Adaku was inspired by my late mother’s lived experiences as a Nigerian-Igbo daughter navigating patriarchal family structures and as a woman routinely denied full social and intellectual participation because of her gender. My mother often stood in for her husband and brother, who were usually away for work, at family and social gatherings, only to be reminded by men in those spaces, either explicitly or implicitly, that she was a placeholder. Her continued experiences within religious and professional spaces showed that neither education, faith, nor professionalism dismantled patriarchal hierarchies; they merely reframed them in different guises. 

This play is a creative response to the gendered power dynamics present in both traditional and contemporary Nigerian society. The 1970s, in which this play is set, were an important historical decade in Nigeria. From independence, military rule to civil war, and the collision of colonial legacies with indigenous patriarchies, women and children particularly suffered. My mother, a teenage singer who praised hunters, wrestlers, and harvesters of the largest yams in public rituals and performances, began to question why she could express admiration for the accomplishments of those great men, yet should not be a subject of honor herself. The decade also saw a surge in male-centered heroic narratives, making it necessary to rewrite that historical period to foreground the agency and resilience of women.

As my mother’s last child, I inherited several of her possessions, including her cherished garden, in keeping with Igbo traditions that entitle the last-born to their mother’s belongings. Yet beyond these material inheritances, I have come to regard myself as the custodian of her stories and songs. This play functions as a metaphorical portrait of the woman my mother was: a woman of quiet resistance. It marks, I hope, the first installment in a lifelong endeavor to honor her legacy through storytelling inspired by her agency. 

Sixtus Chetachi Igbokwe,

May 2025