Juliana Omonukpon Omoifo Okoh

EARLY LIFE

Born in Ubiaja in Nigeria's southerly Edo State, Juliana Omonukpon Omoifo is the daughter of Augustine Azamuoisa Omoifo, a teacher and court clerk, and his wife, a seamstress and store manager. Brought up in a modest household, she was the fifth in a family of eight children. Both her parents were culturally active; her father loved music and played the guitar while her mother was a traditional story teller who took part in Ikhio dance-drama performances. After completing her primary education in Ubiaja, Juliana Omoifo attended Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary School in Uromi. She then found a job with the Ministry of External Affairs in Lagos where she took GCE examinations at ordinary and advanced level. Due to her outstanding results, she was able to attend a three-year course in training as a bilingual secretary at the Federal Training Centre.

CAREER

In 1972, she was granted admission to Loyola University Chicago where she graduated in French and English Literature in 1976. She went on to earn a master's degree in French Literature from the University of Alberta (1979). She later attended the University of Bordeaux III to study French and English Theatre, earning a master's degree in 1989 and a PhD in 1991. In 2000 and 2001, Okoh was in the United States where she was a Fulbright fellow at Smith College, taking on assignments as a guest lecturer at North Carolina State University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 2004, she embarked on a lengthy career as professor of theatre theory and criticism at the University of Port Harcourt. Julie Okoh retired in 2017. Okoh has written and directed over 30 plays, many of which have been published, as well as critical essays and articles in both French and English on theatre, cultural and gender issues. One of her most successful plays is Edewede which was first performed at the University of Port Harcourt in 1998. It is aimed at convincing Nigerian women that excision is a tradition which should be avoided, presenting it as a harmful practice. The play includes traditional women's dances and songs, sometimes subversively. Using a lengthy sex strike as a device, the women vote to ban excision. Excision is also the theme of In the Fullness of Time, in which the audience is encouraged to participate in voting or in singing and clapping.