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

© 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue V Version I 7 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 A A Social Ecological Reading of Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow back to the village without having improved their lives, as promised” (p. 38). After weighing this option in her mind, she opts out of it and thinks to learn a trade. She considers “Yet another option was to learn a trade – sewing, catering, or hairstyling – and start my own business” (p. 39). Unfortunately, her mother does not have the financial capacity to see her through that and she does not have the wherewithal as well. She finds herself on a crossroad where she is willing to do anything that will take her away from her village to the city. In her words, “I was open to all sorts of things. The only option I was unwilling to consider, that tormented my quiet moments the most, was to remain in my village” (p. 39). This reveals her desperation to leave her poverty stricken village and go elsewhere to the city to better her life and that of her mother. The exploitation of teenage girls by foreign workers in the oil-rich Niger Delta region left the society with a lot of unwanted mixed-race children, especially girl children, who are perceived as illegitimate and promiscuous, owing to the circumstances of their birth. Zilayefa is one of such children. She is popularly known and called Yellow Yellow by everyone including her mother because of her complexion, “the product of a Greek father and an Ijaw mother” (p. 7). So also is Emem’s mother. Like Zilayefa, she “was a product of a hit-and-run with a Portuguese trader” (p. 73), who must have met her mother at a tender age and exploited her vulnerability. In her quest for self-discovery, Zilayefa finds out that there are generations of yellows that dates back to 1800s in the Niger Delta and each of them has a unique story to tell about the circumstance of their birth and life. She reveals that the first generation yellows are from the Portuguese traders and the British colonialists which are the origins of old-time yellows such as Sisi. There are also the second generations of yellows from the Syrians, Lebanese and Greek businessmen and sailors, some of whom were lucky to know their fathers. The rest yellows were abandoned by their fathers. According to Zilayefa, “the rest of us were born-troways , rejected by our fathers or, worse, nonexistent to them. Our crop of yellows was full of variety, coloured by the Filipinos, the Chinese, the British, and the Americans who worked in the oils sector” (p. 74). In the city of Port Harcourt, Zilayefa discovers that she and other of her kinds that are of mixed race are regarded with disdain. She notes that People had preconceived notions about others of mixed race – they thought we were conceited, promiscuous, undiscipline, and confused. A mixed-race woman in a position of power must have gotten there because of her looks. She was not there because she was intelligent. There was even much less regard for born-troways such as me. We were products of women of easy virtue who did not have morals to pass to their children. (p. 74) This sort of discrimination and oppression often leave the yellows vulnerable and presents them as subjects of exploitation to the exploitative society they find themselves in. Consequently, they often fall victims to the exploitative society and humans who are very aware that they lack paternal care and seizes the opportunity to exploit them. The military government is also culpable in the brutal oppression, exploitation, and silencing of the people of the region especially those who dare to speak out and up against the government. Zilayefa affirms that “all those who dared complain about the land’s leader mysteriously disappeared… jailed, attacked, and killed by “armed robbers” or invited to meetings where they were served poisoned tea” (p. 99). Bookchin acknowledges that these kinds of exploitation and oppression of humans by humans is what gives momentum to the exploitation of non- humans and are inseparable from their exploitation of the environment and by extension, non-humans, and are therefore responsible for most of the ecological crisis we face today. Fortunately for Madam George, she is one of the few yellows who grew up knowing and having their fathers around unlike Zilayefa. Her father is a Briton who worked for the British Empire in the region before independence, and her mother an Ijaw woman. She is popularly called Sisi. She is enterprising and business savvy, and ventured in it at an early stage of her life. She won and executed many contracts from the government and oil companies from where she made her fortune. She lives in affluence and also gifts boxes of cloths in abundance to her daughter and grandchildren who lives in America. Clara affirms that Sisi had one child, a daughter who lived in America, who she spent most of her money on, along with her grandchildren; the rest went to keeping herself comfortable. At least twice a year, she sent a suitcase full of the latest laces, wrappers, and jewellery to her daughter” (p. 53). Her life of affluence is a contrast to that of abject penury led by Bibi, Zilayefa’s mother, who had to expel herself from the women’s group because of her inability to pay for their uniform. After her resolve to exit the group, Bibi says to the chairlady “I no get money so I de return de cloth. I neva cut am” (p. 8). She openly declares that she does not have the money to pay for the cloth and the cloth is still intact, uncut, so the chairlady can have it back. By so doing, “she expelled herself from the women’s group so that she would not be forced to spend money on wrappers for their outings” (p. 8). The contrast lives of abundance and penury the two women lead is synonymous to the class distinction and difference that Bookchin perceives as one the reasons for ecological crisis. As a naïve, innocent girl trying to find her footing in the city of Port Harcourt, Zilayefa falls into the hands of Retired Admiral Kenneth Alaowei and her life did not remain the same. Popularly known as Admiral, Kenneth Alaowei is a sixty-year-old native Ijaw man. He retired early from the Nigeria Navy due to the unpredictable