THE FEELINGS OF THE POETS IN RELATION TO THE BASTARDISED ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The Niger Delta of Nigeria covers twenty thousand square kilometres comprised mainly of rainforests and wetlands of thousands of kilometres square formed primarily by sediment deposition. It provides home to twenty million people of forty ethnic groups. This floodplain makes up 7.5% of Nigeria’s total land mass. It is the largest drainage basin in Africa. The Delta’s environment can be broken into four ecological zones of coastal barrier islands, mangrove swamp forest, fresh water swamps and lowland rainforest. This incredible well-endowed ecosystem contains one of the highest concentrations of bio-diversity on the planet. In addition it supports abundant flora and fauna; its arable terrain sustains a wide variety of crops, lumber or agricultural trees and many more species of fresh water fish than any ecosystem in West Africa (Isaac Okonta and Oronto Douglas 2003, p. 60-61). According to Enoch Okpara (2004: p.1), the Delta region of Nigeria is “a fan shaped alluvial area, which in other words, is a seaward extension of the flood plain of the River Niger”.
This region has therefore become a centre of focus for the Nigerian government and companies because of its mineral deposits. Nigeria generates billions of naira from oil extraction from the area.
Though the country depends greatly on the proceeds from oil extraction, little or no compensation is given to the land owners. The people wallow in abject poverty. Life becomes difficult for the inhabitants while the exploiters live in affluence. In the words of Jasper Onuekwusi in “Tears and Agony of a Waterside Poet”, “life in the Delta region of Nigeria constitutes an interesting irony”. Health hazards from environmental degradation become the order of the day. Water is poisoned in the process of oil extraction endangering the life of aquatic organisms.
The Niger Delta environment, therefore, is unsafe, which means it must be protected to avoid its being destroyed because of the role it plays in human and non-human lives within it. Both human and non-human organisms are also inter-related. Barry Commoner says “the first law of Ecology is that everything is connected to everything else” (qtd in Rueckett, 1978p.108). Accordingly, human beings for instance depend on biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem for survival. Similarly, plants and some bacteria depend on the energy from the physical environment for their well-being. This reveals the inter-relatedness and inter-dependence of living organisms in the environment in which land is very essential.
1.1.1 Land as a Component of the Environment
Of all the components of the environment which comprises land, air and water, land plays a very important role in supporting human beings and other creatures. According to Kumar Anil De and Kumar Arnab De (2004:62) “land is one of the most important components of life support system…”. Land is known worldwide as Mother Earth which should not be trampled upon.
Land serves a lot of functions that include agriculture, forestry, vegetation, human settlement, road construction, industries, mining etc. Ngugi Wa Thiong’O (1981) posits that “the basis of human communities ‘is the soil, land’. Without the soil, without land, without nature there is no human community”(7). Emphasising the importance of land, Kumah Garg and Ranjini Garg (2008) say:
…… along with sunlight, air and water, the soil supports
all living beings on Earth … all higher terrestrial plants
and vegetables have their roots in the soil, from which
they absorb life – sustaining water and nutrients … all
animals including humans, in turn depend on plants
for food either directly or indirectly …. A nation’s
economic prosperity is closely related to the
fertility and abundance of its soil resources. (93)
The forest is part of the land. It supports several environmental services to man such as its medicinal value. “From the forest and wilderness come tonics and herbs which brace mankind” (Shearer and Starke, 1994 p. 310). The forest also provides a sanctuary for freedom fighters. In most of Ngugi’s novels, like Weep not Child, A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood, the forest provided a sanctuary, staging post or base from which freedom fighters launched their guerrilla attacks against the British colonial authorities during the Mau Mau insurrection in Kenya in the ‘60s.
Aside from its medicinal, recreational and military values, the forest is of economic importance to man. Timber for construction and furniture works are derived from the forest. Pulp for paper and fuel for heating and cooking also come from the forest. Garg and Garg (2008) posit that “the forest provides certain ecological services such as the production of oxygen which human beings and other living organisms use for their survival”. They add that “the forest helps to renew the atmosphere and that is why the forests are called the ‘lungs’ of the Earth” (2008: p.82). The forest also provides natural habitat for animals and plants. Dangerous animals like the manatee and pygmy hippopotamus take their shelter in the forest. It also binds the soil particles firmly in plants’ roots.
Although the environment is very essential for the survival of both humans and other living organisms, it is humans who have caused destruction to the environment, exploiting it for their selfish interest, leading to environmental crises. These ‘man-made’ disasters include “accelerated population growth, increased urbanisation, with their accelerated increase in demand for food and natural resources” (Shearer and Starke, 1994p. 362).
Environmental degradation occurs as a result of undesirable changes in the environment which could be harmful to human beings and other living organisms. According to Philip Bagu (2010), environmental degradation is “a process through which the natural environment is compromised in some way, reducing biological diversity and the general health of the environment” (189). The effects of environmental degradation include destruction of the beauty of the environment, loss of top soil, ozone depletion, climate change, acid rain, oil spills, water pollution, air pollution, deforestation etc. It equally affects the health of humans and other living organisms which can lead to death. Since environmental crises plague the world and threaten human existence, some ecologically-minded individuals have had a rethink over our damaging attitude towards the environment in order to put a stop to it. Accordingly, poets like Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide and Ibiwari Ikiriko use their poetry to reflect on the feelings and hazardous life the citizenry have had to undergo as a result of the environmental degradation precipitated by their exploiters. They have also used their poetry to protest against the authorities of the State for the injustice and oppression meted out on the people as a result of the degradation of the environment. No wonder Niyi Osundare (2007 p.7) says in The Writer as Righter that “a writer is always in constant conflict with oppression”. These poets see their environment as being sick and so it needs to be salvaged through the use of their poetic imagination. They are doing for their people what George Gordon did for England when he observes the deplorable condition of his land says “England is sick and English literature must save it” (qtd in Ushie, 2001 p.3-26). Therefore, this work focuses not only on environmental degradation but also explores the craftsmanship employed by these poets in their poems selected for this study.
THE FEELINGS OF THE POETS IN RELATION TO THE BASTARDISED ENVIRONMENT