Theatre for development as a competent vehicle for the eradication of domestic violence against women

Abstract

Apparently, domestic violence is one of the burning social issues of global concern. In many countries of the world, including Nigeria, reports and news of how several women have been abused by their intimate partners have occupied major parts of the mass media in recent times. Often, this ugly trend causes psychological and bodily harm, and even loss of life for the victims who are majorly women and children. In fact, the negative implications of domestic violence on the victims and society in general cannot be over emphasized. Hence, the need to fight against the menace is sacrosanct. However, a number of theatre scholars like Paulo Fiere, Augusto Baol, James Atu Alachi amongst others seem to agree that theatre for development is a viable instrument for social control, behavioural change and socio-political and economic development. This paper, therefore, explores the potency of theatre for development in the fight against the aforementioned social ills. The paper adopts descriptive survey instrument of the qualitative methodology to gather and analyse its data. Among other things, the result reveals that domestic violence has negative effects on its victims and the society in general. The result also shows that theatre for development is one of the veritable tools that can be used to eradicate domestic violence issues in the society. Thus, the paper concludes and suggests that theatre for development should be employed to address the prevailing issues of domestic violence in Nigeria for sustainable national development.