Despoliated Ecosystem and the Exploited Woman: Victims or Volunteers? A Reading of Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow

Uchenna Ohagwam

doi:10.20849/aes.v6i1.930

Abstract

The horrendous situation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is gradually producing a rich and enduring literature, which paints a vivid picture of the trauma of living in that part of the world. Playwrights, poets, dramatists and literary critics have all lent their contributions in a determined effort at speaking up against the enormity of the environmental degradation in the region; a tragedy brought about by the insensitive exploitation of the region’s natural resources by multinational oil corporations. This study seeks to examine Kaine Agary’s perspective towards the problem as captured in her fictional work, Yellow-Yellow, with focus on the heavy toll it takes on the woman. The dilemma of being caught in the web of either a victim or a volunteer, compels the woman to either dependency or independence. Thus, the paper concludes by making a case for economic independence and argues that it is the surest security for women, especially, the Niger Delta woman.

Highlights

IntroductionKaine Agary did not choose to do creative writing from the outset, but research and its attendant field work during her master’s degree programme in Public Policy, exposed her to the plight of the people who live and get their sustenance in the coastal parts of Nigeria
Kaine Agary’s Yellow YellowDelta State-born, Kaine Agary, engaging the tools of ecofeminism, churned out a true-to-life story of the wounds of a despoiled ecosystem and the exploited woman in her 2006 award-winning fiction, Yellow-Yellow
From the foregoing, we can insist that when young people, especially the female folks, impress on their impressionable psyches that they can make a living out of socially condemnable engagements, they cease from being victims to becoming volunteers

Summary

Introduction

Kaine Agary did not choose to do creative writing from the outset, but research and its attendant field work during her master’s degree programme in Public Policy, exposed her to the plight of the people who live and get their sustenance in the coastal parts of Nigeria. From her findings, she was compelled to express awareness and sympathy, but to fictionally document the unhealthy living conditions of many rural dwellers in Nigeria’s Niger Delta and the combined efforts of government, the multinationals and selfish indigenous community leaders in multiplying the woes of the people in that region. Bibi lost her Greek lover who left Nigeria without saying a good-bye; she lost her farmland to crude oil pipeline explosion

The Gradual Destruction of the Ecosystem

The Gradual Destruction of the Woman

Conclusion