African Ecocriticism, Interspecies Relationship, and Kyuka Lilymjok’sTwilight for a Vulture

Abstract

Ecocriticism in Africa, often framed by the postcolonial problem, appears to have a lot of focus on the notion of environmental justice. This kind of ecocriticism, rooted in protest aesthetics, aligns with the eco-activisms of the likes of Wangari Mathai of Kenya and Ken Saro-Wiwa of Nigeria who have, in different ways, contributed immensely to the literary awareness and the physical confrontation against the institutional powers that cause environmental degradation in Africa. These environmental writers expose the business of extractive capitalism responsible for harmful practices like gas flaring, oil spills, oil bunkering, water and air pollution, tree felling, and other activities that are inimical to the biodiversity of the continent. Considering the general degradation that reduces the postcolonial societies to what Frantz Fanon calls the wretched of the earth, it could be agreed that these writers’ focus on the environmentalism of the poor is not out of place. However, this rubric deemphasizes the nonhuman implication of the environmental tragedies, leaves untapped the full potentials of those literary genres that aestheticize relations across species, and expands the vision for ecological sustainability. To change the narrative, this article uses Kyuka Lilymjok’s Twilight for a Vulture to highlight the roles of nonhuman beings of the environment by analyzing the interspecies relationships that occur when species are brought closely together in the Nigerian environment. Both humans and nonhuman species found in Nigerian environment do not exist in isolation; they relate to each other. These relationships or interactive moments open contact zones of proximity and provide opportunities for contrasting various forms of human relationship with the nonhuman world. This is not to privilege nonhumans over humans, but rather to emphasize the ways these nonhuman life forms are linked with humans.