SYNOPSIS
This play highlights some of the consequences of visa
restrictions on international students from sub-Saharan
Africa, and ways in which these study fellows respond
to the numerous challenges they face in the new culture.
Eku, Abou, Priscilla and
Ibrahim are university lecturers in their countries of
origin currently pursuing postgraduate degrees in the
UK. For Eku, the brutal and savage rebel war in his country
(Sierra Leone) necessitates that he must bring his children
to safety in the UK. However, he neither has the financial
resources to obtain air tickets, nor the visas for his
children without additional assistance. On the other hand,
although Ibrahim has the means to acquire UK visa and
provide air ticket for his wife, Maama, the latter is
critically pregnant to be able to accompany her husband
for a start. |
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Their reunion is therefore
postponed to a convenient time, after the wife would have
safely given birth to their first child. While on transit
in a North African country on their way to the UK, the journey
of Maama and her one-month old daughter is aborted because
the child has no visa to be allowed entry into the UK! Although
Priscilla encounters no difficulties in her visa application
for her husband, the change of the husband’s roles from bread-winner
to house keeper proves a shocking development for other male
chauvinist Africans.
The play is in two acts. Act
one, Orientating new arrivals, focuses on how members of a
local branch of African students association (ASA) assist
other African students to settle down in a new culture. Act
two, A student’s Private life, highlights the difficulties
that students and their families face in acquiring visa for
overseas travel. It also briefly focuses on the transformation
of an African male in the new culture. The concluding scene,
Denouement, centres on the implications of ‘student visa’:
Leave to remain in the United
Kingdom, on condition that the holder maintains and accommodates
himself and any dependants without recourse to public funds,
does not enter or change employment paid or unpaid without
the consent of the Secretary of State for the Home Department
is hereby given until --------------
on behalf of the Secretary
of State
Home Office
This last scene also sheds
light on ways in which successful international scholars who
would like to overstay their leave to remain, circumvent immigration
rules in order to be legible for employment.
Characters
| Eku |
(A commonwealth study
fellow, also president of the African Students’ association
- ASA) |
| Marion |
(Eku’s spouse) |
| Martha, Amy, Marian and
Marie |
(Eku and Marion’s children) |
| Abou |
(A British Council scholar,
also the social secretary of ASA) |
| Angela |
(An African scholar, now
a British citizen) |
| Uche |
(A British Council scholar
- newly arrived) |
| Priscilla |
(Another Commonwealth
study fellow, also treasurer of ASA) |
| Kisa |
(Priscilla’s husband) |
| Ibrahim |
(A Commonwealth study
fellow who has completed his studies) |
| White male Waiters and
waitresses |
(Played by members of
the cast) |
| Abraham |
A figment of Eku’s imagination |
| Carol |
Another figment of Eku’s
imagination |
| Daniel |
Carol’s friend, also a
figment of Eku’s imagination |
| Registrar |
Another figment of Eku’s
imagination |
| Maama |
(Ibrahim’s spouse). |
| Ansu |
(Ibrahim and Maama’s son). |
| Pa Ayoka |
(Maama’s father) |
| Sisi Ada |
(Maama’s mother) |
| Pa Oni |
(Maama’s uncle) |
| Alhaji Moidawu |
(A learned Quranic teacher) |
| Pastor Jaaka |
(A church minister) |
| Young Man and Masquerades |
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