ECOCRITICISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN HELON HABILA’S WAITING FOR AN ANGEL, MEASURING TIME AND OIL ON WATER

Abstract

The relationship between literature and the environment is one of the latest developments in interdisciplinary studies that respond to increasing environmental challenges, arising from industrial activities, conflicts, violence and other human activities. Ecocriticism, as a critical theory, attempts to incorporate the principles of ecology in literary analysis. Hence, postcolonial scholars have begun to engage the ideas of ecocriticism in existing literature. However, much of ecocritical ideas that have emerged over time appear grounded in Western epistemologies and do not sufficiently reflect the authentic African experience. Only a few scholars have highlighted the peculiarities of environmentalism in Africa. Thus, this study explores this gap and illustrates the examination of emerging ideas in postcolonial ecocriticism in three works of Helon Habila – Oil on Water, Measuring Time and Waiting for an Angel. Using the qualitative, content-based analytical method, this study highlights the vivid representation of environmental issues, including the dynamics of place, the realities of displacement and the revolutionary dynamics that have emerged as the result of eco- devastation. This study highlights how the texts portray the complicity of oil corporations, political institutions and military regimes in the destruction of the environment of Nigeria’s Niger Delta oil-rich areas.  The study concludes that the environmental issues in oil-rich regions and beyond can only be addressed when the relevant stakeholders realize the transgenerational consequences of their neglect. This work is a significant contribution to the body of knowledge because it illustrates the application of Afrocentric ecocritical tenets to the works of a contemporary writer.