Ecocriticism in African Literature: A Reassessment

Abstract

The explosion of functional and aesthetic expressions of environmental sensibilities in African literature may be said to have rendered ecocriticism an entrenched model for assessing literature by Africans and about Africa. However, significant elements, such as the noticeable absence of academic positions, conferences, journals, and curricular of literary environmental scholarship in Africa's major academic institutions, render Africa's literary environmentalism of little impact. Through an eclectic review of literature on African literary environmental criticism and imagination, from 2007 to date, this study concludes with the submission that although ecocriticism flourishes in individual African thoughts - evident in their imaginative and critical writings - it exerts very limited impact on the overall African consciousness. The argument in this paper is, therefore, for a regular convergence of ideas on the state of African literature and the environment, and for the inclusion of environmental studies in literature and the humanities of various African universities and colleges, practices that have fast gained currency in other regional and global literature.