A Nigerian-Irish poet and playwright has opened up after his story of the challenges faced by young migrants arriving in Ireland has become a success.
Samuel Yakura, who was born in Northeast Nigeria, moved to Ireland in 2018 to study civil engineering but he is now leading a double life, working both as a full-time civil engineer and a full-time poet and playwright. Now his one-man show The Perfect Immigrant has taken the theatre scene by storm, winning awards and going on a national tour.
Samuel told Dublin Live: “I've always loved writing. Growing up with a typical Nigerian father who believes that being a science student is more important than pursuing the arts, I ended up studying engineering. But nonetheless, I always had a penchant for the arts, writing, for poetry.”
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Samuel has been doing poetry slams since 2015 and once he got his masters in Ireland and found a job, he actively joined the art sector here in 2021. He won a number of poetry slams before he decided to try his hand at playwrighting. Dublin Fringe commissioned The Perfect Immigrant in 2021 while the Art Council funded it - and it became an instant success.
The performance premiered as part of Dublin Fringe Fest and “the reception was unbelievable”, receiving awards and playing to sold out venues. Samuel added: “I believe it's a very important story because it does shed some light and give perspective to migration stories, which I don't see a lot of since I moved here.”
From the struggles of job hunting and navigating Ireland's dating scene to searching for red chilli peppers in Lucan, the one-man show explores the challenges faced by those in search of a brighter future. The story revolves around Levi, a courageous young Nigerian man who leaves his homeland with three worn suitcases to fulfil his dream of studying engineering in a foreign land.
Samuel said about 60 per cent of the story is autobiographical but he explained: “As much as it is my experience, it’s a very shared experience by so many other people coming to Ireland. I think stories like this, told on the stage, it feeds into the community and helping us understand each other, where we're coming from.”
The migration story is “very universal”, Samuel said, and it resonates with many people. He said that when it premiered in Dublin Fringe, he saw a very diverse audience in the crowds with “people from every part of the world”.
The poet added: “I think everybody could relate because even though it's told from the perspective of a Nigerian, it is still very shared views of discomfort, of cultural shock, of the challenges faced when you are moving, of trying to keep in touch with your friends and family.”
Other themes explored in the play include family acceptance, becoming your own person away from your family, becoming a minority and dealing with racism. It is told through both prose and poetry and includes both intense personal moments and excited and humorous monologues.
Ireland is becoming a diverse multicultural society, Samuel said, but he didn’t see a lot of that representation in the works put on stage or in the faces of the people in the audience when he first moved here. “You don't have a lot of migrants coming into theatre spaces or literary spaces.
“So I wanted to tell the story so that a lot more migrants might be able to see that there's an opportunity for their stories to be told, there's an opportunity for their voices to be heard and that they are welcomed here, as I have found.
“I think if I'm able to do that, then many other people like myself, whether writers or not, would be inspired to tell their own stories in their own way.”
The artist is also very thankful for the amazing team working with the show’s director Katie O’Halloran.
The perfect Immigrant, written and performed by Samuel Yakura and directed by Katie O’Halloran will tour theatre venues across Ireland, including Kildare's Riverbank Arts Centre on November 4; Tallaght's The Civic Theatre on November 9-11; and Bray's Mermaid Arts Centre on 25 November.
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