Rape of a Nation: An Eco-critical Reading of Helon Habila’s Oil on Water
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v6i9.983Keywords:
Degradation, Earth resources, Environment, Exploitation, Society.Abstract
A number of literary and linguistic researches have been carried out on post-independent Nigerian quagmire. The concerns of some of these studies range from investigating many of the topical issues that have come to define the country, particularly with regard to the issues of bad governance and socio-economic oppression, to the roles played by the masses in aggravating the nation’s predicaments. However, not many critics and scholars have paid the deserved attention to the ecological concerns of Nigerian novelists. This paper, therefore, examines Helon Habila’s Oil on Water as a testament to the environmental mindfulness of Nigerian novelists. The choice of Oil on Water is informed by the fact that there is a dearth of serious scholarly research on the novel. Using the sociological approach and adopting a content analysis method, this study finds out that Habila is not oblivious of the ecological implications of man’s exploitative tendencies on earth’s resources as he makes bare the grim effects of Man’s reckless actions on the environment, the society and other living things, thereby rousing the consciousness of his readers as a way of forcing them to contribute their quota towards making the earth a safe place to live in, free from further gratuitous exploitations by a few to the disadvantage of many. It is, nevertheless, found out that the author fails to suggest pragmatic solutions to the staggering challenges confronting the oil-polluted and violence-ridden nation of Niger Delta.
References
Adeyanju, J.A. (2004) Government and the oil pollution crisis in Nigeria. In International Journal of Environmental. 2 (1 & 2), 217- 227 .
Aliyu, S. B. (2011). Ecopoetics and contemporary Nigerian poetry: A study of Nnimmo Bassey’s We thought it was Oil but it was blood. In GOPANLI. 1 (2), 125-134.
Dawodu, S. O. (2011). Eco-critical reading of selected poems of Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide. (Unpublished Master’s Dissertation), University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Dobie, A. B. (2012). Theory into practice: an introduction to literary criticism. USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Glotfelty, C. (1996). Introduction: literary studies in an age of environmental crisis. In C. Glotfelty and H. Fromm (eds.), The ecocriticism reader: landmarks in literary ecology. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press.
Habila, H. (2007). Waiting for an angel. Cassava Republic Press.
Habila, H. (2007). Measuring time. Cassava Republic Press.
Habila, H. (2012). Oil on water. Lagos: Parrésia Publishers Ltd.
Johnson, L. (2009). Greening the library: the fundamentals and future of ecocriticism. Choice, 7- 13.
Larkin, B. (1997). Hausa dramas and the rise of video culture in Nigeria. in J. Haynes (ed.), Nigerian video films (pp. 105- 125). Jos: Nigerian Film Corporation.
Nwagbara, U. (2010). Poetics of resistance: ecocritical reading of Ojaide’s Delta blues & home songs and daydream of ants and other poems. African Study Monographs. 31 (1), 17-30.
Owhofasa, D. O. (2011). The woman, the earth and the environment in recent African novels. (Unpublished Master’s Dissertation) University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Slaymaker, W. (2007). Ecoing the other(s): the call of global green and black African responses. In T. Olaniyan and A. Quayson (eds.) African literature: an anthology of criticism and theory. (pp. 683- 697). USA, UK & Australia: Blackwell Publishing.
Thiong’O, N. w. (1981). Writers in politics. London: Heinemann.
Ugwu, C. C. (2014). Ecological degradation in selected Niger Delta novels. (Unpublished PhD Thesis) University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
