The Niger Delta Crisis In The Niger Delta Novel: Reflections On Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow

Authors

  • Uchenna Ohagwam PhD candidate in the Dept of English Studies at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v7i10.1310

Keywords:

Environment, Niger Delta, Oil-Politics, Crisis, Devastation

Abstract

Ecocriticism is a bridge-building theory; one which connects the physical environment with literature. It is the ideological point of convergence between literature and the environment, and the anchor on which the Niger Delta literary discourse is hinged. The Niger Delta region is one region that is richly endowed with both natural and human resources. But the questions which many literary scholars in and outside the region have been asking are, to what extent has these deposits influenced the socio-economic developments in this part of the country? What are there still many crises plaguing the region? This study undertakes an assessment of the forms of crises occasioned by oil exploration activities in the region with focus on Kaine Agary’s fictional work, Yellow-Yellow; working within the context of postcolonial theory and the African ecocritical approach, an attempt has been made at offering measures that could be adopted in addressing these issues, nagging as they are.

References

Agary, Kaine. Yellow-Yellow. Ikeja: Dtalkshop, 2006.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002. Print.

Crosby, Alfred. Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Glotfeltry, Cheryll. “Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis.” The Ecocriticicsm Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Eds. CheryllGlotfeltry and Harold Fromm. Athens: GeorgiaUP, 1996. xv—xxxvii. Print.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1967. Print

Gedicks, Ai. Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations. Massachusettes: South End Press, 2001.

Gomba, Obari. “Niger Delta Dystopia and Environmental Despoliation in Tanure Ojaide’s Poetry.” Eco-Critical Literature: Re-greening African Landscapes. Ed. Ogaga Okuyade. Ikeja: African Heritage Press, 2013:239—246.

Hogan, Edmund. “Niger River” Encyclopaedia of Earth. Ed. M. McGinley. Washington, DC: National Council for Science and Environment, 2013.

Maduka, Chidi. T. “The Niger Delta as the Predator’s Paradise in Tanure Ojaide’s Tales of the Harmattan” Critical Issues in African Literature: Twenty-First Century and Beyond. Ed. Chinyelu Ojukwu. Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press, 2013.

Nnamdi, Basil et.al. “Environmental Challenges and Eco-Aesthetics in Nigeria’s Niger Delta” Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture. Vol.27.No.1 (January 2013): 65-75.

Ohagwam, Uchenna. J. “An Ecocritical Study of Wale Okediran’s After the Flood and Chimeka Garricks’ Tomorrow Died Yesterday.” Unpublished M.A Thesis, Department of English Studies, University of Port Harcourt, September, 2015.

Onyema, Chris. “Jungle and Oil Green: Currents of Environmental Discourse in Four Upland Niger Delta Narratives.” Boom to Doom: Protest and Conflict Resolution in the Literature of the Niger Delta. Ed.

Chinyere Nwahunanya. Owerri: Springfield Publishers, 2011:189-209.

Osundare, Niyi. “Our Earth Will Not Die” The Eye of the Earth. Ibadan: Heinemann, 1986. 50-51.

Watts, Michael. “Sweet and Sour.” Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. Ed. Michael Watts. New York: PowerHouse Books, 2008: 36-47.

Downloads

Published

2018-11-10

Issue

Section

Article

Similar Articles

1-10 of 131

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.