Citation: Afolayan, K.N. & Oladeji, F.O. (2025). Ecocritical Perspectives in Ben Okri's The Famished Road (1991) and Every Leaf a Hallelujah (2021). Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture, 4(1), 81-92. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2025.v04i01.009.
ECOCRITICAL
PERSPECTIVES IN BEN OKRI'S THE FAMISHED ROAD (1991) AND EVERY LEAF A
HALLELUJAH (2021)
AFOLAYAN, Kayode Niyi (Ph.D)
OLADEJI, Felix Oluwabukola (oladejifelix94@gmail.com)
Department of English, University of Ilorin
Abstract
Any critic familiar with the art of African writers
will discover its filial link with primordial art forms. While critical responses have mostly focused
on the social relevance of those forms in respect of their uses to resolve
postcolonial dilemmas, more interpretations are needed which contextualise
ecological texts within a framework that interrogates the relationship between
man and his environment. This paper is an ecocritical engagement with Ben
Okri’s The
Famished Road (1991) and Every Leaf A Hallelujah (2021). The paper gives
attention to two ecological issues raised by Nigerian writers. These include
the crises of oil exploration in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria and the
expositions on “forest fables” which is the relationship between man and nature
on the one hand and the despoliation of nature on the other hand. The article
separates Ben Okri’s alignment with the tradition of presenting “forest fables”
and his ingenuous use of children as heroes in his prose works. The article
concludes by drawing on the novelist’s affirmation of the compactness of the
African worldview. In the relationship between man and nature, the paper
amplifies the perspective that nature, in the African environment, acquiesces
to dignified “exploitation” for its survival and sustenance of man.
Keywords: Ben Okri, tradition,
ecocriticism, forest fables, environmental consciousness
Introduction
The relationship between man and his environment has
remained an attractive theme in the works of artists in different parts of the
world. However, in a sense that explains the peculiarity of this manifestation
in African literature, Bodunde (2001) within the context of cultural evolution,
noted that “African writers have [always] employed Africa's existing
topographical and architectural landmarks [to] serve the purpose of signifying
shifts in culture, history and human experience in general” (p. 116). To cite a
few examples from the novels of an earlier generation such as Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Ngugi
Wa‘thiogo,’s Weep Not, Child (1964), and Ayi Kwei Armah’s, Two Thousand Seasons (1973), it is
observable that the commitment to ecology underlies the dominant themes of
cultural conflict and resistance against colonialism.
However,
with specific reference to writers in Nigeria, the attention given to
ecological issues after the colonial experience has at least two thrusts that
reveal the interface between man and his environment. The first is seen in the
literary responses to the crisis of oil exploration in the Niger Delta area of
Nigeria. In prose compositions such as Ken Saro-Wiwa’s A Month and a Day &
Letters (2005), Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2010), and Helon Habila’s Oil on Water (2012) the exploration of
nature and their consequences are honed through oil exploration activities. In
the second manifestation (which predates the first and which falls within the
discussions in this article), we have compositions on ecological themes that
interface with the African worldview in a way that not only stirs environmental
consciousness but also impresses on the need for man to preserve his ecological
heritage. The selection of Ben Okri’s
award-winning novel, The Famished Road
(1991), and his latest novel, Every Leaf A Hallelujah (2021), for this
paper is justified for two reasons. One is the consistent attention the
novelist has given to the subject of man and ecology in the past decades; the
second is the centrality of tales that have to do with an expedition into the
forest world by man (otherwise called “forest narratives”) to Okri’s narratives
and the relationship this has with the novelist’s ingenuous use of Indigenous
resources.
Ben Okri and the
Tradition of
“Forest Tales” in the Nigerian Novel.
An
overview of writers whose works present “forest tales” in Nigerian literature
puts Yoruba writers in the forefront. Abiola Irele seems to validate this point
in “Tradition and the Yoruba Writer: D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, and Wole
Soyinka” when he says:
…the most remarkable feature of the evolution of Yoruba
culture over the past century or so has been the way in which it has been able
to afford a stable institutional and spiritual groundwork for the
transformation of the collective life and feeling for the individual within
this culture, at the critical moment when Western civilization introduced an
element of tension into African societies. Yoruba culture has played an
integrative role in the process of acculturation which all African societies
have undergone, in such a way that this process can be seen today as one
largely of adaptation, the adjustment of native culture with the foreign, the
harmonisation of two ways of life into one entity. (p.5)
In
the order of sequence, Irele’s listing of forebears, who have used forest tales
in their narratives, follows this sequence: D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, and
Wole Soyinka. But Fagunwa, listed as first in the order, has progenitors in the
likes of E.A. Akintan and I.B. Thomas who also wrote their novels in
vernacular. The listing of Fagunwa can also be queried because his works are
presented in his native language. However, this can be excused and fit in the
category of “forest tales” because his novels such as Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Olodumare and Irinkerindo Nini Igbo Elegbeje have been translated into English by
Wole Soyinka and Dapo Adeniyi and titled The
Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1982) and
Expedition to the Mount of Thought (1994), respectively. Although Tutuola’s
use of the novel genre as a medium for his forest stories coincides with
Fagunwa in novels such as The Palmwine Drinkard (1952) and My Life in the Bush
of Ghost
(1954), Soyinka’s “forest tales” appear in plays such
as A Dance of the Forest (1963) and The Road (1965). Despite their
similarities, however, critics have tried to draw distinctions between the art
of Fagunwa, Tutuola, and Soyinka. Niyi Osundare’s attempt at distinguishing
Fagunwa from others, for instance, reads:
Fagunwa’s works are redolent of Biblical register [and]
some of the contents are strongly influenced by the cardinal precepts of
Christian morality” (p.38) … [in] his forested fabulations Myth trades places
with matter, fact with fiction. In the end phenomenon are more often sighted
than seen; whispers are much louder than shouts. The incubi and the succubi
that populate Fagunwa’s forests also play pranks with our interpretative
faculty. The reader has to be constantly be on guard; for quite often, the shadowy
intimations of Fagunwa’s ambience compel a reading and accounting whose magic
is indigenous to its author without being irredeemably foreign to a curious
reader (p.37)
Notwithstanding,
the three writers are bound by the same thread in the diverse manifestations of
the Indigenous resources of their locale in their “forest fables”. Irele, in
his article earlier cited, articulates this position thus:
The artistic experience of the three writers, taken
together, represents a development of the common stock of images in a way that
is not only a restatement of their significance in the context of traditional
experience but also their continuing truth for modern man. Their work expresses
the essence of myth as a comprehensive metaphor of life: as a re-formulation of
experience at the level of image and symbol so as to endow it with an intense
spiritual significance. (p.26)
There
is no doubt that Ben Okri’s works under study in this paper benefitted
immensely from the works of forebears such as Fagunwa, Tutuola, and Soyinka.
Felicia Oka Moh in Ben Okri: An Introduction to His Early Fiction
(2002), brings out similar characteristics that affiliate Okri with the three
but Eustace Palmer’s view, in “Teaching Ben Okri’s The Famished Road & Syl Cheney-Cocker’s The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar”, is more accurate. Palmer’s
use of The Famished Road as a case
study proves that Okri in following the “forest tales” tradition set by his
forebears has sustained the use of myth and magical realism. However, added to
the political satiric import mentioned by Palmer, Okri’s “forest tales” are
concerned with ecology. Unlike his forebears who focus on the activities of man
in the forest, Okri, exposes the mysteries of the forest world to evoke mutual
respect between two distinct entities in the cosmos. Not only this, the
peculiarity of Okri’s ‘departure’ from the “tradition” is encapsulated in the
nexus between his ecological thrust and children characters.
Ben Okri’s Children
Characters and Environmental Issues in The
Famished Road and Every Leaf A Hallelujah
The
beginning of Okri’s use of children characters in his ecology narratives can be
traced to Flowers and Shadows (1980)
and The Landscape Within (1981).
Okri, in these two novels, presents to us child heroes in Jeffia and Omovo,
respectively. Although it can be suggested that Okri’s obsession with children
characters is aimed at his concerns for posterity, his most successful child
character is seen in The Famished Road
where we have Azaro. Azaro is “a spirit child” who has made repeated
appearances in the world of the living. He is supposed to live for a very short
time and die to return to his companions in the spirit world. However, in the
current cycle presented in the novel, his decision to stay in the world beyond
the allotted short time precipitates a crisis that pitches him against the
strong forces that moderate activities in the land of the spirits where he
belongs. Azaro justifies his reasons for aborting the ‘coming and going’
itinerary of the abiku world when he says. “It is a terrible thing to forever
remain in-between …I wanted to taste of this world, to feel it, suffer it… make
a valuable contribution to it … to make happy the bruised face of the woman who
would become my mother. (p.5). However, these reasons are not acceptable to his
kin who want him back at the expiration of time agreed by him to visit the
human world. It needs to be pointed out that Azaro’s ordeal resonates with the
Abiku myth which has been explored by Soyinka and Clark in their poems of the
same title. But more than the myth associated with Abiku, Okri gives the
phenomenon a newer dialectics by using Azaro’s serial deaths, coma, and
come-back-to-life ordeals of Azaro to symbolize the epileptic status of the
Nigerian state.
After
the cycles of rebirth and its attendant pains, life becomes miserable for Azaro
because of his personal decision not to return to the idyllic world. For
instance, he died and was about to be buried when by the compassion of the King
he got resuscitated. At several other times, Azaro went missing as his kin in
the spirit world wanted him back by all means but was able to return home
through providence. His ordeal symbolizes the Nigerian nation that has refused
to die or break up despite its numerous debilitating problems. In his journey
to the dreamland, Okri, through Dad, asserts his intention to this effect when
in his dream. “Dad found that all nations are children, it shocked him that
ours too was an Abiku nation, a spirit-child nation, one that keeps being
reborn and after each rebirth come blood and betrayals” (p.494).
Okri
also cements this symbolic metaphor when he speaks through Ade, one of Azaro’s
spirit child companions when he that: “Our country is an Abiku country, like
the spirit child, it keeps coming and going. One day it will decide to remain.
It will become strong”. (p.478). The statement, perhaps, sheds light on the
thought of Okri that given time – an infinite time – the Nigerian nation would
overcome its besetting problems and become a virile nation.
In
another unique dimension, Okri also uses the text title to encapsulate the
history of the nation¬ from pre-colonial times through independence to the eras
of civilian and military misrules. This is more visible in the link between the
ordeal of the nation and the mystery of the road. The novelist says: “In the
beginning was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the
whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry” (p.3).
At the end of the “mighty green road” is the King of Roads whose insatiable
appetite continues to devour unsuspecting travelers on the road. Eustace
Palmer, in his earlier cited article, said the road:
epitomises the paradoxes of human existence: It is both
endless and has an end; it leads to the world of human beings and the world of
spirits, to both heaven and hell. It has taken two thousand years to build, but
its construction will, apparently, never be completed, because human
civilisation and human history will always go on (p.9)
However,
beyond this interpretation which dwells on the mysteries of the road are
ecological and political meanings that must be unraveled. In the fable of the
road, we have natural endowments such as the river with its tributaries
connected to external lands which shows the capacity of the nation not only to
be great but also to be a force of reckoning in the committee of nations. There
is also lushness associated with the grass on the road to portray its rich soil
and naturally endowed wealth. The political undertone of the fable, which
eclipses these potentials, consists of the King of the Road who represents
Nigerian leaders and political elites whose corrupt disposition, greed
callousness, lawlessness, and other criminal tendencies have left the nation
with little chance of survival.
Through
the metamorphosis of Madam Koto from a bar owner to a ‘great’ political figure,
Okri raises some social questions. The indoctrination of politics made Madam
Koto abandon the path of love for a life of callousness and selfish
aggrandizement. Ironically, although she grows fat on the nation's resources,
she becomes more frustrated. Madam Koto and her political cronies represent the
politicians who ‘lure’ the masses into voting them into power only to add to
their woes.
In
a way, the experience mirrored reminds of Armah’s rhetoric in Two Thousand Seasons where the
novelist’s imaginative space has been submerged by the activities of the Arab
predators and the white maggots. The situation becomes hopeless for citizens as
people in masks who want to liberate the nation are betrayed by selfish African
leaders. However, unlike Armah, Okri finds the people complicit as Dad explains
that the road has remained famished because people have no desire to change
things.
Dad,
whose family represents the oppressed in society rises to the occasion by
mobilizing the people for humanitarian services. Later he forms a political
party of the ‘have-pots’ but he soon discovers there are more filths in
people’s minds than those he cleaned off the street.
Okri
in agreeing that the nation is in the throes of collapse, introduces the
photographer who, through the use of his camera turns out to be the conscience
of the society. Sadly, the photographer, because of the path he has chosen,
faces intimidation and imprisonment. In fact, due to the confrontation between
state powers and his landlord, he is evicted and becomes a vagabond in his own
country. In The Famished Road, Okri
fuses into his rhetoric the overall African worldview, virtually everything is
personified in a coherent interface between physical and spiritual spaces.
Unlike what we have in The Famished Road, Every Leaf A Hallelujah presents Mangoshi, a girl-child, as a
heroine. The narrative objectifies private and public ordeals in the ailments
of Mangoshi’s mother and that of her community. The antidote to healing lies in
a medicinal leaf from the forest which must only be plucked by a child.
Mangoshi dares to go to the forest but her first expedition yields little
result. On her second journey, the sight of the infractions and injuries that
man has inflicted on nature catches her amazement. Through Mangoshi’s
expedition, Okri unravels the mystery of the world of trees and forest, spirit,
and animal worlds to articulate the expediency of complementarity in the
relationship between man and his environment. Mangoshi’s insistence on the need
to preserve nature is strengthened by the revelation which proves that, like
man, nature is an animate entity. In the end, she is allowed to harvest the
medicinal herb which is dispensed to her ailing mother. Health returns to her
mother and the community which has been tensed up by the missing of Mangoshi
and the potential escalation of infirmities in the land.
However,
unlike in The Famished Road, where
Azaro’s ordeal lampoons the dystopias in his homeland, the elasticity of space
is seen in Mangoshi’s fantasy trip to milieus outside her space where there is
reconciliation between man and nature. More than this, however, Okri’s use of Hallelujah as his text title not only evinces a
celebratory tone that shores up victory for nature. Beyond the religious
signification that associates the word with the Judeo-Christian faith, Okri
uses the word to assert the cosmopolitan texture of his space and the universal
import of his narrative.
Ecocriticism,
Ecology and the Relevance of Literature: An Overview
Since
William Rueckert’s first use of the term
“ecocriticism”, critics have become more interested in investigations that seek
to (re) appraise the relationship between man and his environment. This general
perspective, which sees ecocriticism as the study of the relationship between
man and his environment, has been reinforced by Glotfelty (1996) and Abrams (2009) but Buell (2005) brings the relevance of
literature into the concept by arguing that ecocriticism is “the study of the
relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of
commitment to environmental praxis”(p.430). Da Silva’s (2022) Afrocentric
perspective also shows the affinity between literature and ecocriticism in a
wider context that sees, ecocriticism…
[as] resistance against environmental degradation,
pollution and the agencies responsible for the ecological disequilibrum… [and]
how writers respond to the issue of environmental degradation and the
implications on people’s lives, livelihood and psyche (p. 425-426).
However, attempts at understanding the
responses to the environment from this broad reasoning always problematise the
concept. For instance, Slaymaker (2007)
arrives at an inevitable, yet understandable, conclusion when, from a
westernised view, he spotted inadequate the perspectives of African writers on
the appraisal of the relationship between man and his environment. While
tracing the source of this discordance, Caminero-Santagelo (2014) rightly noted that the ecological treatises proposed by Western critics
such as the absolute conservation and preservation of the ecosystem through
total ‘hands-off nature, are unfit for Africa. Concerning this, Anthony (2008),
presents what an “interpretative perspective” is. The materialist content of
his thesis is anchored on contemporariness and contextualization of
environmental values to reveal their implication on the human/nature
relationship. Heise (2015) takes a comparative ecocritical perspective,
focusing on how different cultures perceive and understand the environment.
This, according to her, hinges on the cultural perceptions of the people:
Some cultures see nature most clearly manifested in
wilderness untouched by humankind, but for others, nature includes cultivated
rural areas, and in yet other cases it also encompasses a historical heritage
of monuments and buildings. By the same token, the literary language available
for writing about nature in a particular culture differs vastly depending on
historical circumstances...(p.1096)
The world of the unborn in the Yoruba worldview is as evidently older
than the world of the living as the world of the living is older than the
ancestor world (p.10)
Soyinka furthers on the complexity of the relationship by explaining
that the gulf of the chthonic realm does not preclude relationship rather it
“is what must constantly be diminished (or rendered less threateningly remote) by sacrifices, ritual
ceremonies of appeasement to the cosmic powers which lie guardian to the gulf”
(p.31). The engagement with ecology, for the African writer, must necessarily
be different because of the amorphous and compact nature of its constituents of
being. In fact, when Soyinka insight technically expands the scope of existence
and personifies nature or the environment because by offering “sacrifices, [and
holding] ritual ceremonies of appeasement to the cosmic powers” nature and the
environment serve as hosts and provide the ingredients needed for the
propitiations needed to maintain or preserve cosmological equilibrium.
Environmental Consciousness in Okri's The Famished Road and
Every Leaf A Hallelujah
Environmental
consciousness in Every Leaf A Hallelujah is presented in the way that
the central conflict revolves around the profound environmental changes
affecting Mangoshi's village. Once a thriving community with a harmonious
relationship with nature, the village experiences ominous transformations, including
the arrival of unfamiliar creatures, scorching heat, and a mysterious illness.
These events signify a looming crisis.
Okri
examines diverse environmental elements in the African cultural dimension.
Within this context, Every Leaf A Hallelujah and The Famished Road delve
into the exploration of floral biodiversity/tree species as prominent
environmental elements. These elements serve multiple functions that play a
significant role in advancing the plots of both works.
It was decided this time that she would go early in the
evening, the right time for plucking such a magical flower. But before she set
off, her father sat her down. "Mangoshi," he said, "there is a
special reason why we are allowing you to go. Only a girl of seven years old
can find this flower. No one else can do it. If you find it you will save not
only your mother, but the whole village. Do you know what this means? (p. 29)
The
excerpt above shows the symbiotic relationship between the environment and man.
The magical flower symbolically represents one of the environmental elements
useful to man and the importance of such an element. The 'magical flower' in
the text represents a mystical and powerful aspect of nature. It is not merely
a passive object but a dynamic force within the environment. This notion
reflects the idea in African Literary Environmentalism that nature is imbued
with vitality and intelligence. This establishes the African's dependence on
the environment around him.
As I came I hid in dark places and tried to be careful
but as I neared my compound two people jumped on me and hit my head with a
cutlass and a stick and I fought them and ran into the forest. I stayed there.
(p. 190)
In
Okri's The Famished Road, Azaro's escape into the forest illustrates a
deep, instinctual reliance on nature for refuge and survival. This scenario
depicts the forest not merely as a backdrop but as an active, life-sustaining
entity. The violent encounter and subsequent flight into the forest symbolize
resistance against personal threats. The forest serves as a sanctuary for those
fleeing oppression or seeking solace. This act of seeking refuge in nature
reflects the environment's role in providing protection and resilience against
external adversities. Azaro's reliance on the forest during a time of crisis
depicts the forest's role in cultural identity and heritage. It is a place of
familiarity and safety, integral to Azaro's sense of belonging and survival.
This connection highlights the cultural importance of the environment,
promoting an environmental consciousness that recognizes the preservation of
nature as essential to maintain cultural heritage and identity.
When the man dashed at me, enraged by the trick, I fled
out of the bar and went on fleeing and didn’t stop till I was in the forest. I
looked back. The man was panting. He gave up and turned back. I went deeper
into the forest and sat on the mighty tree…. (p.241)
Azaro's
flight into the forest indicates a significant interaction between humans and
nature. This retreat suggests a dependency on the natural world for safety and
refuge, contrasting the potentially harmful human-made environment of the bar.
Madame Koto's Bar represents a human-constructed space filled with conflict and
danger, while the forest represents the natural world, offering peace and
protection. This dichotomy depicts the tension between urbanization and natural
landscapes, a recurring concern in African literature focusing on environmental
issues. The "mighty tree" symbolizes strength, endurance, and the
deep-rooted connection between humans and the natural environment. Sitting on
the tree depicts a moment of reflection and reconnection with nature,
emphasizing the tree's role as a central element in Azaro's emotional and
physical respite. Azaro's instinct to flee into the forest and find refuge
suggests an inherent understanding and connection to the land, resonating with
indigenous knowledge systems that emphasize living in harmony with nature. This
aspect is crucial in African literary environmentalism, which often highlights
traditional ecological knowledge and the sustainable practices of indigenous
communities.
If you bring back the flower, the flower will save the
village. And if you save the village, the village will save the forest... (p.
31)
However,
the forest in Every Leaf A Hallelujah is imbued with special qualities.
It is seen as the habitat of the supernatural which help in providing healing
to the people. Mangoshi's father encapsulates the essence of the flower healing
belief when he says “If you bring back this flower, the flower will save the
village... (p.31). This environmental element has the power to influence and
change the lives of the people. It also has cultural implications and
significance. “We are not just trees”, came the voice of the baobab, "we
hold the earth together. We are the link
between heaven and earth. We give the earth the air that humans breathe. We
make the environment stable. We have great healing powers. We are older than
the human race (p.54).
In
addition, the use of the forest contextualizes different aspects of the lives
of the people. It shows the importance of the forest around them which, apart
from hunting, includes the provision of carbon sinks and being home to
biodiversity conservation. It also reveals potential danger and vulnerability
because the cheapest means of health treatment that could be found has been
decimated. The excerpt below makes the point:
You are going to the forest. You have been there before.
The flower will be harder to find this time." "Why?" "You
will see for yourself. The world has changed. We are all in trouble."
"Why?" "You will see why. Human beings have not been good to the
earth. But you will see (p.30-31)
The
negative impact of human activity on the environment creates a sense of
foreboding and foreshadowing. This literary device within the excerpt hints at
a heightened environmental consciousness. Mangoshi's father's cryptic responses
such as 'The flower will be harder to find this time' (p.30) imply a change in
the natural world, due to human activities. However, the critical point here is
that whereas Mangoshi's father laments about the tedious energy dispensed in
the act of felling trees in the land, the same attention is not given to
finding remedies to the negative consequences of environmental degradation that
have befallen the land.
Okri's
representation of the forest as a particular landscape offers a path to
understanding relationships between humans and nature in specific historical
and cultural contexts while enabling one to recognize alternative environmental
consciousness revealed in African literary aesthetics.
Environmental
Degradation in Okri's The Famished Road and Every Leaf A Hallelujah
Environmental despoliation is a critical motif
within African Literary Environmentalism, focusing on the degradation and
destruction of the environment in the African context. This motif highlights
the harmful impact of human activities, such as deforestation, pollution, and
resource exploitation, on Africa's natural ecosystems and biodiversity. A
primary concern among environmental writers centers on environmental
degradation caused by tree felling exercises and harmful human activities. The
novel's title serves as a recurring theme, highlighting this degradation and
its impact. Every Leaf A Hallelujah symbolically emphasizes the
significance of preserving biodiversity within the landscape. The plot explores
the adverse consequences of deforestation within the region's forests.
The land was burnt, trees were fallen, and there were no
bushes for long distances all around. At first, she was Surprised at what she
saw: the dryness, the ash of vines, the broken earth. Trees had been uprooted, and many had been
cut and their broken trunks lay among their resplendent branches on cracked
earth. (p. 38)
The
above shows an image of the ecological degradation of the whole forest. The
local community where Mangoshi belongs is being endangered by woodcutting
activities, the forestry-related activities are reduced, and their access to
the magical flower of healing. "Trees had been uprooted, and many had been
cut and their broken trunks lay among their resplendent branches on the cracked
earth” (p.38). The transition from the forest as a lived-in space to Alien
territory implies its inhabitant’s abandonment due to logging practices and the
loss of a long-established way of seeing the forest as life-giving:
I know the flower you want. Your people have destroyed
the forest so much that I am not sure you could find it anymore. It grows in
special places and is very rare... (p.44)
The
conversation above conveys a deep ecological and metaphorical message. It uses
the language and image of a rare flower to symbolize not only the physical
destruction of the forest but also the broader idea of environmental Harmony
and balance. The 'flower' mentioned here represents something precious and
delicate in the environment, perhaps symbolizing the overall health and
biodiversity of the forest. The reference to 'how your people have destroyed
the forest' (p.44) suggests human impact on the environment. It implies that
human activities, like deforestation, have had a detrimental effect on the
ecosystem. The idea that the flower can only grow “when the forest is healthy
and happy” (p.45) underscores the interdependence between different elements of
nature. It emphasizes that the well-being of the forest is essential for the
existence of such delicate and rare entities.
The
present situation of the forest is a reminder of the extinction of the richness
associated with spiritual life and natural resources in Postcolonial Nigeria.
Okri's forest conveys anxiety about the danger of deforestation for the people
in that community and ecology. This
enables one to recognize a trajectory of colonial legacies that link cultural
crisis to ecological degradation.
Bushes were being burnt, tall grasses cleared, tree
stumps uprooted. The area was changing. Places that were thick with bush and
low trees were now becoming open spaces of soft river-sand. In the distance I
could hear the sounds of dredging, of engines, of road builders, forest
clearers, and workmen chanting as they strained their muscles. (p.104)
In
Okri's The Famished Road, Azaro describes significant alterations to the
natural landscape, such as burning bushes, clearing tall grasses, and uprooting
tree stumps. These actions represent a form of environmental degradation where
natural habitat is destroyed. However, the dislocation, from dense bush and low
trees to open-spaced soft river-sand, represents a shift from a biodiverse
ecosystem to a more barren, less hospitable environment. This transformation
can be seen as symbolic of the broader impact of industrialization and
development on the African landscape. It depicts the loss of natural beauty and
ecological diversity. The sound of dredging, engines, road builders, and forest
clearers in the distance conveys the relentless push of development. This
auditory imagery highlights the omnipresence of industrial activities and their
invasive nature. The chanting of workmen straining their muscles adds a human
element, suggesting that people are both agents and victims of environmental
change. This duality is a common theme in African literary environmentalism,
where human labor is often depicted as both a driver of and a response to
environmental transformation. Also, the passage implicitly critiques the notion
of modernization and progress. While development projects like road building
and dredging are often seen as signs of progress, they come at a significant
environmental cost. This critique aligns with the themes of African Literary
environmentalism, which questions the sustainability and ethical implications
of rapid modernization on African landscapes.
I got to the edge of the forest and heard trees groaning
as they crashed down on their neighbours. I listened to trees being felled deep
in the forest and heard the steady rhythms of axes on hard, living wood. The
silence magnified the rhythms. (p.137)
Azaro
vividly depicts the anthropogenic (human-caused) impact on nature through the
act of tree felling. The imagery of trees “groaning” and “crashing down on
their neighbors” personifies the trees, suggesting a sense of suffering and
distress. This personification evokes empathy and highlights the violence
inflicted upon the natural environment by human activities. The act of felling
trees in the forest depicts deforestation, which has significant ecological
consequences. The “steady rhythms of axes on hard living wood” (p.137)
emphasize the relentless and systemic nature of this destruction. The mention
of silence magnifying the rhythms of axes striking wood adds a layer of
poignancy to the scene. The silence depicts the natural state of the forest,
which is being disrupted by human intervention. This contrast between silence
and the sound of axes amplifies the sense of intrusion and disturbance. Azaro's
depiction of trees being felled "deep in the forest" is perceived as
an invasion of sacred spaces. Hence, the destruction of forests is seen not
only as an ecological loss but also as a cultural and spiritual one.
Sometimes I played in the forest. My favourite place was
the clearing. In the afternoons the forest wasn’t frightening,
though I often heard strange drums and singing and trees groaning before they
fell. I heard the axes and drills in the distances. And every day the forest
thinned a little. The trees I got to know so well were cut down and only their
stumps, dripping sap, remained. (p.143)
Azaro's
fondness for playing in the forest, particularly in the clearing, signifies a
deep personal connection with nature. The forest is not just a physical space
but a source of joy, adventure, and solace for Azaro. The description of the
forest thinning “a little” every day and the once familiar trees being reduced
to stumps “dripping sap” depicts the slow and relentless process of
environmental degradation. This gradual destruction emphasizes the cumulative
impact of deforestation, a key concern in African literary environmentalism.
The ongoing loss of trees and natural spaces signifies a slow but persistent
erosion of the environment. The sounds of “strange drums and singing”, “tree
groaning”, and “axes and drills in the distance” (p.143) create an auditory
destruction of the landscape. These sounds contrast with the natural
tranquility of the forest, symbolizing the invasive and disruptive nature of
human activities.
The
mention of “strange drums and singing” hints at the cultural and spiritual
dimensions of the forest. In many African cultures, forests are not only
ecological spaces but also hold a significant cultural and spiritual meaning.
The intrusion of industrial sounds into this space depicts a disruption to
these cultural and spiritual connections.
Although,
Okri's forest is not only a locale where the supernatural is situated and
revealed but also a place where local issues are conflated. Eccard (2008), in
his essay “African Historicities: Okri's Three-Volume Cycle”, argues that the
goal of Okri's novels is "not to simply reclaim local tradition for the
sake of the local audience, or to rethink the world through a post-colonial
perspective” (p.145). He continues, “Okri's land must grow out of the land, out
of the indigenous beliefs and practices of the people who suffer and struggle
while acknowledging the global significance of a local historical consciousness
and the local significance of a global historical consciousness” (p.149).
Following
Eccard's commentary on Okri's novel that underscores the global making of local
histories and vice versa. Hence, Okri's forest as a site depicts the indigenous
African beliefs on supernatural and global environmental issues.
And before I go”, said Mangoshi, “tell me what happened
to you. Why are you fallen?” "Human
beings came and cut me down”. “But why?” "To sell me and make money”. “But
if they do that there will be no forest left (p.45).
The
above conversation depicts the socio-economic concerns that influence man's
actions and endanger the environment and man. The symbolic character laments
the logging activities that have destroyed the trees in the forest. Okri
deploys the usage of language that enables the thinking about the
"impacts" that humans have on the environment, “Human beings came and
cut me down”... (p.45) Mangoshi's inquiry into the fallen entity's plight
catalyzes exploring the destructive consequences of human actions on the
environment. The non-human element reveals that it was cut down by humans
driven by the pursuit of profit.
This
exchange prompts a deeper reflection on the underlying motivations and
priorities that often prioritize financial gain over the preservation of
nature. By expressing concern about the potential disappearance of the forest
due to such practices, Mangoshi highlights the interconnectedness of ecosystems
and the broader environmental implications of deforestation. The excerpt offers
a poignant critique of the exploitative tendencies that endanger the delicate
balance between humans and the natural world.
Conclusion
The
engagement, in this article, with Ben Okri’s The Famished Road and Every Leaf A Hallelujah has
articulated the uniqueness of the African environmentalist perspective on the
relationship between man and his environment. Through the milieus presented in
the studied texts, a profound nexus is established between literature,
culture, and environmental consciousness that validate the expediency of
reframing the relationship between man and nature. Unlike his progenitors, Okri
contemporises the state of the relationship between man and nature by
presenting a fractured ecosystem precipitated by the carelessness and
callousness of man. The paradox in the texts is that while man is oblivious to
destroying himself by destroying nature, nature helplessly groans for an
advocacy that will halt man’s vicious onslaught. The novelist’s panacea for the
ailment that is ravaging the universe, orchestrated by nature's despoliation
and neglect, remains in his reaffirmation of the folk relationship between man
and his environment. Understandably, Okri’s sympathy for nature catalyzes his
subtle call for nature preservation in Every Leaf A Hallelujah, for
instance. Perhaps, in his future outings, Okri will consider refining this
advocacy so that it does not slide into a westernised stance on ecology which
is not in tandem with the African cultural beliefs and ethos.
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