above the
state he has reached. Well I think the biggest
leap that we made was when we struck on the idea of using masks
to embody this work. In this particular presentation
each presentation with different clients I work with, their different.
This one turned out to be if we utilize the idea of masks
something that has huge theatrical significance.
and history and we apply that to a
personal experience, the personal story telling. And we let it have
all of the metaphor, we let it ripple on all the different metaphor that it can.
The masks that we wear socially. The masks that we wear politically
and famially. All those different masks become a part of who we are.
Until we realize that we are wearing them and then we can set them down.
Through the ages the African appears
to have evolved no organized religion.
And though some tribes appear to believe in a deity.
The religious seldom rises above
fantastic animalism. And since
more often they take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural.
He lacks the power of organization
and is conspicuously deficient in
the management and control alike of men or business.
So this idea of masks was really great especially
because of the rich heritage of African tribal masks.
And so we were able to come up with some really wonderful
masked characterizations and different voices
for the kind of.. the voices of the oppressors that live inside
of him. So we have four different characters and three different masks.
It is just wonderful expression
and metaphor for that thing we put on over our faces to
show the world a certain part of who we are. And now in Nigeria
there is no such thing as an open
space. Every space is named.
And when named it's ownership is immediately
declared. A map is the ultimate
photograph of quality. It is important for people to
share their experiences of colonialism and all the oppressive
things that have happened historically because those
experiences basically make people feel less than.
They thought of themselves as not being important
or powerful and always in reference to other people
and those other people were the oppressors. So they were
measuring themselves against the oppressor. They were d desiring to be like the
oppressors for them to matter.
They're essential selves and stories got set
aside or abandoned. So this is a way of reclaiming
the very essence of who they are and bringing that forth as a gift to
the world in the way that it was meant to be.
My fellow countrymen. I have no answer.
I have no protest.
I only have
a prayer. And here is
my prayer for Nigeria.
For those of you who have reduced us
beggars. We pray your days do not last
any longer. For those of you
who have filled us up with hate
we thank you for letting us and
from suffering from our corrupt rulers. But we ask you
to go now. Take all your
food and grains and go while we are still in a mood for gratitude.
In case you do not understand
we do not want your food aid or grains anymore.
Just go! What I think that people need to be aware of
and know and fully understand is that
having one cultural mindset
hurts not just who they are but hurts everybody else.
Because you are bound to come from what
is called ethnocentric world view, which is
my world view is the right world view and you are going to want everybody else
to subscribe to it. Rather than affirming and celebrating who they are.
And that is what colonialism does. That is what the missionary activity
of the past and in some cases of the present
continues to do. It is trying to make people who they are not
or make people become like me, for them to be
enough. And that is just not
right because our world is based on diversity.
Because of forms of cultures, you know of
preferences and choices as opposed to one way of being
in the world. I think that
what a lot of people don't know is how much extraordinary
there is in the ordinary life.
Everybody has a story and almost invariably
will involve some kind of obstacle that they have pushed up against at one point or another.
in their life. The way they overcame it. Some of the most fabulous stories
that anybody ever tells when I'm working with them personally are their stories
of personal failure. When something is so
the stakes are so high and it
seemingly crashes and burns for them.
The redemption that exists in there it may not be in the moment. Somewhere down the line
the understanding comes to the story teller,
the person speaking that this was an amazing gift
in some way or another. So the process
of story telling allows people to understand
this gift that is always being given them by the universe. You know it's
a friendly one, everything is for us. Things aren't happening to us. They are
happening for us So how do you understand that? You have to kind of
step back and gain some objectivity about something that
you were incredibly emotionally involved in at one point or another in your life.
And then you can start to see as the gift that it exists.
What it is that is there for us. Okokon does an amazing job with that
in all of the stories of the hardship that he has had
to overcome in his life. Particular the
voices that continue to live inside him that have told him things like
he wasn't okay, that there was something wrong with him.
I wanted so badly to belong.
I wanted so badly,
to be someone. And that's just like all of us. We're all
trying to kind of do battle with that voice off and on through
our lives. And as we start to tell the story we can hear it.
Almost as if it's coming from somebody else or something outside of us. And then
we have the choice to listen to it or not. So this freedom
not to have to listen to a voice that says there is something wrong with you.
It's a wonderful liberation. What happens when healing occurs is that
people become full and free. You know free to be themselves.
Because a lot of people are living with guilt
from the past as opposed to being free and forgiven.
So in a healing process, I can ask for forgiveness so I can let go
of whatever baggage it is that I'm carrying from the past.
So we can now relate at a whole new level
full of freedom.