The Niger Delta Region and the Woman’s Predicament: A Study of Kaine Agary’s Yellow- Yellow

Abstract

Recently, Kaine Agary has joined the new crop of African writers like Promise Okekwe, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Sefi Ata, Chris Abani, Helon Habila, Okey Ndibe etc. She made her entry into the literary circle through the publication of Yellow-Yellow, a novel which depicts the debilitating conditions of women and the Niger Delta environment. The region is bedeviled with ecological problems as well as other social ills. Agary exposes the moral laxity caused by poverty, joblessness and lack of social amenities like schools, roads, etc. in the region. Through the machination of patriarchy and culture, Agary exposes women in the region as victims of circumstances beyond their making and further expounds the racial prejudice in the region. The women in Agary’s fiction are treated with suspicion and exploited by local and foreign men. This paper seeks to explore the female predicament in Agary’s fiction and the dichotomy of rural and urban existence in the Niger Delta region. The paper also exposes, how the dividend of oil exploration eludes the people who should be beneficiaries of the oil largess.