Once Upon a Time In Sokoto – A Punchy Tale of Nigerian History
Once Upon a Time in Sokoto By Inua Ellams. At Warwick Arts Centre 5-7 November 2026
Reviewed by Wynne Lang
Once Upon a Time in Sokoto is written by Innua Ellams, a dramatist perhaps best known for his play Barbershop Conversations, which explored ideas around masculinity and politics.
Here, he takes on the sprawling history of the little-known Sokoto Caliphate in an area of northern Nigeria, which was established around 1600 and lasted until British colonialists destroyed it at the beginning of the twentieth century. The play begins in 1865, and covers the Caliphate’s demise.
As the title suggests, traditional story-telling features prominently in the play; at the start, the audience is taught a call and response in the indigenous Hausa language, which recurs frequently throughout the drama. The cast of only four undertakes multiple roles, as well as sometimes stepping outside the action to narrate. The overall impact of this is to make the play at times feel more story-telling than drama- the pace (especially in the first half) seems a little slow, and characters lack depth – however the second half resolves these problems to a large extent.
The independent-minded entrepreneur Zinari has inherited her father’s wealth and steers a cautious line between respecting the conservative and repressive aspects of the Muslim Caliphate and pursuing a progressive agenda of educating girls and women. She takes a husband of convenience, Hadiru, for protection, but the limits of her independence are underlined when he cites Sharia law to take a second wife. This is Nafisa, a non-Muslim Hausa, a secret enemy of this family who had sold her mother into slavery.
The relationship between Zinari and Nafisa is the emotional heart of the play as they move from mutual hostility to sisterly solidarity to combat the Patriarchy and the colonialists.
The play can be seen as a domestic saga spanning nearly forty years, but that sells it short. It is a work of formidable ambition as it examines inter-African slavery, the nature of hierarchies, gender politics, the displacement of language, as well as economics. The Muslim Caliphate is depicted as both a bastion of education and culture and a repressive force that subjugated the Hausa people and made them slaves- the complexities are respected without judgement.
The encroachment of English is communicated by Yusuf, who has learned the language and brings news from outside Sokoto of British activity in the region – his use of the idiom ‘to skin a cat’ provokes horror, Through Yusuf we learn the original meaning of ‘Boku Haram’, which is familiar to us as the name of a murderous Islamist gang who kidnapped hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls- but who have subsequently corrupted it. And it was simplicity itself for the British to destroy the economy of Sokoto – cowrie shells – by importing millions of them from Australia thereby flooding their markets and devaluing their currency.
This is not a familiar history so in that sense the evening was an educational experience. The accomplished cast communicate these complex ideas with clarity and emotional engagement, and any shortcomings were a result of the inevitable difficulties in finding a theatrical form to carry the ideas, and not in the performances. That being said, this is a play worth seeing, and the largely young, multi-racial audience at this performance gave it a rousing reception.
At Warwick Arts Centre until Saturday 7 November.
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