Mfoniso Udofia Returns Home to Massachusetts with “Sojourners”
The Ufot Family Cycle, an innovative nine-play series, kicks off with a reflection on family, tradition, and the immigrant experience.
Sojourners comes to the Huntington on October 31. / Photo by Joan Marcus
When Mfoniso Udofia set out to write her play Sojourners, she thought quite a bit about her identity as the first-generation American daughter of Nigerian scholars, who raised her in rural Southbridge, Massachusetts. “I started asking myself what brings Nigerians to this country,” she says. When her forthcoming production runs from October 31 through December 1 at the Huntington, audiences will have the opportunity to explore just that as they follow the journey of a young Nigerian couple who come to America to get their degrees. The drama develops as the husband immerses himself in American culture, while the wife, Abasiama, feels the pressure to maintain the traditions of her home country.
Photo courtesy of the Huntington
But the story doesn’t end there: Sojourners is just the first in a nine-play series called the Ufot Family Cycle, which follows the story of Abasiama and her descendants as they face challenges over three generations. Their stories will be told through different genres over the next two years, such as a children’s play, a folk opera, and a Greek-style chorus, in venues all around Boston and Cambridge and even at Udofia’s Wellesley College alma mater. “For an artist, you usually go away and seek out your path, but I’m coming home [to Massachusetts] to do it,” Udofia says. “It’s profound, and I’m having that beautiful mix of being excited and terrified.” Then she laughs: “Yeah, it’s scary, because there will be my mama, and I can’t hide!”
First published in the print edition of the September 2024 issue with the headline, “Home at Last.”
