Kaine Agary‟s Yellow-Yellow: A Study in Ecocriticism

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between ecology and literature, focusing on Kaine Agary‟s Yellow-Yellow. The novel explores the socio- cultural effects of oil exploration and exploitation on the ecology. It examines the effects of coastal communities in contact with the sea in the Niger-Delta. Some of these include what Kaine Agary calls „Born troway‟, „African profits‟, ‟Father-unknown‟, ‟Ashawo pickin‟. Zilayefa the heroine of the novel is a product of one of such contacts. The bulk of some of these contacts makes up the tendency toward criminality in the Niger-Delta region in addition to poor leadership at all levels of governance. The paper deals with the political ecology of Nigeria and examines the place of women within that ecology. It is our position and the view of this paper that environmental pollution translates to moral pollution. Women in this novel have been sexually polluted. The body of the woman symbolizes nature which man has polluted. All these issues are the basic concerns, which this paper interrogates.

Keywords: Ecocriticism, Ecology, Pollution, Nigerian Novel