ECO-LITERATURE AND CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA (original) (raw)
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Prospects of Literary Environmentalism in Fostering Ecological Stability in Northern Nigeria
Nigeria has entered another significant phase of its national development when the impacts of environmental neglect are clearly visible and felt all over the country’s landscape. From north to south, and west to east, the checklist of ecological failures is long and awesome. Interestingly, each region has its peculiar pressing environmental woes. The consequences of ecological crises in our towns and villages cause internal displacement of population as the situation is with dam failures or drought occurrence. Conflicts between nomads and farmers are growing with increasing desertification and land desiccation. Poverty and poor health may all be a direct corollary of ecological dismemberment. To fence the failures of natural resources in Nigeria, environmental experts1 advocate for application of scientific knowledge, land reform, land use control, resource management and environmental education. In spite of such suggestions the pathetic environmental problems remain in the state of flux. But of course, the cited recommendations of the experts remain instructive though need to be complemented by our common heritage – the literature resources. This paper attempts to classify the major ecological challenges specific to northern Nigeria. It also offers a prognosis of the effects of such ecological disasters on national development. It also highlights some of the potentialities of the regional literature in the promotion of public sensitization towards environmental protection, enhancement and in achieving the overall goals of sustainable development in the region and Nigeria as a whole.
CRITICISM, LITERATURE, THE ENVIRONMENT AND POLICY MAKING IN NIGERIA
Journal Article, 2021
African literary texts, especially Nigerian literary texts have been mirrors in which we see our environment and what is going on in it. They have helped us to raise awareness about the deplorable state of our environment. With them we can also raise policy issues that will help policy makers and executors to re-engineer our environment for a harmonious relationship between her and us. Essentially, the aim of this study was to show how man has been the architect of his environmental woes, through his actions, directly or indirectly and the need to sensitize ourselves on healthy environmental practices. The study was guided by ecocriticism, which is a theoretical concept that demonstrated that it was possible to understand the environment by studying how it was represented in texts. And the selected texts examined for their reflection of environmental conditions are Amah Akwei's The Beautiful Ones are not yet Born, Humphery Dibia's A Drop of Mercy and Wale Okediran's After the Flood. The method of approach to this paper was qualitative, while quantitative data was provided as evidence of the state of the environment some of the literary texts used in the paper mirrored. The study found that harmful environmental practices like improper waste disposal, building on water paths and lack of proper drainage system, are associated with recklessness and lack of enlightenment on the part of the people and government negligence in providing basic amenities such as pipe borne water, proper waste disposal system and corruption. In conclusion, the study insisted that identifying nature as an extension of us would help us to create a decent environment which is part of the essence of being human; that it was necessary to engrave into our psyche and body politic that cleanliness was next to godliness; that poverty did not necessarily translate to sub-humanity; that existing in a developing country did not mean accepting as normal, living in bits and pieces.
Face to Face with the Natural Environment: A Look at African Literature
Kervan. International Journal of Afro-Asiatic Studies, 2019
Human impact on natural environment has seriously increased over the last few centuries. However, it is only from the mid-twentieth century that a greater sensitivity has developed around environmental problems. With an eye on the development of the African environmentalism, the paper considers the reaction of some African writers and their efforts towards the conservation of physical environment and climate change through their literary works as narrative and poetry genres.
LITERATURE AND THE NORTHERN NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENT: INTERROGATING THE MULTIPLIER EFFECTS
Literature and the environment have in the last two decades become an important field of study. The environment is an integral part of human existence, and its preservation is essential for sustainable development. Northern Nigeria is a region rich in cultural heritage and natural beauty, but it also faces pressing environmental challenges. Desertification, deforestation, water scarcity and exacerbated by climate change, population growth, unsustainable land use practices, and insecurity threaten the livelihoods of its people and the sustainability of its ecosystems. In this context, literature emerges as a powerful medium of expression and communication to foster understanding, preservation, and transformation of the relationship between the people of Northern Nigeria and their environment. This discussion delves into the ways in which literature has the potential as a catalyst for tradition and ethical change, education, and awareness regarding the environment in Northern Nigeria. Northern Nigeria is a huge geographical zone comprising the north east, north west, north central and the Federal Capital Territory making up nineteen/20 out of the thirty states of the federation. Northern Nigerian cannot be said to have a cultural or ideological thread holding the diverse peoples together. They have different cultures, languages with English as a common language in which his literature helps development by interrogating the effects that counter strategies of development in specific areas, in this case, northern Nigeria. The growing importance of the environment is evident in intellectual interest routed in works all around the globe. Among many publishers on the subject of environmental literature and ecocriticism, Routledge and CRC Press alone has published over ten titles on environmental literature in 2021 and 2022. Amongst these are Richardo Morattoet et al (2022) Environmental pg. 2
PhD Thesis, 2018
ABSTRACT The current global environmental crises urged me to investigate the manner in which writers from different backgrounds view and represent man’s relationship with nature in their texts. This work entitled Environment and Literature: A Comparative Ecocritical Study of the Works of Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy sets out to examine the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and the English writer Thomas Hardy’s representations of the relationship between man and nature in their texts. More precisely, the work focuses on Achebe’s trilogy Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God and Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The research question that guides the work is: how do Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy represent man’s relationship with the environment? The hypothesis is based on the premise that Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy represent the environment as one that needs to be protected from the damages caused by man. Second Wave Ecocriticism as outlined by Lawrence Buell and Ecopoetics according to Sarah Nolan constitute the theoretical framework while the Comparative Approach idea of Tötösy de Zepetnek that stresses on an international dimension is the methodology used to bring out the ecological visions of the two writers in the above-mentioned texts. This permits me to examine the spatio-temporal, literary and social backgrounds under which the writers lived and wrote and how they affected their visions of man’s relationship with the environment. I also analyze the manner in which the authors represent man’s relationship with the flora and fauna as well as their worth. The manner in which Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy exploit some stylistic feature in a recurrent manner to bring out their ecological visions that they can be considered hallmarks in their ecological discourses is equally examined. I came out with the conclusion that Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy share an environmental protection vision and discourse in their texts despite the fact that they mostly do so in different manners owing to the different backgrounds they lived in. Key words: Environment, Fiction, Ecocriticism, Ecopoetics, Comparative Analysis, Chinua Achebe, Thomas Hardy, Degradation, Protection, Vision
Ecology in African Literatures
Ecological concerns have been the content of literature since the beginning of man's creativity. Ecology deals with the relations between nature and the natural. In literature, ecology illustrates the relation between nature and human nature. In ecological writing, nature has been granted the status of the great Mother by indigenous communities. Literature and nature are interlinked; nature is the outer world often portrayed in literature. Therefore it is obvious that literature and ecology are interrelated. Nature writing is self reflexive. It reveals at once the complexities of nature as well as the creative psyche.
Nigerian environmental writers which include Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Odia Ofeimun, and Nnimmo Bassey among others have articulated a way of re-imagining the (Nigerian) environment that melds socio-economic existence with environmentali sm (Bodunde 1997: 88; Aiyejina 1988: 123; Shija 2008: 33; Nwagbara 2008: 235). They have called for a prioritisation of green discourse for better leadership and socio-economic relations, as well as environmental sustainability (Nwagbara 2010: 17).
Bridge-building between Literature and Environmental Values: Lessons from Things Fall Apart
This chapter explores an added value of the master piece – Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The super story is cast in typical pre-colonial African villages where there was much dependence on the nature. The setting of the book varies from one rural community to another. Contemporary theories such as ecocriticism, environmental determinism and neo-environmentalism are used to explain the feat achieved by the book in fostering balance between environment and development. From the contextual analysis of the Things Fall Apart, nature is revered, adored, and in some instances abused by people. The communities in Things Fall Apart have their environmental concepts, natural resources, environment friendly livelihoods, and range of natural and human induced environmental problems. From the aforementioned, the principle of environmental sustainability is well entrenched in Things Fall Apart. The contemporary societies of the Igboland and other parts of Africa are ravaged by wide range of ecological disturbances which destabilize several population groups. The paper suggests that by observing some of the inherent lessons in Things Fall Apart a complementary role of reawakening the public interest toward the environmental stability could be achieved in Africa.
PhD Thesis, 2018
ABSTRACT The current global environmental crises urged me to investigate the manner in which writers from different backgrounds view and represent man’s relationship with nature in their texts. This work entitled Environment and Literature: A Comparative Ecocritical Study of the Works of Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy sets out to examine the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and the English writer Thomas Hardy’s representations of the relationship between man and nature in their texts. More precisely, the work focuses on Achebe’s trilogy Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God and Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The research question that guides the work is: how do Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy represent man’s relationship with the environment? The hypothesis is based on the premise that Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy represent the environment as one that needs to be protected from the damages caused by man. Second Wave Ecocriticism as outlined by Lawrence Buell and Ecopoetics according to Sarah Nolan constitute the theoretical framework while the Comparative Approach idea of Tötösy de Zepetnek that stresses on an international dimension is the methodology used to bring out the ecological visions of the two writers in the above-mentioned texts. This permits me to examine the spatio-temporal, literary and social backgrounds under which the writers lived and wrote and how they affected their visions of man’s relationship with the environment. I also analyze the manner in which the authors represent man’s relationship with the flora and fauna as well as their worth. The manner in which Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy exploit some stylistic feature in a recurrent manner to bring out their ecological visions that they can be considered hallmarks in their ecological discourses is equally examined. I came out with the conclusion that Chinua Achebe and Thomas Hardy share an environmental protection vision and discourse in their texts despite the fact that they mostly do so in different manners owing to the different backgrounds they lived in. Key words: Environment, Fiction, Ecocriticism, Ecopoetics, Comparative Analysis, Chinua Achebe, Thomas Hardy, Degradation, Protection, Vision
Theory and Practice in Language Studies
The reciprocal relationship between humans and nature is determined based on their respective natures. This mutualism symbiosis is based on a relationship of use for mutual prosperity. Living together with nature means living in cooperation, mutual help and tolerance. The whole relationship becomes an inseparable entity; all things are interrelated and functional and have the same goal of protecting and preserving nature. Protecting the environment is key to the survival of fragile ecosystems, wildlife, and even humankind. However, the endless human needs often make humans act excessively, exploiting the environment as much as possible to meet the needs of life, resulting in severe environmental damage. This is the rationale for raising the theme of environmental conservation through literary media by referring to the concept and theory of eco-literature. The whole research is conducted using a qualitative descriptive method that focuses on content analysis, revealing the concept of...