Staging Radicalisation: The Unmasking of Fake Ideologies and the Tragic Fate of Youths in Tosin Jobi-Tume's The Victims
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Youth radicalisation and violent extremism remain significant socio-political concerns in Nigeria and across Africa. Vulnerable young people may be drawn into extremist movements through ideological appeals promising religious purity, political change, social justice, belonging, or material relief. Tosin Jobi-Tume’s The Victims (2020) dramatises this process through Gimbiya, Nura, and Sule, whose lives are transformed by violence, displacement, deprivation, and ideological manipulation. This study examines the dramatic construction of radicalisation, focusing on how personal grievances become ideological commitments, how recruitment reshapes identities and relationships, and how tragedy functions as social criticism. It adopts qualitative textual analysis through close reading, supported by scholarship on radicalisation, Boko Haram, Nigerian drama, Social Movement Theory (SMT), and Framing Theory. SMT illuminates the transition from individual grievances to collective identification, while Framing Theory explains how grievances are interpreted and transformed into calls for action. The study argues that The Victims presents radicalisation not as an automatic or linear progression from suffering to violence, but as a gradual process through which personal experiences are reinterpreted within ideological narratives. By contrasting the promises of belonging, justice, and purpose with the characters’ tragic experiences, the play exposes the destructive consequences of extremist manipulation. The article’s original contribution lies in demonstrating how dramatic form illuminates the emotional, relational, and ideological dimensions of radicalisation beyond the explanatory limits of theoretical application alone. Through close textual analysis, it shows how characterisation, relationships, and tragedy invite audiences to question extremist narratives by confronting their persuasive promises with their devastating human consequences.
Institution: Federal University Dutse
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225457292