Environmental racism and ecological crisis in Achebe’s Things fall apart (1958), and Gordimer’s My son’s story (1990)

Abstract

This research explores environmental racism in the forms of Nigerian ‘colonialism’ and South African ‘apartheid’ policies. It is designed a comparative framework to Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), and Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (1990). This research helps to understand the ecocritical approach from the Nigerian and South African context. Re/construction of racism in the form of the contemporary theoretical concept of ‘environmental racism’ is our today’s need. This study aims to raise a voice for global justice and environmental sustainability. Environmental-related dominant issues (i.e. environmental control of a particular group, inequality of natural resource uses, and particular group’s accessibility to live a healthy environment) are addressed in detail and analysed through these texts. The theory of ‘environmental racism’ is interrogated through colonial cultural, and apartheid political ways concerning the African world. To conclude, the ecological crisis and environmental racism encountered in these texts have clearly illustrated the imbalance of utilizing natural resources. A consequence of this inequality and exploitation can be seen in Nigerian black, and South African ‘coloured’ communities where environmental injustice is a serious issue.

IMPACT STATEMENT

Exploring ‘environmental racism’ in the form of Nigerian ‘colonialism’ and South African ‘apartheid’ is significant to understand through novels. To achieve global justice, environmental racism is today’s need to understand colonial and apartheid history of racism and exploitation. Racial subjugated groups’ (like black and ‘coloured’) are in vulnerable conditions that have historical links to white exploitation.

Keywords:

• Apartheid
• colonialism
• environmental racism
• ecological crisis
• South Africa
• Nigeria

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Robert Read, Economics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK

SUBJECTS:

• Comparative Politics
• International Politics
• Language & Linguistics
• Literature

Introduction

Wonkama et al. write, ‘The African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) is committed to addressing injustice, and systematic racism affecting people of African ancestry, and minority groups globally, in science and society at large’ (Wonkama et al., 2022, p. 2). They also claim that there is a link between racial oppression of hierarchy and the present social, economic, and political injustice. This connection highly impacts minority groups (Wonkama et al., 2022). Today’s form of protest consists of digital platforms; these are mediums to raise a voice against racism. On Twitter (now known as X: it is one of the platforms of digital social media), ‘#Blacklivesmatter’, ‘#EndEnvRacism’ and similarly other hashtags also raise questions about racial injustice and these hashtags create a discourse on race-related issues. Twenty-first-century scholars’ attention to the recent environmental racism discourse fills a gap of racism and shows significance in exploring the study of environmental humanities and ecological approach.

To explain racial oppression in detail, it is ‘the character of individuals, the structure of social communities, and the fate of human societies’. Postcolonial studies have explored racial and human relations (see Morve, 2014b). Similarly, environmental humanities go beyond to expand the human relation to nature and racial relations (see Morve & Akingbe, 2020). Currently, racial studies consist of various approaches that have been experimented with ecological crises. Ecological crises are the result of environmental racism and white exploitation. The many scientific domains (i.e. biological, political, social, historical, and anthropological) have been examined racial relations with Africans (see Caspari, 2023; Ikenna, 2023; Milazzo, 2015). There is a global level of studies and reports (see Bassey, 2023a, 2023b; Martin, et al., 2020; Villarosa, 2020; Worland, 2020) that cover the world’s environmental and industrial issues which are based on evidence of environmental racism. These have an impact on black and ‘coloured’ marginal groups in Africa.

Authors’ narrated postcolonial thematic issues and characters’ struggles are seriously portrayed in literature (see Morve, 2014a, 2015). It is important to re-visit colonial, and apartheid stories to understand Nigerian and South African environmental racism and ecological crises. Significantly, these African issues lead to a link of historical exploitation. These issues have been narrated by well-known authors like Chinua Achebe and Nadine Gordimer. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (1990) carry out the intricate condition of Africans with the ecological contextual framework.

This research investigates the environmental racism and ecological crises in postcolonial time. A comparative study of colonial investigations in Things Fall Apart and the apartheid in My Son’s Story are selected as primary texts. Textual analysis and comparison of novels help to understand Nigeria and South Africa’s current issues are based on history. The findings of this study show a common threat of environmental racism and the ecological crisis caused by white exploitation.

Methods and methodology

This paper focuses on the selected primary novels: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), and Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (1990). The qualitative approach to literary analysis is designed with a comparative study in readings of Achebe and Gordimer. These writers aim to represent a common theme of ‘environmental racism’ connection to nature, land, and segregation. An interpretation of these texts and writers’ aim are significant to understand the ecocritical issues and a serious concern for environmental justice.

‘Environmental racism’ is a contemporary form of racism to study in humanities. It needs to revisit the stereotypical idea of racism to understand environmental racism and injustice to black and ‘coloured’. Nigerian colonial and South African apartheid stories are significant to understanding today’s racial environmental injustice and eco-crisis. The interrogation of these novels has been closely analysed from the praxis of Africa’s disintegration. The history of white exploitation (common in South Africa’s apartheid and Nigeria’s colonial times) on environmental politics is visible in Achebe and Gordimer’s stories. In the investigation of environmental racism and ecological crisis, contemporary scholars’ views (Danlami, 2020; Gogoi, 2014; Johnston et al., 2023) are important to understand the ecological crisis (i.e. deforestation, indusrialisation, resource depletion, and disappearance of species/killing animals) in Nigeria and South Africa. Achebe’s protagonist Okonkwo (Igbo, black) and Gordimer’s Will and Sonny (‘coloured’) characters are victims of environmental injustice.

This research finds that the environmental impact of racism persists in both contexts. Racial inequality and the environment’s exploitation impact marginal groups (like black and ‘coloured’). These have been examined closely with a comparative framework – apartheid and colonialism. Interestingly, ecocritical issues deal with the concern of Achebe from the Nigerian context, whereas the politicized racism of Gordimer has its importance to the South African context.

The literary analysis of these texts finds that white-ruling periods have a huge impact on Africans. In a comparative study, these texts have a common interest in depicting white political impact on black and ‘coloured’ Africans who become victims. Also, the environmental exploitation of whites to the land, and natural resources gives birth to racial inequality. Ironically, it finds that white racial discrimination and cultural-political domination in Africa have exploited the Nigerian and South African environment.

This research aims to understand black and ‘coloured’ African susceptibility which is caused due to the persistence of white racial oppression. Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a marker of a significant start for knowing Nigeria’s colonial history and on the other hand, Gordimer represents ‘coloured’ South African community in My Son’s Story. In today’s relevance to the writings of Achebe, and Gordimer, their stories represent a struggle of marginal groups with past and post-colonial society. These texts are significant to know how many issues persist in society, such as – colonial power, environmental racism, and white political impact. Both selected texts cover different periods and regions, although, there are many similarities (ecological damage and environmental impact on marginal groups) that can be seen through the characters’ struggles.

Literature review

Antonio Darder and Rodolfo Torres’s proclaim,

It can be said that for many racism functions to define both self, and others. This is apparent in radicalized discourses of hierarchy, in which members of dominant groups assert their superiority over other groups, and in radicalized discourses of solidarity, in which subordinated groups assert their unity, and rights. The concept of race has always been linked to either social or genetic constructions of inferiority or superiority assigned to particular populations, depending on the term’s historical usage, and reference. (Darder & Torres, 2004, p. 5)

Darder and Torres’s book is a collection of interpretive essays that build a discourse of race. In a biological domain, the principal role of skin colour is to define by the concept of ‘race’. Racial differences have traditionally been ascribed to biological characteristics. This implies that racial categories emerge inherently from the human body. The concept of ‘race’ is invoked biologically based on human features (see Mccoskey, 2012; Omi & Winant, 2015). But this biological race study is an old norm where today, we can see racial relations with a new domain of environmental humanities (see Morve & Akingbe, 2020). After the early 19th century, race was linked and studied with a biological perspective and it is explored presently with an ecocritical approach. Race is a more diverse concept which leads to studies of cultural, social, and political spheres. In 1978, the term ecocriticism was devised by William Rueckert (Rueckert’s pioneering essay ‘Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism’). It is a methodological approach to literary and cultural criticism that takes nature and the environment as its primary focus (Wang, 2018, p. 1176).

‘Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’ mentions, ‘In 1982, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, then director of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ) coined the term ‘Environmental racism’ in response to an incident in Warren County, North Carolina (2024). Maantay states the mainstream ‘Environmental Movement’ (the 1950s and 1960s) was on pollution and environmental degradation. Environmental problems may impact certain locations and people more than others (and in a predictable pattern based on race and income) is a relatively new concept ‘Environmental justice’ that gained nationwide attention in the late 1980s. In the case study of Bronx, New York, Maantay finds that a disproportionate environmental burden is based on race and/or income (Maantay, 2002).

Environmental racism politically consists of people being divided into broad categories that presume to delineate according to basic differences, such as black, ‘colour’, or white. This division is based on natural resources to utilize and to occupy a healthy environment. In this hierarchy, the superiority of the race was determined by the power structure. This power dominates, and highly impacts marginal groups like black Nigerians and ‘coloured’ South Africans at a large level. This environmentally politicized hierarchy in the race can be found in colonialism and apartheid times. White supremacy has distinguished the hierarchy among races, and values or devalues the people based on utilizing the places/lands. Also, there is still the impact of industrialization and deforestation on the poor. The issues of ‘discrimination and oppression due to power class, gender, and race are related to the exploitation of the environment’ (Nkechi & Emmanuel, 2017, p. 33).

Karmakar criticizes, ‘In Africa, poor people of colour and marginalized communities are subjected to extreme environmental injustice perpetuated by decades of extraction and aggravated by continued human rights violations, land seizures, homelessness and the apathy of the neo-colonialist apartheid governments to alleviate the crises’ (Karmakar, 2023, p. 3). Desmond D’Sa (the coordinator of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance SDCEA) says that since the inception of democracy in South Africa (in 1994), environmental racism has continued to flourish with predominate people of ‘coloured’ being affected the most (Zenda, 2023). Edward Roux (1903–1966) and Jan Christian Smuts’ ideas of racial order and its relation to ecology are important parts of the debate. Edward Roux supports evolutionary biology against racism whereas Smuts’ holistic theory of evolution and racial order inspired the nation’s ecologists to sanctify an ecologically informed racial policy (Anker, 2004).

A move to know colonialism, South-eastern Nigeria’s source of livelihood has been destroyed due to oil exploitation (Kanu, 2023, p. 246) where Britishers occupied the oil industries. In the art of the Niger Delta, ‘the tragedy is that this region, because of its enriched ecological wealth, has been the core site of relentless conflicts and violations’ (Karmakar, 2023, p. 4). By 1956, other Western firms challenged the British supremacy on oil in Nigeria. After the 1960s, the dominance over oil production and market economics again created competition between the state heads and the external capitalist companies. During the civil war (1967–1971), Nigeria’s military rulers issued orders transferring ownership of oil and gas to the Nigerian state (Karmakar, 2023, p. 5). Nayak criticizes eco-divergent in Nigeria after colonial times through Achebe’s novel where he finds that characters’ conversion and other cultural transformations show that the Africans blindly accepted the Britishers’ superiority over the land, culture, and language (2014). According to whites, Igbos are uncivilized. Igbos’ failure is only to protect Igbo cultural identity from the colonizers (Okuroglu & Baskale, 2019, p. 99). As a result of resistance to the colonial production of ecology, ‘decolonial ecology, in essence, acknowledges and validates the perspectives of individuals who have experienced colonization, marginalization, and oppression’ (Karmakar, 2023, p. 18).

A focus of environmental racism and the ecological crisis is for a environmental justice (EJ). EJ’s ‘principles are widespread at national and global levels of transition discourse’ (Johnston et al., 2023, p. 645), today, the world is worried about environmental injustice as a highly impacted social and economic issue. ‘Decolonized visions of urban sustainability’ (Ibid.) and ‘the struggle for environmental justice is the continuation of the fight for the liberation of the continent and socio-ecological transformation’ (Bassey, 2023a). The importance of racism is to understand the global climate solution and to solve the ecological crisis. Without much understanding of colonialism and slavery, we cannot achieve racial justice (Achiume, 2022). Racial classification is not natural, but it is more political. To understand racism from ecological and race relations sights, we need to examine its relation to humanity, society, and nature in the writings of colonialism in the post-colonial world. Chinua Achebe and Nadine Gordimer are prominent role models in the study of post-colonial and environmental racism studies.

A bridge to environmental racism and justice to investigate with an ecocritical approach fills the gap in racial discourse. A similar analysis can be seen in Danlami (2020), Morve and Akingbe (2020) and other scholars’ work. Limited work has been done under a comparative framework of Nigerian and South African novels’ context. This research offers a new insight into the impact of racism during the colonial and apartheid times’ ecocritical approach.

Things fall apart: an analysis of colonialism with an ecological approach

In Nigeria, colonial rule existed from 1850 to 1903. Nigerian writers have a long history of colonial oppression which has been represented in literature. The colonial impact on Nigerians has been narrated by Nigerian writers. Writers are constantly telling stories about colonialism. From the Nigerian context, the ecological approach is important to understand the ecological crises and their impact on racism. Nigeria had not only colonial control over politics but also it had a cultural dispute between blacks and whites.

Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria. He has written many novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. His first novel Things Fall Apart is contextually based on the 1890s in Umuofia village (Umuofia means ‘people of the forest’ (Thakur, 2019–2020, p. 16) and is set in Mbanta village. This novel depicts the cultural clash between the white colonial government and the indigenous Nigerian Igbo community. Around 1890, missionaries came there, and British trade interests were concerted in Nigeria. Things Fall Apart presents colonial oppression, which led to the disintegration of the Igbo community. Through this novel, Achebe attracts readers to make them understand the cultural change and the quest for Igbo identity. Also, he focuses on local land control and conflict between whites and blacks. A cultural struggle against a change in the Igbo culture can be seen through white domination.

Achebe defines the Igbos agricultural life, religious beliefs, festivals, ideas about the world and human life as intertwined with nature. The African ideal of a harmonious relationship between humans and the natural environment (Gogoi, 2014, p. 2; Okoye-Ugwu, 2017, p. 156). ‘Traditionally, Igbos are farmers, craftsmen and traders. The Igbo export palm oil and palm kernels to Europe, while trading, local crafts and labor are also important to the Igbo economy’ (Expedition Subsahara, 2024). Igbos were locals living in Nigeria, but this traditional Igbo homeland was becoming too small for its growing population. As a result, many Igbos have emigrated out of Igboland (Eriksen, n.d.). The migration of this tribal community was due to poverty and the exploitation of natural resources by colonials. Achebe’s effort in Things Fall Apart is to depict the colonizers’ dominant relationship with the locals and the conflict between self and community is another interest of Achebe.

Achebe’s protagonist Okonkwo resists new white political, and religious orders. Okonkwo’s relationship with his late father shapes his violent, and ambitious character. The relationship of a father (Unoka), and son (Okonkwo) is crucial to the existence of the traditional system. Because this is a base of ancestral authority on which cultural continuity and common values have been carried out and narrated a story. Things Fall Apart is important to study from an ecological perspective to understand cultural domination and colonial environmental exploitation. The colonial aim was to build churches, industries, and deforestation created environmental racism, where Igbos became the victim and lost their land authority and cultural values too.

Okonkwo was aware of colonial rule over nature and culture in his village. The colonizer divergence worked hard on the lives of the Igbo community in Nigeria (Nayak, 2014, p. 60). As Achebe narrates, Okonkwo’s character is wealthy and represents a respected warrior of the Umuofia clan. Another character is Ogbuefi Ezeudu, he is a respected elder of the village. He informs Okonkwo privately about the oracle and says that Ikemefuna must be killed. Igbo people blindly believe in his oracle so, it takes a tragic turn at the end of the story. When walking with Okonkwo, some of Okonkwo’s clansmen attack Ikemefuna with machetes. Igbos believe strongly in oracles and follow old traditional beliefs.

Achebe mentions the incident of Ikemefuna’s death in the interview with Rowell,

It is analogous to that scene in Things Fall Apart just before those men kill Ikemefuna, and they hear in the air the sound of music from a distant clan. I don’t know how those men felt hearing it: the sounds of peace, and celebration in the world, and a horrendous event at home. So, what I’m feeling at any particular time, and what the world is doing impinge on the kind of writing I do, obviously. (Rowell, 1990, p. 99)

There is a belief system in the Igbo community that if anyone saw an oracle, he/she would surely die. This is the conventional story of Okonkwo, who is a strong individual and is represented as an Igbo hero. He struggles to maintain the cultural integrity of his people against overwhelming colonial rule. Achebe does not aim to criticize Igbo culture, but rather he defines the Igbo’s cultural values. Achebe shows that Igbo people have their own culture and belief system, they are not uncivilized or inferior. The importance of spirituality and naturalism is part of Igbo life. For the planting and harvest season, Igbo please Ani the goddess and enjoy this season together and the yam festival to honour the earth. Despite the worshipping of earth and goddesses. Igbos have certain beliefs in twin killing and polygamy – these are also mentioned in Things Fall Apart. A close connection of Igbo to nature is presented in the novel.

Achebe captures the concern of African readers in the 1950s by assessing significant historical, and psychological parallels between 1860 to 1890 – where Okonkwo’s story was set (Irele, 2008, p. 297). This time was too hard to face European colonialism as Okonkwo’s conflict can be seen between – the Christian and Igbo cultures. His conflict represents other Igbos’ quest for identity and cultural struggle. Importantly, the novel discusses the cultural crisis caused by the colonials. West-Pavlov believes that Okonkwo’s suicide due to imperial power politics needs to be taken seriously. He propagates a self-obsessed manly honour that consistently threatens the common weal (2022, p. 81).

Achebe’s depiction of ecological disaster can be seen through excessive rain. Danlami connects colonialism with ecological destruction. While analysing Things Fall Apart, Danlami observes a colonial environment suffers from the effects of colonialism. Neocolonial masters have exploited nature and killed pythons. Even the clansman/locals accidentally kill a python then there is a burial ceremony performed. They believe in protecting nature and animals thus, they do not kill the python. At the time of building Churches, if whites saw a python, they killed them and this way the process of deforestation and environmental imbalance caused the ecological crisis (Danlami, 2020).

Ecocriticism ties with colonialism and impacts on Nigerian tribals’ lives. Pythons, animals, trees, and rivers are part of the Igbo community’s life, but the colonial destruction of forests and natural resources brings out the tension in groups – colonial and Igbo. To understand colonialism and its relationship with ecocriticism, the ecocriticism lens is an important approach to revisit Things Fall Apart. A spiritual relationship between Igbos and colonial nature/environmental exploitation brings tension in communities. Thus, an ecocritical view is important to re-read Things Fall Apart. In the novel, many incidents are mentioned on the occasion of the New Yam, Okonkwo’s second wife had cut a few leaves off to wrap food but Okonkwo was angry and asked, ‘Who killed this banana tree?’ ‘Who killed this banana tree? Or are you all deaf and dumb?’ (Achebe, 1958, p. 27). Okonkwo had a gun, but he never killed any animal or even any rat. Okonwo’s concern for a banana tree and not killing animals shows his eco-friendly approach.

Eco-divergence rule of colonizer in colonized countries rigidly controlled over them. This tragic flow happens when Okonkwo exiles to the motherland (Nayak, 2014, p. 60). When Okonkwo committed suicide, villagers refused to cut trees and bury him as this act was a sin against nature and Igbo culture (Okoye-Ugwu, 2017). Nwoma writes in Things Fall Apart, ecocriticism is a radical approach to rethink the relationship between humans and the environment. The environment consequently reacts to the actions of the characters. The oppression and subjugation of the environment are revealed as the characters are considered responsible for the environmental problems that threaten their existence (Nwoma, 2018, p. 8). Gogoi (2014) analyses Things Fall Apart with the Igbo’s connection to the land where he finds that the land is an ancestor of where they buried dead bodies. Thus, they take care of the land and nature. ‘The missionaries were given land in an Evil forest where people infected with leprosy and smallpox were buried. Native medicines give way to white men’s medicine’ (Sharmila, 2019, p. 284).

Gogoi suggests that a balanced view of development is needed. Postcolonial ecocriticism can contribute to global justice, and sustainability by exploring themes centered on nature, and the environment across different literary works (2014). Okoye-Ugwu writes in the criticism of Things Fall Apart, ‘The arrival of the white man as a missionary, trader and administrator, disrupts the unity of this erstwhile serene, peaceful and unified agrarian community locked in a warm embrace with nature’ (Okoye-Ugwu, 2017, p. 163). To portray the dignity of Igbo village life, Achebe is clearly to the view that the Igbos did not need the white man to carry them into the modern world. Within the Igbo system change and progress were possible (Rhoads, 1993, p. 67). Things Fall Apart crucially stands against the imperialistic paradigm which attempts to fragment African life and segregate Africans from the environment in which they used to live in harmony, peace and stability (Thakur, 2019–2020, p. 21).

My son’s story: apartheid visit to ecological crisis

South Africa’s well-known author is Nadine Gordimer. A connection to the environmental situation (i.e. land segregation, farming land control of whites, ecological deterioration and environmental injustice) can be seen in her writing. Kamil writes ecocriticism seeks to trace environmental crises, ideas and representations, shedding light on the interaction between man and society on the one hand, and man and physical environment on the other (2018, p. 9). In China, scholars (see Hao’nong, 2019; Li, 2013; Meng, 2019) interpret Gordimer’s novels with the help of ecocriticism (Lai, 2021, p. 60). The ecocritical approach is a recent trend in exploring historical novels which provides a space to revisit the historical past. And this past is a revisiting approach that gives us a new understanding of today.

Gordmier’s The Pickup subtly questions whether a return to the land is possible in the context of the legacies of apartheid and realities of globalization in which land is never neutral (Mount, 2014, p. 101). In Gordimer’s My Son’s Story, a land question for ‘coloured’ segregation and characters’ protest reveals the reality of environmental racism. This novel portrays the impact of the ecological and identity crisis for ‘coloured’ as a marginal group. The characters embrace history as the racial identity quest to the life of ‘coloured’ families. My Son’s Story evaluates the impact of the socio-political spheres of African society with a specific reference to the ecological crisis of racial segregation during the apartheid era. Not only the blacks but also the ‘coloured’ and poor white people of Africa were also struggling with apartheid and its ecological impact.

This novel is set in the 1980s, at the same time that Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years. This story begins with Sonny’s life. It is narrated by Will and with ‘the third-person voice of an omniscient narrator’ (Levy, 2019, p. 2). Through the eyes of Will, we can travel on the journey of ‘coloured’ and understand the segregation of environmental racism. My Son’s Story represents environmental racism and its suppression through the characters’ lives. It is influenced by the emotional reactions of the characters – Sonny (‘coloured’), Aila (of African Asian descent), Will (‘coloured’), and Baby (‘coloured’).

Will as a child narrator the implications of trauma on his mind and Baby’s familial trauma lead to a political commitment and they become a revolutionary (Levy, 2019). Each character (whether it’s ‘coloured’ or white) is fighting against apartheid so, they join the anti-apartheid movement to protest. My Son’s Story is a ‘coloured’ central novel that resists the cruel, and unfair system of the apartheid act. Consistently, Gordimer tries to tackle the central theme of resistance and demonstrates the struggle of ‘coloured’ community against environmental racism and the ecological crisis. In the context of apartheid, racism led to an identity crisis. Consequently, the anti-apartheid movement was a part of resistance and became a new expression of voice against white politics. The white government’s support for environmental racism is also narrated in detail through apartheid restrictions for ‘coloured’.

In My Son’s Story, the incident narrated about school students’ deaths in police firings. Similarly, many plots show discrimination in the school against ‘coloured’ children. Even a ‘fabric of the socio-political reality of South Africa at the peak of a ‘racial’, and ‘social’ discrimination era in MSS’ (Moustafa, 2022, p. 62). There are many academic institutions, where racism is used as a tool to discriminate. Gordimer weaves intrigue around a man who is involved in the freedom fight, and how his life, and family change through his involvement in the struggle. In the apartheid era, a real and novelistic approach depicts ‘coloured’ segregation. They were segregated from whites, and the white government restricted entry to access high-class facilities like whites. White professions, and industries–had not allowed ‘coloured’ people to enter without the permission of white. Apartheid white policy detached ‘coloured’ communities from their land and moved them to the periphery of the villages and cities. These racial boundaries created loneliness and segregation of these subjugated groups. In My Son’s Story, ‘coloured’ are unable to enjoy all equal facilities as whites could enjoy (For ex: access to sea beaches, libraries, liquor store segregation, and so on). Sonny is not part of the bird watchers’ group although he likes nature. He takes children to the zoo where ‘coloured’ is allowed. A detachment of seeing municipality and the Greek tea room places were not allowed to Sonny/’coloured’. This inequality is not only based on land segregation but the inequality in natural resources (i.e. Sea beaches and other areas) has also been politicised.

In My Son’s Story, Johannesburg is still an environment of tension and political activism (Kamil, 2018, p. 26). ‘What did it matter that the seaside, hotels, the beaches, pleasure-grounds with swimming-pools were not for us? We couldn’t afford hotels, anyway; a fun fair for the use of our kind came to our area at Easter, the circus came at Christmas, and we picnicked in the no-man’s-land of veld between the mine-dumps’ (Gordimer, 1991, p. 21). To see an ecocritical view, apartheid law was not just segregated people and nature – this can be seen in the division of places to utilize natural resources. The natural resources and green areas of parks are controlled by white superiors. Consequently, marginal communities are allowed to live in a periphery, where polluted environment and polluted water are available for ‘coloured’.

According to apartheid, environmental racial superiority to enjoy a good environment is possible only if one has fair skin. Due to the white race, one will get a clean environment otherwise do not. As an impact of the apartheid segregation law, ‘coloured’ could live in lesser green areas and they had no parks as whites had. As ‘coloured’ areas were undeveloped with lesser green parks. White spent a lot of Rands to maintain the ecosystem through the growing green trees surrounding them but did not care for the communities who lived in the periphery. The white apartheid act was given a preference for urban development over rural (where majorly ‘coloured’ were living).

Gordimer tries to focus on environmental apartheid issues that directly impact ‘coloured’ lives. Gordimer’s character Baby tried to commit suicide and this trauma also is a reason for apartheid stress. Through a case study of KuManzimdaka, Stull, Bell, and Ncwadi write that South African environmental apartheid refers to the use of the rural environment to deliberately marginalize racially defined groups. A theoretical understanding of apartheid and the environment relationship finds that there are eco-health consequences of environmental apartheid (Stull et al., 2016, p. 369). Shackleton, and Gwedla write, ‘A focus on indigenous species with contributions to residents’ livelihoods could enhance efforts to introduce urban nature in residential areas while increasing the abundance of native species at the same time’ (2021). Controlling land is a materialistic ideology, and this materiality neglects the ecological system and harms the land, culture, and targets marginal groups. Exactly these apartheid issues have already been narrated in My Son’s Story.

Commonalities in both novels and different contexts

Achebe’s Things Fall Apart resists colonial culture, therefore, at the end of the novel Okonkwo does not accept Christianity and commits suicide. On the other side, in the context of My Son’s Story, the ‘coloured’ characters negotiate for their racial identity and protest against segregation. Both novels represent the struggle for identity, criticizing the colonial ideology, environmental racism and the ecological crisis that exist as a part of Nigerian and South African lives. Both novels were written after colonial times but featured two different forms of racial discourses. Black Nigerians, and ‘coloured’ South Africans are marginal racial groups. Their identities challenge to resist White colonial ideologies in Nigeria, and the white supremacy of apartheid law in South Africa.

A comparison of these two texts results in Okonkwo’s struggle for racial identity is not different from ‘coloured’ characters struggle. In commonality, it is visible that these characters’ struggles are deeply rooted in white power. A similarity in both characters persists in the identity struggle of in-between situations – a) to accept the traditional Igbo culture or modern Christian culture, and b) on the other side, racial conflict of being ‘coloured’ which is neither white nor black. A protagonist, ‘Okonkwo, in their pursuit of mere existence within a declining culture in the face of a tyrannical white one’ (El-Dessouky, 2010, p. 98), whereas ‘Gordimer inverts assumptions of race, and gender through the domains of the private, and the public – the domestic, and the political’ (Chandra, 2017).

‘Extractivism’ burdens marginal groups. During the apartheid segregation time, ‘coloured’ families shifted to undeveloped areas, polluted areas, and undeveloped places, where basic water supplies had not been provided. These issues impacted their health, and many people died due to water-related (i.e. diarrhea) issues. Also, they face many other health complications. Even this condition can also be seen in ‘Israel’s ecological apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory’ (Abofoul, 2021). Inequalities in public green space distribution, and racial segregation during the colonial, and apartheid periods sustain the issue in the post-colonial (and post-apartheid) state (Shackleton & Gwedla, 2021). Alfred Crosby mentions ‘Neo-European’ countries where Europeans settle in non-European places for their ecological benefit (2004). This ecological imperialism can be seen in the Nigerian and South African contexts.

Ciftci (2014) writes in the apartheid and colonial connection to the ecology crisis to deal with environmental degradation, pollution, and waste disposal problems, the concept of ‘environmental justice’ emerged in the early 1980s. Today’s studies of environmental justice focus on fair distribution of justice and raising concerns on social issues (2014). ‘Ecological apartheid’ theorizes environmental racism which has an aim to bring environmental justice. This justice is for all ethnic and gender groups’ right to have a safe and healthy environment. Ironically, to achieve the goal of environmental justice, the accessibility of natural resources should not be controlled by one race. The colonial, and apartheid policies both are interconnected in racism forms and created ecological problems for marginal groups. These periods have affected the black Nigerians, and ‘coloured’ in South Africans’ life due to climate change and the discriminatory act of man-made nature segregation. A history of environmental racism is a significant issue to visit Nigerian and South African novels, where the ‘relation of ecology and economy can prove profoundly contradictory’ (Vital, 2009, p. 97).

Conclusion

Racism is encountered in Things Fall Apart and My Son’s Story, which exemplifies the African world in postcolonial writing. Achebe and Gordimer express discrimination, and other-ed status addressing through colonization, and apartheid law. Thus, the marginal voice of black and ‘coloured’ against resistance through the characters’ actions of suicide (of black Okonkow) as well as joining the anti-apartheid movement (‘coloured’ characters are Sonny, Will, Aila, and Baby) contribute to the larger narratives of decolonization.

Ngugi WA Thiong’o paid his tribute with aplomb, ‘Achebe bestrides generations, and geographies. Every country in Africa claims him as their own’ (cited in Uzoatu, 2021). Achebe represents a traditional Igbo culture, their spirituality, love for indigenous language/s, and Igbo’s love of nature. Their conflict started from European imperialism, violence against colonial environmental exploitation, and religious and cultural change (missionaries and local religious and cultural struggle to transform to Christianity). For the Igbos, the colonial struggle was for ‘black Igbo identity’. In a similar line but in a different context, Gordimer describes the South Africans’ apartheid politics and racism.

The inequality of class and racial discrimination are social issues across the world. Social realism may achieve responsibility in everyone for a new world with humanity (Anish, 2018, p. 185). Environmental injustice has produced uneven development, marginalized landscapes, increased criminalization of poor people and people of color, and the social movements that work to transform them (Turner & Wu, 2002, p. 8). Even, environmental justice is in danger of replicating power inequalities and environmental crises impact vulnerable groups’ health as well (Martin et al., 2020). There is a gap in exploring the ‘western liberal approach to consider the indigenous approach’ (Kanu, 2023, p. 246). A scholarship of environmental justice is required to explore through a local indigenous approach.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Southwest University, China for rendering infrastructural and financial support. The author is grateful to blind peer reviewers for constructive comments and mainly thanks Dr Robert Read for valuable suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Morve Roshan K.

Dr Morve Roshan K is based at the College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. She was an Honorary Research Associate at Bangor University (UK). She taught at Children’s University, India. Her 33 articles, 16 chapters, 2 short stories, and 7 poems have been published in national and international journals. She translated 74 children’s books (from English into Marathi). She has presented 36 papers at national and international conferences, seminars, and symposiums and received nine travel grants for academic work. Her research interests include gender, race, postcolonial, diaspora, and postmodern studies.