International Journal of Literature and Art (IJLA) Volume 3, 2015 doi: 10.14355/ijla.2015.03.002
www.seipub.org/ijla
Postcolonial Ecocriticism in the Narratives Strategies of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow Youssoupha MANE English Department, Gaston Berger University, Senegal Youssoupha_mane@hotmaul.fr Abstract The anchor of this present paper is fundamentally grounded on the way through which ecocritism is handled within the labyrinth of the narrative techniques. Ngugi wa Thiong’o appears here as one of the most prominent postcolonial environmentalists. He seems to prone for an environmental justice movement literature to offer a useful context in which African writing is re-envisaged and evaluated. Ngugi has written Wizard of the Crow (2006) with a postcolonial awareness jampacked with an overdose of ecocritism, hence the use of animal character, natural rethoric and ecofeminism. Keywords Ecocritism; Ecofeminism; Animal Character; Natural Rhetoric; Narrative Strategies; Intertextuality; Environment
Introduction Passing an overview upon African literary fiction, I have hardly come across fictional works whose subject matter is basically grounded on ecocriciticism. Consequently the question that strikes my mind is why such literary theory footprints had sunk into oblivion in African literature? The plausible answer that arises from this interrogation may probably be related to the fact that the great majority of African novelists, dramaturgists and poets have spent their time and their artistic talents on the revalorisation of the trampled African culture and civilisation and in pointing fingers at the western colonial and postcolonial political and economical subjugation as if plundering African natural resources that result in an unhealthy environment was no form of domination that does not deserve to be woven in their narratives framework. According to William Howarth, the term ‘‘Ecocrtiticism is a name that implies more ecological literacy than its advocates now possess, unless they know that an embattled course ecology has run into history. Eco and Critic both derive from the Greek, oikos and kritis, and in tendem they mean ‘‘house judge, ’’ which may surprise many lovers of green, outdoors writing. A long-winded gloss of ecocritic might run as follows: ‘‘a person who judges the merits and faults of writings depicts the effects of culture upon nature, with a view towards celebrating, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm into political action.’’ So oikos is nature, a place Edward Hoagland calls our ‘‘widest home’’ and the kritos is an arbiter of taste who wants the house kept in good order, no boots or dishes strewn about to ruin the original order.’’ (1996:123). But unfortunately some African fictional writers have granted full preferences shares on culture to the detriment of nature, ignoring that ‘‘Nature is thoroughly implicated in culture, and culture is thoroughly implicated in nature (Phillips, 1999:578). Instead of being arbiters whose duty is to be watchful sentinels to maintain intact the purity of nature, they have become mere spectators or at least their attentions have been centered upon other sets of themes for which they wrongly fought more urgently and importantly. Among those few writers emerges Chinua Achebe in in Things Fall Apart (1958), Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino (1966), the Nigerian Ken Saro Wiwa, through the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, had devoted his time and life both literally and politically to the struggle against Shell record of environmental destruction. In other words Shell was waging an ecological war against. What is more in referring to William Slaymaker’s contribution: ‘Echoing the Other(s): The Call of the Global Green and Black African Responses’’, the Nigerian poet Niyi Osundare ‘‘is the best example of a black African writer, critic, and academic whose creative energy is focused on environmental and ecological issues’’ (2001:134). If African literary works do not exist in a vacuum, if their artefacts 5