The story of women is so important to Ifeoma Fafunwa because Nigeria needs women in terms of their involvement in nation building.
But Ifeoma Fafunwa is not happy because unfortunately, women are not effective. They are not engaged in the proper things. They are waiting for permission and husband.
We need women to stop waiting for men to give permission and get to work. I’m not saying that it’s only women that are going to do it, I am saying they need to balance out the insensitivities that are happening around the Nigerian future.
Women are the nurturers of society around the globe. Women, nurture your society.
From the inception of Hear Word! until now, the conversations the play has generated is women asking themselves, how am I accepting less? Where am I responsible for the position that I’m in?
Hear Word! is not centred around the efforts or lack of efforts of men, what Hear Word! does is ask the victims how they are the perpetrators, where is their responsibility in this equation?
If all women in Nigeria said, I will not date a man that has stolen money, in fact, I will disgrace him. If they looked at the stolen money the same way they looked at rapists and murderers then corruption would reduce.
What became interesting to Ifeoma Fafunwa was to ask these women, “Where is your focus? Do you not care about your children? Do you not care that the country is on the right track? Stop whining and moaning and get to work, this country needs everybody.”
For Mrs. Ifeoma Fafunwa, a typical day is not typical. She actually believes that there is something about her that does not like her days to be the same. She doesn’t like her life looking the same from day to day. This is why she couldn’t work in the corporate environment, it was too monotonous for her free soul.
Ifeoma Fafunwa is the mastermind behind one of the best plays to be performed in the Nigerian theatre industry – Hear Word!, a play which has already toured the nation extensively. She has been invited to showcase at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston.
She is Mrs F to those in the industry, a playful and bubbly soul who shares a collection of memories, from the girl who went to Holy Child College, Ikoyi, to spending most of her childhood at the Ikoyi Club.
Ifeoma Fafunwa has been involved in the creative industry from directing The Vagina Monologues to founding her company iOpenEye Limited, which has gone on to create workshops and produce her signature play Hear Word! as well as Love & Recession.
She fell in love with theatre through the play For Coloured Girls Who Have Committed Suicide When The Rainbow Is Not Enough, which she saw in New York City in 1982. To Ifeoma Fafunwa, “It was an incredible piece of work commenting on the African-American woman and what it meant to be African-American in White-American and Black-American society.”