Young people and climate action in the Niger Delta: an experiment with a theatre workshop

This study is a reflection on a participatory theatre workshop that took place in March 2023 in Otughievwen, an oil-producing community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In exploring this, I specifically engage with the process of creating this theatre workshop in a location that is clearly marked by climate crisis. Doing so allows me to consider, in greater depth, the particular context in which I worked with young people to create theatre, and to analyze and reflect upon the value of their holistic participation in the creative process, and how they can be steps ahead of the facilitator in the workshop setting. By this, I mean how participants may be steps ahead of the facilitator when holistic participatory approaches are employed in the theatre workshop. The overarching argument in this study is that, allowing young participants to take the position of co-leaders in theatre workshop on climate injustices can create the possibilities for unpacking what I refer to as ecological unknowns around environmental injustices.