Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 5

A Social Ecological Reading of Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow Innocent Chimezie Chukwulobe Abstract - This is a study in the field of postcolonial ecoliterature and criticism which is aimed at investigating how the e xploitation of humans affect or translate to the exploitation of the non-humans especially in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. To aid this study, concepts from Murray Bookchin’s social ecology theory shall be used as analytical framework. The concepts that will be applied here include: nature and society; social hierarchy and domination; and the idea of dominating nature. The study shall therefore analyse Kaine Agary’s (2006) Yellow Yellow in line with these concepts so as to ascertain how the exploitation of humans translate to or encourages the exploitation of non-humans like the land, air, water and animals of the Niger Delta region. Keywords: domination, niger delta, postcolonial ecocriticiam, social ecology, social hierarchy. I. I ntroduction his is a postcolonial ecological study of Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow which retells the story of a teenage girl, Zilayefa and her Niger Delta community. The novel mirrors the unbearable level of environmental devastation that threatens to consume the entire Niger Delta region. According to G. G. Darah (2011), geographically, the Niger Delta region of Nigeria refers to the areas that borders the Atlantic seaboard and stretches from Cross River State near Cameroon in the east to the western boundary of Delta and Edo States. The River Niger and other major 21 rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean define the area. About half of the territory is permanently submerged in water for most part of the year. Politically, the Niger Delta has recently been enlarged to include all the nine oil- producing states in Nigeria. The states are: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers (pp. 3-4). In this light, this study will investigate the exploitation of humans in the region by the multinational oil exploration companies with the aid of government forces and above all, using Murray Bookchin’s theory of social ecology, it will further assess how the exploitation of humans results in or encourages or is responsible for the exploitation of the non-human members of the environment. The study shall also review studies on Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow in order to establish the gap which this study aims at bridging. II. P ostcolonial E cocriticism Postcolonial ecocriticism came to be due to the need for colonised peoples all over the world to express their unique environmental concerns. It is a literary theory that concerns itself with humans and their relationships with the environment. Simply put, Postcolonial Ecocriticism includes all environmental literary and critical productions that emanates from colonised peoples of the world. Literature no doubt reflects society, therefore it represents societies along with their environmental situations and attributes. Postcolonial ecocriticism is interested in the environmental challenges of colonized peoples in the world over. Citing Gilano and DeLoughrey, Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin (2015) maintain that: What the postcolonial ecocritical alliance brings out, above all, is the need for a broadly materialistic understanding of the changing relationship between people, animal and environment – one that requires attention, in turn to the cultural politics of representation as well as to those specific ‘process of mediation [...] that can be recuperated for anti colonial critique’ (p. 12). Huggan and Tiffin (2015) relate environmental issues to racism and imperialism, where the perceived inferior races must be exploited just like nature. They opine that environmental issues are inherent in the ideas of imperialism and racism and the Eurocentric perception of these ideas are used as a justification for continues exploitation of different races just like nature (p. 6). Postcolonial ecocriticism is open to multiple voices and perspectives and is not limited to a single methodology or approach. This multiplicity of voices has no doubt opened up for diversified cultural, economic, geographical, regional and social environmental ethics that is aimed at ameliorating all environmental crises. Owing to the multiplicity of voices that is prevalent in postcolonial ecociticism, this study shall employ Murray Bookchin’s (2006) social ecological theory in assessing the environmental challenges of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, paying particular attention to how the exploitation of humans is the basis for the exploitation of non-humans as depicted in Kaine Agary’s (2006) Yellow Yellow . III. S ocial E cology Social ecology is an economic environmental theory that seeks to proffer solutions that will resolve T © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue V Version I 1 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 A Author: Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. e-mail: Chimezieinnocent3@gmail.com