Eco-Critical Literature: Regreening African Landscapes

8. Women as Victims, Environmentalists and Eco-activists in Vincent Egbuson’s Love My Planet

123 8 Women as Victims, Environmentalists and Eco-activists in Vincent Egbuson’s Love My Planet "Û՜ŽiÊ œÀV>ÃÊ"Ü œv>Ã>Ê Introduction Environmental degradation involves the abuse and misuse of the environment through various ways and means. For many years, the African environment has undergone different forms of exploitation and degradation, especially with the incursion of the whites into the continent. These range from destruction of trees, pollution of water, pollution of farmlands, loss of pastoral beauty, the destruction of water, and diverse health problems, which before now were alien to Africa. Consequently, various attempts have been made by Africans to save the environment. The moral depravity of African leaders and the debility of the masses have created a serious environmental crisis in Africa because of the corporate greed of multinational oil firms backed by Africa’s emergent leaders. The response to this environmental crisis has led to the burgeoning of insurgent groups in the continent . Nigeria easily comes to mind here, when one considers the serious tensions in the Niger Delta. The women and children in Africa suffer more from environmental degradation because they are not only vulnerable, they are equally the most powerless of the population. The “woman” is most times metaphorically associated with the “earth.” As society, through different phallocentric standards, regards the woman as an object to be explored, exploited, degraded and dumped when she becomes barren, sterile, and fagged out at old age, so has the earth been looked upon as a thing to be explored, exploited, degraded, and abandoned when it appears to be infertile and unproductive. There are also occasions when the woman is forcefully taken, sexually abused, and then left to suffer, just like the land, which has often been taken forcefully, used, and left to deteriorate . Consequently, in recent times, women have been involved in the 124 ECO-CRITICAL LITERATURE struggle to rescue, preserve, and conserve the environment from being destroyed completely; and in a way, they are also in the struggle to rescue and preserve the women folk. Eco-feminism is a term coined by Françoise d’Eaubonne in 1974 to give expression to the woman’s concerted efforts or struggles to preserve the natural world, which is constantly bombarded by humans in their bid to sustain themselves no matter how this agenda for human sustainability is negotiated. Eco-feminism, according to Cheryll Glotfelty, is “a hybrid label to describe a theoretical discourse whose theme is the link between the oppression of women and the domination of nature” (xxiv). It is signi ficant to note that this trend has gained the attention of some African writers who now represent environmental issues in their writings. It is against this background, therefore, that this chapter attempts to examine this phenomenon in Vincent Egbuson’s œÛiÊÞÊ*>˜iÌ. Specifically, this chapter aims at not only refamiliarizing mankind with the fact that if the environmental conditions of our world are subjected to dialectics and substantiated with the facts of history, one will observe that our world is fading very fast, but the chapter equally attempts to reevaluate the contributions made in Africa by women to save and preserve the environment from complete obliteration. Egbuson’s Love My Planet: An Allegory of the Niger Delta Vincent Egbuson is a teacher and a fiction writer. He has written and published several prose narratives. œ˜ˆÃiŽÃÊ œÕ˜ÌÀÞÊ(2000) was his debut. It was followed by
Ê*œiÌÊÃÊ>Ê>˜Ê(2001), œÛiÊÃÊ œÌÊ i>`Ê(2002), 7œ“>˜`i>Ê (2006), and œÛiÊÞÊ*>˜iÌ (2008). He is a winner of the ANA/NDDC Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose, 2006—a prize that he won for his fourth novel, 7œ“>˜`i>Ê(2006). Most of Egbuson’s novels dwell on the corrupt African society, environmental degradation, and women in politics. Egbuson always endeavored to distance himself from his works; this is probably the reason most of his novels are often set in a fictional African society. This fact enables him to blend facts and fiction comfortably, thereby allegorizing pressing postcolonial issues in his novels. There are several environmental problems plaguing Nigeria today. These environmental problems very often tend to be the result of extreme poverty and the lack of economic and social development in Nigeria. For instance, the quality and quantity of water supply is low; the standard of housing in urban areas is unsatisfactory; sanitation and nutrition are "}>}>Ê"ŽÕÞ>`i 125 poor; disease and natural disasters are very destructive. Moreover, the destruction of vital natural resources such...