Ecological Violation: Rethinking the Consequences of Postcolonial Infrastructures in the Novels of Ngugi wa Thiong’o

Existing studies on Ngugi wa Thiong’o creative legacies have focused mainly on cultural and language heritages of the colonised, while little attention has been paid to the aspects of ecological violation which remains a significant leitmotif of his novelistic engagements. This paper thus examines Ngugi’s representation of ecological violation with the socio-cultural implications on the postcolonial Kenyan society. Adam Trexler’s Anthropogenic Theory is adopted for the critical analysis of this paper. Ngigi’s Weep Not, Child (WNC), The River Between (TRB), A Grain of Wheat (AGW), Petals of Blood (PB) and Devil on the Cross (DC) were critically examined towards realising the set goals of the work. The study revealed that ecological violation on the postcolonial infrastructures and legacies are practised through indiscriminate felling of trees for export by the settlers in collusion with the indigenous entrepreneurs, desecration of ancestral environmental sites, and deliberate deforestation remain the landmark of colonial violations. The study further buttresses the fact that ecological violation is characterized by toxic industrialisation and urbanisation, technological advancement, and through devices of imperialism with their internal collaborators thereby validating the claim that the destabilisation and destruction of the ancestral socio-ecological environment is linked directly to the inglorious legacies of colonisation in African societies.

Keywords: Ecological Violation African Novel Ecocriticism Ngugi Wa'Thiong'o Postcolonial Infrastructures and Legacies

Author

• Dele Maxwell Ugwanyi
  Department of English and Literary Studies
  Enugu State University of Science and Technology
  delemaxwell@yahoo.co.uk
• Micah Okon Asukwo
  Department of English
  Akwa Ibom State University
  micahasuquo@yahoo.com