ABSTRACT
Over the years, particularly from 2011, there have been violent clashes between crop farmers and pastoralists in Nigeria. The most prominent of these clashes is experienced in the Central Nigeria area where large communities are sacked in the most gruesome manner, depriving community members of their lives, lands and livelihoods. This situation has created a large mass of displaced persons mostly traumatised from the grievous circumstances of their dislocation. In the Daudu community of Benue State, Nigeria, where these displaced persons are encamped with little or no access to psychosocial services and relief efforts of state and non-state actors focusing mostly on material needs, the people have found from amongst themselves and within their cultural repertoire a creative approach to dealing with their trauma experiences collectively. This chapter explores the performative mechanism of the displaced people in Daudu with a view to establishing how it contributes to their healing and at the same time serves to sustain expressive aspects of their cultural practices. From an ethnographic viewpoint, the chapter articulates the quintessence of a culturally familiar context used by the displaced persons in a bottom-up approach to generate positive energies enabling them to attain emotional growth and psychological integration, including social skills with which they imagine and work towards a better future. This situation of displacement challenges the cultural practices and expressions of the people, thereby threatening their heritage in the context of its availability in the future. The performances explored in this chapter are those found amongst the displaced persons who perform for themselves to share and communicate their experiences, release pent-up emotions and mobilise for help. This creative endeavour targets to tell the story of the displaced and helps in managing their traumatic experiences. Another important finding is that the performances reinforce the creative and expressive art processes of the people in a way which ensures that that heritage is not lost. The chapter concludes that cultural performances amongst the displaced people help them to deal with trauma and also function to sustain their cultures.
