Socio-Economic Conspiracy and Ecological Devastation: A Contextual Reading of Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist

Abstract

The persistent crisis in the Niger Delta, bordering on the effects of oil exploration among other socio-economic issues, left the confines of politics and found expression in literary works. Tanure Ojaide, a prolific poet and writer from the Niger Delta, and other eco-critics explore these devastating realities in their creative enterprise. This study, therefore, sets out to examine Ojaide’s conceptualization of the tensions and struggles of the Niger Delta people against forces of exploitation and oppression and the often tragic consequences of the collusion in his novel, The Activist. While adopting an experimental form of analysis – a reportorial- the novel’s message adequately structures its form and makes an explicit comment on the need for educational activism. The paper concludes that the author positions education as a major tool of liberation and a constructive way of subverting both socio-economic and environmental deprivation. This therefore goes to show The Activist as an intellectual work whose agitations offer the dais for a positive change in the Niger Delta.