A Rich Inheritance: An Ecocritical Reading of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Short Stories and Poetry

ABSTRACT

This article examines Ken Saro-Wiwa’s (1941–1995) vision for the Ogoni people through an ecocritical interrogation of his short fiction and poetry. Academic analyses of the Ogoni struggle have been unfailingly anthropocentric in their approaches. This article challenges this dominant epistemology by centring the non-human world. I examine Saro-Wiwa’s collection of short stories ‘A Forest of Flowers’, the poetry anthology ‘Songs in a Time of War’, and his final poems written in prison in the 1990s. An ecocritical reading of these texts will reveal how Saro-Wiwa invokes pastoral tropes and romantic portrayals of a pre-oil ecological paradise to articulate a primordial eco-nationalist Ogoni identity. Throughout his fiction, the fate of the people and the natural world are intertwined, and notions of home and community expand beyond the human to incorporate the ecosystem of the bioregion.

KEYWORDS:

• ecocriticism
• post-colonialism
• environmental justice
• Ken Saro-Wiwa
• oil cultures
• Nigeria

Acknowledgments

This article is based upon research I conducted for my MSc African Studies thesis at Oxford University 2020/21. I would like to thank my supervisor Professor David Pratten for his endless guidance and support, particularly given the challenging conditions imposed on us by COVID. I would also like to thank the wider faculty and students at the African Studies Centre for their feedback on my thesis, and their support throughout the year.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daisy Pullman

Daisy Pullman is a PhD student in interdisciplinary sustainability studies at UBC Okanagan. Her research interests include environmental history, eco-criticism, and postcolonial studies. Her PhD thesis will examine the impacts of the US/Canada border on the designation and management of endangered species in the Okanagan bioregion. This article was developed from MSc research undertaken at the University of Oxford African Studies Centre with the supervision of Professor David Pratten.