African Eco Responses

Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses
Author(s): William Slaymaker

Source: PMLA, Vol. 116, No. 1, Special Topic: Globalizing Literary Studies (Jan., 2001), pp.
129-144
Published by: Modern Language Association
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I 6. I
Ecoing the Other(s): The Cal

and Black African Respons
WILLIAM SLAYMAKER
The call of the other is a call to come, and that

voices.
-Jacques Derrida, "From Psyche: Invention of the Other" (343)
N THE 1990S THE GLOBAL GROWTH OF LITERATURE AND
criticism devoted to environmental and ecological topics w

phenomenal. In North America, the United Kingdom, Japan, an
elsewhere, professional societies are dedicated to the study of the in
relations of literature and the environment. It is now a subject topi
the MLA International Bibliography. It has its own library of anth
gies and readers for undergraduate classes. Scholarly journals have
voted special issues to its debates, and they document its concerns
critical paradigms. The summer 1999 issue of New Literary History,
voted to ecocriticism, is a prime example of the interest in this recent
proach to literary and cultural studies (Ecocriticism). PMLA in Oct
1999 provided a Forum on "literatures of the environment" compose
fourteen letters in which scholars who practice ecocriticism outlin
their approaches and concerns. The Association for the Study of Lit
ture and Environment (ASLE), which was formed in 1992 with abo
WILLIAM SLAYMAKER teaches literature thirty members, had a global membership of one thousand by the en
and philosophy at Wayne State College. 1998. "Ecocrit" and "ecolit" have arrived and resonated throughout
His publications include essays on the world literary establishment.'
liberation aesthetics of Appiah and
The practices of ecoliterature and ecocriticism have develop
Mudimbe (Research in African Litera-
from a world literary tradition of writing about nature and the envi
tures, 1996) and of Ngugi (Symploke,
2000). This essay is from a book-length ment. Wordsworth, Thoreau, Li Po, and Bash6 are among the b
project on the landscapes of liberation known examples. In the twentieth century a global canon of write
in black Atlantic poetry. have kept "eco" themes, images, and styles before the eyes of read
? 2001 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA I29
PMLA
I30 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses
Gary Snyder (United States), Miyazawa Kenji and the Formation of American Culture, offers
(Japan), Valentin Rasputin (Russia), Colin John- four criteria that distinguish the tradition of na-
son (or Mudrooroo Narogin; Australia), J. M. ture writing from that of literature inspired by
Coetzee (South Africa). Patrick Murphy's ency- environmental and ecological concerns. First,
clopedic Literature of Nature: An International Buell argues, environmental writing, in con-
Sourcebook exemplifies and references the trast to nature writing, assumes the presence of
global nature of this critical approach. The es- natural history in human history. The next cri-
says in this collection range from the People's terion for genuine environmental texts is that
Republic of China to the Caribbean. Three es- they open spaces for the nonhuman and its "in-
says deal with African literature and the en- terests," sometimes privileging a nonandro-
vironment. Written by three young African centered world and its distinct evolution and
women scholars, these essays are evidence that history. Third, environmental writing imports
African academic criticism has responded to a into the text an ethical orientation that makes
global call for literary scholarship on environ- human beings responsible for the environment
mental topics. and accountable for its health and continua-
As the title and the content of Literature of tion. Finally, the environmental text assumes
Nature reveal, no distinct boundary separates the processual order of nature and critiques or
traditional nature writing from ecological or en- avoids a static model of natural change and
vironmental writing. Much of the interest in the ecological transformations (7-8). In relation to
English Romantic poets, in Thoreau's intellec- these four criteria, he takes up the issue of a
tual heirs, or in the venerable heritage of Chi- "doubly otherized" natural environment, in
nese and Japanese nature poetry spills over into which nonhuman others are seen as alien and
ecoliterature and ecocriticism. Purist ecocritics, the domination of nonwhites by white men
however, often insist that the explanatory mod- is reinforced when it is symbolically associ-
els and the methods of biology and related ated with the conquest of a savage wilderness
sciences be used in literary and essayistic depic- (20-21).
tions of ecological and environmental problems. Buell's contrastive definitions of nature and
For the purists it is not enough to love nature or environmental writing and of their theoretical
to describe Wordsworthian rambles through postures provide an insight into some of the dif-
pastoral landscapes; nor is it sufficient to mount ficulties of interpretive conversion. To move
a cultural critique of ruralism or pastoralism like from nature writing and nature criticism to envi-
the one in Raymond Williams's canonical work ronmental writing and ecological criticism re-
of literary criticism The Country and the City.2 quires paradigm remodeling and retooling that
The creative literary work and the analytic liter- involve the integration of interdisciplinary
ary essay should deal with environmental and knowledge into literature and its interpretations.
ecological issues, and their authors should be Also, most ecocritics insist on a concern for
prepared to import the environmental sciences nonhuman others that mandates an involvement
and cultural theories derived from various con- in current controversies about agency, subjectiv-
ceptual explanatory systems and disciplines:ity, moral standing, and a host of competing and
Marxism, anthropology, geography, poststruc-contesting ecological causal models that often
turalism, philosophy, postcolonialism, femi-resist simplification and clarification. Ecocritics
nism, and others. and authors of environmental literature often es-
Lawrence Buell, in his carefully crafted pouse political and philosophical agendas that
and thoroughly researched work The Environ- criticize human intervention in and instrumen-
mental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, talization of nature.
I 6. I William Slaymaker 131
Karl Kroeber's book on the British Roman- and others can be found in the essays in Writing
tic poets, Ecological Literary Criticism: Ro- the Environment: Ecocriticism and Literature
mantic Imagining and the Biology of Mind, is a (Kerridge and Sammells). In particular, Dominic
good example of how professional critics of theHead's essay "The (Im)Possibility of Ecocriti-
Euro-American literature of nature retool them- cism" points to the potential diffuseness of this
selves for an ecocritical approach. What sets approach, which combines literary theory and
Kroeber's ecocriticism apart from other literary ecology or environmentalism within the contra-
theoretical approaches to the English Romantic dictions of cultural postmodernity. Head points
poets is not only his emphasis on the discourses out the complexities involved in ecologizing the
of nature that are linked to eighteenth- and landscape while deprivileging a Western point
nineteenth-century Romanticism but also his of view and recentering the narrative of the land
reliance on a vocabulary and worldview es- to include the narrative viewpoint of the other,
tablished by ecology and the politics of envi- both native other and land as other. This type of
ronmentalism. Kroeber claims a concern for complex literary theorizing, Head contends, is
biological sciences in his analysis of the poetry
the critical strategy of such white South African
writers
of Byron, Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth. His as Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee
(28). An examination of Coetzee's Life and
thesis is that these poets and their contempo-
Times
raries were "proto-ecologists" who developed a of Michael K allows Head to conclude
that Buell's four criteria of true ecoliterature-
natural-process philosophy of human interde-
pendence with the environment. Kroeber'sespecially
ap- the attempt of the critic and writer to
proach is clearly mapped out in his concluding
escape anthropocentric dominations of the non-
human
chapter, "Biology of Mind and the Future of as well as of the human other-are diffi-
cult to sustain. Head's final claim and conclusion
Criticism." He argues that ecological criticism
is a global activity that eschews the narrowly
are that ecocritical enterprises are fraught with
nationalistic, ethnic, or ideological agenda (140).
incoherencies and contradictions, especially the
He rejects in the name of ecological criticism
constellations of complexities that swirl around
"popular reductionism that goes no farther agency
than and subjectivity and the other. Ecocritics
'otherness"' (141). His cultural-critical project
tend to lead their readers into labyrinthine meta-
advocates the universalist and scientific-progress
physical landscapes, only to return to the much
paradigm of merging literary texts and environ-
maligned center without having found a way out.3
mental concerns. Adopting Gerald Edelman's
Indeed, the other in the various senses used
biological methodologies and metaphors, Kroe-
in this essay-in references to human and non-
ber constructs from Edelman's theory of "Neural
human others and their discourses of identity
Darwinism" an explanation for the growthand
of difference that accept, promote, or resist
human consciousness as a natural evolutionary
alien subjectivities and agents-is, as Derek At-
event that connects human beings to nature and points out in his recent PMLA article, "In-
tridge
animals in ways that the English Romantic
novation, Literature, Ethics: Relating to the
poets attempted to describe in their natureOther,"
po- an "overworked phrase in current aca-
etry. Obviously, Kroeber extends his argument
demic discourse" (21). Nevertheless, Attridge
far outside the bounds of literary critical makes
con- use of Derridean and Levinasian con-
ventions into interdisciplinary areas that are of "creating the other" as an exercise in
cepts
philosophical, scientific, and political and thus
empowering, causing to speak, and lending
controversial and contested. agency to existants who have little or no voice.
A good overview of the distinguishing fea- Attridge comes to the conclusion that innovative
tures of ecocriticism as practiced by Kroebercriticism and literature can lead to creatively
132 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses IPMLA
responsible acts. These acts compose the "every- scribes or analyzes the extraordinary megafauna
day impossibility" that he discusses in the con- and megaflora of East and South African savan-
cluding section of his essay. There Attridge nas and forests, do not qualify as genuine ecolit
emphasizes the ethical responsibility of readers or ecocrit as Kroeber and Buell would define it.
of literature to accept aesthetic creations and in- The bulk of nature writing about sub-Saharan
ventions. His argument is a plea for and defense Africa-particularly as practiced by white writ-
of alterity and its acceptance. Attridge's conclu- ers-is connected with the Euro-American aca-
sion and rhetorical appeal to us to be good and demic literary traditions of thematizing landscape,
just as readers and writers also contain his ac- space, and conservationism and with popular
knowledgment that it is impossible for us to dis- conservationist narratives in books and films
charge our readerly responsibilities as good-will like Born Free, Gorillas in the Mist, and A Far
and good-faith promoters of the inventions of Off Place.
the other. Similar to Head's conclusion outlined Black African critics and writers have tra-
above, accepting the other can be literally self-ditionally embraced nature writing, land issues,
defeating and perhaps logically impossible.and landscape themes that are pertinent to na-
Othering is indeed fraught with complicationstional and local cultural claims and that also
and contradictions, but Head and Attridge agreefunction as pastoral reminiscences or even pro-
that readers and writers need to confront these jections of a golden age when many of the envi-
difficulties and engage in inventive interpretiveronmental evils resulting from colonialism and
discourses with the other. At least, this is whatthe exploitation of indigenous resources have
been remediated. A review of any number of
many, maybe most, ecolit and ecocrit practition-
ers profess: writing the contradictory and thebibliographies, literary histories, and antholo-
(im)possible in creative, innovative, and inter-gies of black African literature and criticism in
disciplinary ways. the past several decades will bear out this in-
In the canons of literature and literary criti-tense interest in the local recapture of a violated
cism issuing from sub-Saharan Africa since thenature. But there is no rush by African literary
1980s, the Green Wave has made landfall, espe- and cultural critics to adopt ecocriticism or the
cially in the white literary establishment inliterature of the environment as they are pro-
South Africa, where it has had a discernible im-mulgated from many of the world's metropoli-
pact. Mainly, however, the African echo oftan centers. For some black African critics,
global green approaches to literature and liter-ecolit and ecocrit are another attempt to "white
ary criticism has been faint. There is no lack of
out" black Africa by coloring it green. To some
writing in Africa that might fall under the rubric
African critics and writers, who directly partici-
of nature writing. Surveys and studies of Afri-pated in the liberation of their nation-states
can literary landscapes are legion. Christinefrom colonialism, what ecocriticism offers is
Loflin's African Horizons: The Landscapes of
not another theory of liberation like Marxism.
African Fiction is a prime example. Loflin usesRather, it appears as one more hegemonic dis-
the word environment as a descriptor and syn-course from the metropolitan West. For many
onym for surroundings in the sense of the phys-(but by no means all) black African writers and
critics, a theory of liberation entails and es-
ical landscape and ambience in which a narrative
character finds acceptance or alienation. Therepouses a liberation from Western literary theo-
is little in her book that relates to ecology, envi-
ries and their domination of literary themes,
ronmental degradation, and depredations of landimages, and language.4 Black African writers
and animals. Similarly, much African nature
take nature seriously in their creative and aca-
writing and criticism, especially the sort that de-demic writing, but many have resisted or ne-
I I 6. I William Slaymaker 133
glected the paradigms that inform much of something like an "art d'eco" that is culturally
global ecocriticism. The (siren?) call of the analogous to art deco as a decorative style cre-
Green Wave resounding through much of the ated and marketed in Europe and America.5 Art
literary world has been answered weakly by d'eco is the postmodern representation in West-
black African writers and critics. ern literature and film of the environmental
This ecohesitation has been conditioned in preservationist and conservationist impulses
that inspire audiences wearing green-tinted
part by black African suspicion of the green dis-
courses emanating from metropolitan Western glasses. There is a great deal of exotic appeal
and much hype in the efforts and advertise-
centers. Also, black African experiences of na-
ments to save the Serengeti for megafauna and
ture, it is often argued, are different and other.
the mountain environments of Burundi and
Indeed, there is good cause to worry that envi-
ronmentalism and ecologism are new forms of
eastern Zaire for the great apes. The narratives
that have promulgated these fashionable ap-
dominating discourses issuing from Western or
First World centers. And the suspicion that envi-peals for natural and environmental preserva-
tion are recognized and rewarded more often
ronmentalism in all its various shades of green
outside Africa than in.
(including red greens) is a white thing is borne
out by the explosive growth of research and par- It is also obvious to black African intellec-
ticipation in it by white scholars in and outside

tuals, as well as to their white counterparts, that
environmental justice, as a global paradigm,
Africa. This suspicion is despite the equally bur-
will be used in the world marketplace when de-
geoning Asian, particularly Japanese, interest in
cisions are made about production, consump-
environmental writing. Jhan Hochman's expla-
nation for the lack of enthusiasm for environ- tion of resources, and pollution caused by
modernization, industrialization, and popula-
mentalism and ecology by blacks in Africa and
in the diaspora appears in his introduction to tion growth. Environmentalism and ecologism
Green Cultural Studies: Nature in Film, Novel, threaten to dominate global economic policies
and Theory. Hochman claims that "whites have
in the new world order enforced by the World
more time for nature than blacks since blacks Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Westernized world financial and scientific cen-
must use a great deal of energy resisting or cop-
ing with white hegemony. Whites, more than
ters will define sustainability, biodiversity, pop-
blacks, also have greater access to some sem-
ulation control, and land responsibility. It is
blance of nature because blacks have beenwhat Guy Beney calls the "globalization temp-
tation,"
forced into urban areas for jobs" (190n22). Whator the risk of a new ecotechnocratic fas-
Hochman suggests, as many others have, cism
is that
imposed by northern powers on the Third
whites have more time, energy, and wealth
and for
Fourth Worlds in the name of a specious
scientism
appreciating and aestheticizing nature and the (192-93).
environment. Thus, it is only natural that whites
These global economic and political power
should mount a global campaign to preserve
moves in the names of ecologism and environ-
what gives them pleasure and is not tied to their
mentalism are the subject of many books and
daily subsistence. articles. Of particular relevance is an essay col-
lection
For many African writers and literary crit- edited by Fredric Jameson and Masao
ics, whose origins and interests lie in theMiyoshi,
mani- The Cultures of Globalization. An
fold cultures south of the Sahara and north of essay on African cultures by the African film
Pretoria, Eurocentered or Eurafricanized ecodis- and literature scholar Manthia Diawara in this
courses are another literary theoretical fashion volume,"Toward a Regional Imaginary in Africa,"
emanating from the Western academic elites, is concerned with domination of cultural markets
134 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses JPMLA
by Eurocentrists who impose restrictions and in literary criticism or art history, to let incom-
propose fashions to the detriment of local arti- mensurable points of view alone [. . .]" (167).
sans who wish to remain loyal to regional cul- Many black African critics and writers have fol-
tures and not switch allegiance to nation-states lowed Lohman's advice and have left ecocrit
artificially created by Europeans and their Afri- and ecolit alone. Silence creates its own space.
can puppets. In the same collection Ioan Davies's Because global ecologism and environmen-
"Negotiating African Culture: Toward a Decol- talism as cultural prerogatives are suspect for
onization of the Fetish" analyzes the construc- many black and white cultural critics, it is not
tion and deconstruction of African images and surprising that the movements' reception in the
icons by African philosophers like V. Y. Mu- black African literary world has been meager.
dimbe and Kwame A. Appiah. Davies concludes However, it is important to note the exceptions
that ecopreservationist schemes seen in films and the growing interest in ecocriticism and lit-
like Gorillas in the Mist or Born Free are confir- erature of the environment among some writers.
mations of colonial fetishes that continue to be
In Bernth Lindfors's bibliographic reference
purveyed to a broad audience in Europe andBlack African Literature in English, 1987-1991,
America (141). But more important is Davidthe subject guide reveals scant attention to
Harvey's essay "What's Green and Makes the"ecology" (one entry), "environment" (five en-
Environment Go Round?" Harvey lucidly dis- tries), "landscape" (eight entries), and "nature"
cusses the use of ecology as a social and scien- (nine entries), while the subjects that deal with
tific movement that provides expert "neutral"colonialism in all its incarnations, with political
knowledge for purposes of dominating global ideologies and personalities, and with gender
resources.6 These three essays point to conclu-have attracted substantial interest from writers
sions that some black African critics and writers and critics involved in black African literature
have already drawn: ecolit and ecocrit are impe- in Africa and abroad. For example, the Nigerian
rial paradigms of cultural fetishism that misrep- poet Niyi Osundare, an avowed ecoactivist and
resent the varied landscapes of sub-Saharan a writer on a wide range of environmental prob-
Africa. These misaligned icons of the natural lems, is the primary subject of fifty-two entries
other are invasive and invalid and should be re- and secondary subject of another fifteen during
sisted or ignored. the five years that the bibliography covers. But
Larry Lohman makes an even stronger case only one directly addresses Osundare's central
against the reextensions of forms of imperial environmental themes: "The Poet as Ecologist:
and colonial domination from centers to under- Osundara's Forest of a Million Wonders" (entry
developed regions. In his essay "Resisting Green 19508; 467). There are several reasons for this
Globalism" he decries the new intellectualized superficial recovery of one of Osundare's main
imperialism harbored by an environmentalist literary themes. While he was graced with a
agenda that issues from Western desires for the Noma Prize in 1991, which put him into the sec-
control and containment of land and natural ondary tier of the African canon,7 he has not
resources. While discrediting global environ-
achieved the status and visibility of his Nobelist
mentalism, he opts, much like Attridge, for an
compatriot Wole Soyinka. And the period 1987-
openness to indeterminate responsibilities in re-
91 may be considered to mark only the incep-
lation to the claims of the other. He argues that of interest in ecolit and ecocrit in black Af-
tion
a more just global arrangement of relations
rican literary circles.
would defend "an intercultural space which is Osundare is the best example of a black Af-
rican writer, critic, and academic whose creative
not a language nor a system nor an attitude, but
rather a readiness, such as that found in the West
energy is focused on environmental and ecolog-
i i6. i William Slaymaker 135
activities.
ical issues. Still, typical reviews of This
his ispoetry
mainly because
do Saro-Wiwa's
reputation asor
not examine in detail his ecological ecoactivist
environ-spread largely after
mental themes, which are evident
1991, the endin
datehis 1986 study. But even
of Lindfors's
collection of poems The Eyeinof
1999 Saro-Wiwa's
the literary
Earth and in(not political)
his later creative work. What interests critics fame rested on novels and short stories that sati-
of Osundare's nature poetry most is his critiquerize Nigerian political corruption and not on his
of political corruption in Nigeria, his support ofecological or environmental themes. In Basi and
peasants and farmers and others who live on andCompany, one of his best-known novels, which
off the land, and his thematic examinations ofbecame a popular Nigerian television series, the
history and revolution. For example, Aderemi environment is Lagos; nature is almost absent.
Bamikunle categorizes Osundare as a natureThe stories in his collection A Forest of Flowers
poet interested in both Edenic and exploitedare antipastorals that do not celebrate rural life
West African landscapes, but he does not go soin Nigeria but criticize its narrowness and su-
far as to use the words ecology and environmentperstitions. Saro-Wiwa's ecoactivism was re-
in any of their current incarnations in the devel- served for his public political activities and
oping lexicon of ecocrit and ecolit. In an essay finds expression in his political statements
on the poet by J. O. J. Nwachukwu-Agbada,Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy and A
however, there is one direct reference to the Month and a Day: A Detention Diary. Saro-
theme of ecology: "[. . .] Osundare would likeWiwa's literary works do not, as Rob Nixon has
that which is worthy such as the earth's ecologyargued they do, promote an "instrumental aes-
to be conserved and our capitalist tradition which thetics" whereby literary expression becomes a
is retrogressive to be done away with" (79).tool for environmental change. Nor is it accurate
Nwachukwu-Agbada's thesis is that Osundare's to claim, as Nixon does, that Saro-Wiwa "was
best work, The Eye of the Earth, connects Niger- the first African writer to articulate the literature
ian wisdom lore and folktales with a sympathyof commitment in expressly environmental
for all exploited peoples of the world, includingterms" (43). In a recent collection of poems and
the oppressed working class and especially peas-essays on Saro-Wiwa edited by Abdul-Rasheed
ant farmers in Nigeria. Accordingly, Osundare'sNa'Allah, Ogoni's Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and
poetic and political task is to use poetry as an the Crisis in Nigeria, there are several poems by
instrument to communicate with and for others African academics, poets, and critics that ex-
in language and images that are rural and tradi- press in literary form the ecological problems
tional and not hermetic and elitist or overly af- Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni have faced in the oil-
fected by Eurocentered poetic discourses (84-85). rich Delta region of Nigeria.8 The overall inter-
Nwachukwu-Agbada only momentarily focuses est in Saro-Wiwa's literary environmentalism in
on environmentalism in Osundare's poetry be- this collection of almost seventy poems, analy-
fore moving to other themes that seem more in- ses, and tributes by prominent scholars and
teresting and important. writers is limited, but obviously his ecoactivism,
A similar review of Lindfors's bibliography while not literary, has inspired African writers
for the subjects of nature, ecology, and the envi- and scholars to compose and publish environ-
ronment in the work of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the mentalist poetry.
martyred African writer associated throughout Wole Soyinka responded sharply to the po-
the world with ecoactivism and bioregional re- litical execution of Saro-Wiwa in November
sistance to multinational corporations and cor- 1995. Soyinka's diatribe against political cor-
rupt governments, shows that none of the 105 ruption in Nigeria, The Open Sore of a Conti-
entries focuses on Saro-Wiwa's environmental nent, particularly the epilogue, titled "Death of
136 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses PMLA
an Activist," vents his anger not just about an tics take up the problems of land distribution,
unjust execution but also about the exploitation colonialist alienation of land, and reparations
of natural resources on traditional Ogoni lands due African cultures that have been robbed of
and about other misuse of land. Similar state- their human and natural resources. He examines
ments can be found in his later and less strident ecological and environmental issues in chapter 11
The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgive- of The Africans, where, under the heading "The
ness, where he attacks the indigenous and for- Frozen Ecology of Capitalism," he refers to the
eign interests responsible for fouling the "winter gap," or absence of cold weather in
Nigerian landscape. For example, he cites a tin Africa, as a cause contributing to the lack of
mine near Jos, in north central Nigeria, accusing capital development on the continent. In essence,
the mining company of "violating virgin spaces Mazrui makes a complex causal argument con-
and wreaking ecological devastation" (140). necting acculturation and acclimatization with
Soyinka's expressions of concern about ecology capitalization and explaining why Africa has
and environmentalism in his essays have few di- too much sun, too much and too little water, no
rect equivalents in his plays, poetry, and novels. Protestant work ethic, and little money for re-
His literary work connects his love of place and pair of environmental damage by human beings
his respect for culturally important natural sites and nature. Mazrui's unique views on environ-
around Ife, in western Nigeria, but it does not mentalism and human history are redeveloped
announce ecoactivist themes. However, Many in his essay "From Sun-Worship to Time-Worship:
Colors Make the Thunder-King, a recent drama Toward a Solar Theory of History," which he
by Soyinka's colleague and compatriot Femi wrote for delivery at an important 1991 Nairobi
Osofisan, makes dramatic environmentalist state- conference on ecology. Many of the other es-
ments about land and forest preservation. The says from this conference make strong African
dramatist's notes in the play program also plead ecophilosophical statements. In particular, Odera
for forest preservation.9 Oruka, who collected the conference papers in
Parallel to the incipient literary ecoactivism the volume Philosophy, Humanity and Ecology,
in Nigeria is the current state of ecology and en- makes a plea for "ecophilosophy and the pa-
vironmentalism in Kenya. In the media fore- rental earth ethics," which he developed from
front are Green Belt activists like Wangari the philosophical systems of Europe, Africa,
Maathai, who are often the focus of popular and elsewhere. Neither Mazrui's arguments nor
magazine articles and television documentaries Oruka's have had any discernible effect on Ken-
in the United States and elsewhere.10 Also, in yan writers of literature and literary criticism.
February 1999 university students fought police Ngugi has written a number of extremely
in Nairobi as a part of their protests against the influential essays on African literature and
planned destruction of pristine forests for hous- colonialism and postcolonialism. Decolonising
ing and business developments in the Nairobi the Mind and Moving the Centre have had a
metropolitan area. While these events garner great impact on literary and cultural studies in
considerable world attention, Kenyan literary and outside Africa. In these critical studies as
expressions of environmental concerns have not well as in his novel Matigari, Nguigi empha-
kept pace. Ngiug wa Thiong'o and Ali Mazrui sizes the natural relations of the Agikuyu to
are well-established Kenyan authors with inter- their land. Trees and forests are important as
national reputations who have examined land is- symbols of cultural preservation for Ngiigi, and
sues in their high-profile works. Mazrui's book forests symbolize haven and security for the
and video series The Africans as well as his Mau Mau. In his more recent statement Pen-
more academic Cultural Forces in World Poli- points, Gunpoints, and Dreams, Nguigi reprises
I 6. I William Slaymaker 137
versity. Restoring about

these central ideas and arguments the Land: Environment
nature. and
He does not translate his constant concern with Change in Post-apartheid South Africa, edited
the exploitation of East African land and ofby Mamphele Ramphele, is a good example of
Agikuyu culture into ecoactivist narratives or the racial balancing act in the past decade. Ram-
environmentalist essays-though even the phele outlines in her contribution, optimistically
world media report ecoactivist stories on thesetitled "New Day Rising," the reasons for the
subjects when doing an interview with Maathailack of black South African interest and partici-
or a news spot on student riots in Nairobi. Norpation in ecological concerns and movements:
does the critical industry that has grown upthe struggle for survival, lack of power, limited
around Ngugi and his literary and theoretical education on environmental problems, and focus
positions take up ecological or environmentalon crisis management (7). More important, Ram-
themes. For instance, the criticism on Ngugiphele finds greater interest now among blacks.
that appeared in the prominent journal Re- She asserts the need to listen to black South Af-
search in African Literatures in the 1990s isrican women, and she quotes a poem by a South
most interested in his statements about Euro- African woman involved in the liberation strug-
pean linguistic and cultural dominance of Afri-
gle that praises the beauty of the land and ex-
can languages and modes of thought.11 presses hope in a key line, which Ramphele
Ecology and environmentalism have beenadopted for her essay title: "new day rising o'er
the land" (8). Nonetheless, most of the articles
substantially present in white South African lit-
erature and literary criticism for almost a cen-
in Ramphele's collection are by white academ-
tury. Academic essays with titles like Andrew
ics and professionals who have made careers in
McMurry's "Figures in a Ground: An Ecofemi-
environmentalism. The intent to expand the spec-
trum of voices is obvious in the selection of
nist Study of Olive Schreiner's The Story of an
papers and presenters for the Association of
African Farm" are not infrequent. Julia Martin,
author of the creative essay "Long Live the
University English Teachers of Southern Africa
Fresh Air! Long Live Environmental Culture conference
in on the theme "Literature, Nature and
the New South Africa!" is perhaps the most the Land" held at the University of Zululand in
productive ecocritic in South Africa. And Mi-
July of 1992. The resulting publication, edited
chael Cope runs a green Web site, where he
by Nigel Bell and Meg Cowper-Lewis, shows
posts notes relevant to the study of the environ-
diverse ecological and environmental perspec-
ment in South Africa as well as his environmen-tives on literature, though in the majority of the
tally inspired poetry in Scenes and Visions,

conference papers white academics mainly from
particularly his poem "Three Degree Ecosutra."South Africa deal with white European and
South African authors.
His audience is obviously global and electroni-
cally immediate. The South African poet Mongane Wally
Interest in environmental topics in SouthSerote, now a member of Parliament for the Af-
Africa was not racially divided in the 1990s, but
rican National Congress, is an example of Ram-
the related scholarship has often been unbal-
phele's "new day rising." While his poetry is
anced. There are many good collections of essays
mainly linked to urban settings-the black town-
from the 1990s that deal with the environment,ships surrounding Johannesburg-and to Black
Consciousness aesthetics of the 1970s, Serote
ecology, and literary relations in South Africa.12
Black South African scholarship is underrepre-
continues to worry and muse about land issues,
sented in such volumes, but it is growing. The
such as mining abuse and environmental destruc-
editors of these collections are obviously seri-
tion propelled by colonialist and apartheid poli-
ous about racial and ethnic inclusiveness and di-
cies of land use. His lecture "National Liberation
138 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses PMLA
Culture, Environment and Literature," presented of African Literature does not refer to any liter-
in Harare at a book fair in 1989, announces and ary critical approaches that are allied to nature
outlines his environmental concerns. His argu- and the environment, nor is there any acknowl-
ment is that the lack of freedom and development edgment of the pertinence of ecocriticism in
among nonwhites in South Africa has created a Mineke Schipper's Beyond the Boundaries: Af-
hostile natural environment as well as a hostile
rican Literature and Literary Theory. Nothing
political one. The land has become uninhabit- of relevance to ecocriticism is to be found in
able, and the natural resources are no longer Eldred D. Jones's Critical Theory and African
available to the majority of the people who live Literature Today. There are no references what-
on the land. A democratic national liberation soever to nature, the environment, and ecology
would translate into a mass democracy where the
in the many critical collections that focus on
people could determine what should become ofblack African literature and criticism. The re-
views of African literature and criticism that
elephant tusks and trees. Serote is not a deep
ecologist but a developmentalist and anthro-
contain chapters on "trends," such as Neil Lazarus's
Resistance in Postcolonial African Fiction or
pocentrist who, from a typical African perspec-
tive, is concerned most about human benefit Jones's more recent New Trends and Genera-
through proper conservation of nature. Instru-tions in African Literature, do not list ecocriti-
cism or environmental literature as one of them.
mentalizing the other, the nonhuman sentient and
Jones's collection, though, includes his essay
nonsentient being, is the humanistic survival phi-
losophy that most African writers, like Serote,"Land, War, and Literature in Zimbabwe: A
express when they write about humanity in na-
Sampling," which touches on related topics and
is especially relevant when read in relation to
ture. Serote brings his political and philosophical
beliefs to life in his poems. The poem Come and Christine Ombaka's article "War and Environ-
Hope with Me exemplifies his environmental
ment in African Literature," in Patrick Mur-
concerns and his progressive, hopeful ap- phy's valuable reference work Literature of
proaches to land and ecological issues. This long
Nature. And Derek Wright's current Contempo-
poem also contains passages that function as
rary African Fiction does not consider ecotopics
atavistic pastoral visions of a South African land-
to be contemporary. There is no discussion of
scape before or separate from colonial invasions
ecology, the environment, or even nature in the
and Western industrial and modernizing distur-
recent publication Mapping Intersections: Afri-
bances. The poem sets the fecundity and fertilitycan Literature and Africa's Development, edited
of South African soil and of the earth in general
by Anne Adams and Janis Mayes. This collec-
in Edenic and arcadian forms that emphasize his tion of essays, sponsored by the African Litera-
plea for preservation of nature and for reconcilia-
ture Association, covers the literary topics and
tion between contesting cultural claims to thecritical approaches that the major critics and
land and its resources. scholars of African literature considered rele-
General anthologies, reviews, and sum-vant. The contributors do not link African devel-
maries of black African literary and critical
opment to environmental or ecological problems.'3
practice from the late 1980s through the 1990sNothing on nature, the environment, or ecology
bear out the thesis that global ecocritical re-
can be found in current literary histories and
sponses to what is happening to the earth have
journal surveys such as the issue on African lit-
had an almost imperceptible African echo. Books
erature and criticism in the Yearbook of Com-
that deal with black African literary criticism
parative and General Literature or the special
and literary theory rarely take up environmentalissue of Studies in Twentieth Century Literature
or ecological topics. Chidi Amuta's The Theorytitled Africa: Literature and Politics (Dehon).
An updated literary history edited by Oyekan

like their counterparts in North America, Eu-
rope, Japan, and India. In the new millennium
Owomoyela, A History of Twentieth-Century Af-
rican Literatures, has nothing to say about this
this globalized interest will perhaps be better
topic. Most good literary histories, such as Mi-
represented in cyberspace than in harder for-
chael Chapman's Southern African Literatures,
mats. The bilingual electronic journal Mots pluriels
and literary anthologies, such as African Rhap-
(supported by and issued from the University of
sody: Short Stories of the Contemporary Afri-
Western Australia) put together an issue on eco-
can Experience, edited by Ndezhda Obradovic,criticsm titled Ecologie, ecocritique et littera-
ture /Ecology, Ecocritic and Literature in which
do not point out, examine, or highlight environ-
mental or ecological themes. In African Rhap-many of the articles focus on African literature
sody no mention is made of Ken Saro-Wiwa's
(Jaccomard). One of them, a good example of
recent Afro-ecocriticism, is "The Flora and
ecoactivism even though his short story "Africa
Kills Her Sun" (1989), which is included in the
Fauna of Negritude Poetry: An Ecocritical Re-
reading," by Kwaku Asante-Darko, who con-
anthology along with biographical information,
deals with the execution of a Nigerian political
cludes that negritude poems "embody a pedagogy
activist and prophesies Saro-Wiwa's own execu-of ecological awareness" and have a "positive
tion in 1995. influence on the way readers are expected to
Anthologies, reviews, and summaries of
treat the environment."
black African literature and criticism reflect the Manthia Diawara has questioned the hu-
general absence of ecocriticism and literature of
manistic and utilitarian benefits that a global
the environment as noteworthy and attractive
and homogenized ecolit and ecocrit can offer
topics for research and creative writing in the
black Africans. He asks, "Should [Africans] be
academic and metropolitan communities of
interested in [ecocriticsm] because it is a global
Africanists and artists who have been active in phenomenon, or because it has a potential to en-
the past two decades. There are at least two lighten them, better their lives, or give them
causes for this gap: few black African writers pleasure?" (Reader's report). I think an answer
have picked up on ecocritical topics, and it was to this question may be found in Diawara's
mainly in the last decade of the twentieth cen- book In Search of Africa. Much of the book,
tury that young Africanist scholars began pub- particularly chapter 7, "Africa's Art of Resis-
lishing on this topic. The 1990s were the decade tance," is devoted to outlining a genuine con-
of rapid and global environmentalist literary temporary African aesthetics and to advocating
growth, and anthologies, literary histories, and the promotion of African art and artists in a free
the like are notoriously behind the times. Bibli- global marketplace as well as locally. Diawara
ographies of black African literature that appear defends free consumption and market moder-
in the first decade of the twenty-first century nity for black Africans, which he links to the
will likely reflect a significant growth of interest liberation of the self from oppressive postcolo-
in ecocriticism and environmental literature. nial and artificial nation-states in Africa. And
The low visibility of ecolit and ecocrit in recent he extols the possibilities for playful postmod-
black African writing is temporary. The green ern and postcolonial self-development by the
revolution will spread to and through communi- African artist who is both crafty and superbly
ties of readers and writers of African literature, skilled at a craft and who has a sophisticated
"ecoing" the booming interest in other parts of artwork to sell in the world market. This is a
the literary world. Black African ecocritics, consumer-craftsperson model that naturally
such as Niyi Osundare, are attuned to another, aligns itself with the global flows of ecolit
or an other, voice from the land and the wild, and ecocrit in cultural waves. Diawara's central
I40 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses PM~LA
arguments suggest that African creative writers is useful as a model for the acceptance of mes-
and literary or cultural scholars would benefit sages in an environment of suspicion hosted by
from the global environmental movement to the cultural critics such as Manthia Diawara, Domi-
same extent as a contemporary Japanese nature nick Head, and Eric Todd Smith. Using my own
poet or a German cultural critic. The artist or in- analogy, in which black African writers and
tellectual can buy and sell in the world market- critics echo, reflect, absorb, or avoid the green
place and maintain local and regional identities sound waves rumbling around the globe, I can
as well as playfully develop individual interests conclude that a choral response to the green
and aesthetic abilities. Selling artworks and global call is not static (noise). Instead, environ-
ideas in the world market does not necessarily mental literature and ecological criticism are a
entail selling out to dominating thought systems. resonating, dynamic signal generated by con-
Citing the African artists Sidime Laye and Cheri cern for the health of the earth and its resources.
Samba, Diawara shows how the African artist Consistent with Derrida's predication and pre-
can reap pecuniary and aesthetic gains from par- diction in the epigraph to this essay, the call of
ticipating in local, regional, and global markets the other is to come-its future is definite-but
simultaneously without loss of self-esteem. it will not be univocal. On the contrary, the call
Another answer to Diawara's utilitarian will be equivocal, with all the contradictions and
questioning of global cultural and environmen-
aporias as well as the celebrations of equality and
talism can be found in Attridge's tentative indefiniteness
con- that are heard in equivocation.'4
clusions outlined earlier in this essay. Especially
appropriate is Attridge's plea that aesthetic cre-
ations and inventions of the other be accepted
as resulting from a practice of the ethics of re-
NOTES
sponsibility. His defense of an altruistic aes-
thetics of alterity is an answer to Diawara's
1 The Chronicle of Higher Education on 9 August 1996
published a major article on ecolit and ecocrit titled "Invent-
skepticism about the global validity of environ-
ing a New Field: The Study of Literature about the Environ-
mentalism and its literary and cultural expres-
ment" (Winkler). This article identifies major controversies
sions. Benefits and values accrue to those who that played out in the New York Times Magazine in 1995 and
are open to other ways of seeing and doing. The mentions the critics and critical works that were note- and
critical attitudes forwarded by Wai Chee Dim- newsworthy up to mid-1996. Allison Wallace, secretary of
ASLE, supplied the membership statistics for the group,
ock in her article "A Theory of Resonance" can which demonstrate the rapid growth of interest in this liter-
be usefully appropriated here. Dimock argues ary and critical approach in the 1990s.
that literary texts and their interpretations "res- 2 Williams makes it clear in his later essays "Socialism
onate" across time and space with positive ef- and Ecology" and "Between Country and City," which ap-
fects. The enrichment and democratization of pear in Resources of Hope: Culture, Democracy, Socialism
(210-26; 227-37), that there is a need for a "green Social-
literary meanings and values by means of con- ism" that combines ecology and economics into a "single
tinual temporal and spatial transformations yield, science and source of values, leading on to a new politics of
in Dimock's view, a nuanced and vibrant caco- equitable livelihood" (237). Williams's last novels (People
of the Black Mountain, vols. 1-3), historical fiction about his
phony of literary sounds. Hearing literature
Welsh bioregion, only marginally qualify as environmental
against the background noises of science, pe- writing that illustrates the ecocritical theory and political
ripheral disciplines, and other voices strength- position he proposes in Resources of Hope and elsewhere.
ens its signal and audibility. Dimock's complex The projected third novel in the series-unfinished at his
transmission metaphor, which relates electronic death-involves the industrialization of agriculture and of
mining and is perhaps the only authentic work of literature
signal-to-noise ratios to readers' receptivity and
about the environment in the trilogy. See the postscript by
their attention to unclear and disrupting signals, Joy Williams at the end of volume 2 for an outline of the na-
i i 6.I William Slaymaker 141
ture and environmental themes that were planned for thewritten. The score now reads: "ecology" (no entries), "envi-
final volume. ronment" (twenty-four entries), and "nature" (no entries).
3 Eric Todd Smith in his essay "Dropping the Subject: Lindfors has no clear notion why the numbers have changed
Reflections on the Motives for an Ecological Criticism" re- so dramatically ("African Literature Inquiry").
states and amplifies Head's ecocritical skepticism. Smith 8 A review of Ogoni's Agonies reveals no ecocritical es-
briefly reviews the problem of locating and including the says, only a few ecopoems. In the foreword, Biodun Jeyifo,
other within the parameters of subjective human self-forma- a prominent Nigerian literary critic, does pay tribute to the
tion and its languages. He concludes that emancipatory oth- "political-ideological seismic shift" that has occurred in the
ering-letting nature and the environment speak through the past ten years as a result of concern for the "ecological sur-
writer and critic-is a suspect enterprise. vival of most of the people of our common earth" (xxiv).
4 The critical work Toward the Decolonization of Afri- Jeyifo considers global ecocriticism a "fad" that nonetheless
can Literature, by the Nigerian Bolekaja ("come down and has important implications for future African literary studies
fight") troika, Chinweizu, Onwuchekwa Jemie, and Ihe- (Personal interview). The poems "Ogoni People, the Oil
chukwu Madubuike, is one of the most controversial and Wells of Nigeria" (Olafioye) and "Ogoni, the Eagle Birds'
most commonly cited examples of anti-Western literary crit- Agony in the Delta Woods" (Na'Allah) are the best exam-
icism. Interestingly enough, Chinweizu was a research fel- ples of ecoliterature in the collection. They demonstrate the
low in environmental economics at the Massachusetts small but growing interest in this literary approach among
Nigerian
Institute of Technology in 1978-79. The book deals with the writers who, because of the sensationalism sur-
economics of African literature and criticism but not with rounding the Saro-Wiwa affair, have well-defined personal
any environmental themes or ideas. and political interests in environmental disasters in Nigeria.
5 In the 1920s proponents of art deco attempted to cap- In addition, there now exists a global audience for literature
ture markets for their artisanal goods, made in Paris and by Nigerians and others on Big Oil and local ecotragedies
Vienna and later New York. This art-and-craft movement at- suffered by the Ogoni people and its leaders. This is borne
tracted middle-class consumer interest by combining new out by the publication of Saro-Wiwa's last work and words
technologies of domestic craft production with an efflores- (A Month and a Day) by Penguin in London. Saro-Wiwa
cent botanical style that developed from the exoticized na- had published most of his work himself through the press he
ture popularized by Gauguin and other painters. There are founded and supported, Saros International, in Port Har-
striking similarities between art deco and popular forms of court, Nigeria.
environmental literature in their preservationist aesthetics of 9 Osofisan's play Many Colors Make the Thunder-King
a primitivized or primeval nature that nonetheless is highly was commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis,
stylized and rich in detail and color. and performed there in February and March 1997. His inter-
6 Harvey analyzes environmentalism as a suspect tool of pretive notes for the play, contained in the program, state,
globalism in his book Justice, Nature and the Geography of "Weaving together a number of Yoruba folk tales, I re-read
Difference. Especially pertinent are part 2, "The Nature of the whole story from an ecological perspective. And I dis-
Environment," and ch. 13, "The Environment of Justice." It cover [...] that most knowledge about the environment that
is noteworthy that Harvey's introductory "Thoughts for a we moderns are just now 'discovering,' had been written
Prologue" reproduces part of Adrienne Rich's ecopoem "An long ago, encapsulated in nuggets of mythical wisdom."
Atlas of the Difficult World." Another good monograph that 10 Maathai's essay "Foresters without Diplomas" at-
examines the specious discourses of global environmental- tracted a great deal of attention to her environmental activi-
ism is Kay Milton's Environmentalism and Cultural Theory. ties and the Kenyan women's Green Belt movement.
Ch. 5, "Globalization, Culture and Discourse," and ch. 6, Subsequently, Maathai along with her fellow Kenyan Mi-
"The Culture of Environmentalist Discourse," offer further chael Werikhe received the Goldman Ecological Prize.
arguments about "scientific imperialism," the mythical and Aubrey Wallace's book Eco-heroes: Twelve Tales of Envi-
mystical natures of globalist discourses, and the abuses that ronmental Victory provides brief biographies, interviews,
environmentalism lends itself to. and statements that explain the environmental activities and
7 Lindfors, a scholar of African literature at the Univer- interests of Wallace and the prize recipients. Maathai sur-
sity of Texas, Austin, claims that Osundare has reached faces fairly regularly in documentaries and interviews that
number 26 and is rising in Lindfors's ranking of anglophone focus on women, the environment, and grassroots self-help
African writers by interest and importance ("African Litera- movements in Africa and elsewhere.
ture Request"). Lindfors calculates African literary canons 1 Nguigi and Mazrui have spent much of their careers
when he compiles the bibliographic publication Black Afri- out of Africa; thus, they write about the margins from the
can Literature in English. It is interesting to note the "nature centers (London and New York, mainly) of academic em-
numbers" (the counts of subject-guide references to nature, ployment and intellectual enterprise. African writers are
ecology, and the environment) in the next volume of the se- often alienated from their natural environments and from
ries, covering 1992-96 and published after this essay was culturally important events taking place in the regions they
PMLA
142 Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses
call home. They carry the burden of trying to interpret these has the positive qualities associated with diversifying the
landscapes and events for themselves and others from spa- frequencies and amplifying the signals of cultural ideas.
tial and psychological distances. Environmental problems Dimock and Derrida often disclose and undermine static as
most often become paramount for a writer when they are in the conceptual position of conservative interpretive commu-
the writer's face and backyard, though firsthand experience nities that refuse to be moved by transformative texts and
of such problems did not make Saro-Wiwa focus on them in contexts. Their cultural critiques are, I believe, consistent
his literary activities. with what Arjun Appadurai argues in his essay "Disjuncture
12 Environmentalist and ecological movements in South and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy." He main-
Africa not only developed out of the importation of Euro- tains that there is no neat, nonequivocal way to model the
pean views on land and biological preservation and study chaotic disjunctions that characterize "global flows" of cul-
but also were coupled with nationalist movements and at-
tural ideas and power. Borrowing techniques and terminol-
tempts to solidify power and control over large areas
ogy from fractal and chaos theories, Appadurai attempts to
through the establishment of parks and preserves. Particu-
set up a lexicon for analyzing disjunctures and differences,
larly good studies of the cultural-historical mechanisms of
though he does not claim to know how information and
white environmental movements in South Africa can be
ideas will continue to shape globalization. For the study of
found in Ecology and Empire, edited by Tom Griffiths and
black African ecoliterature and ecocriticism this means that
Libby Robin. Of special interest in this volume are "Ecol-
scholars and writers must recognize that while the global
ogy: A Science of Empire," by Robin, and Jane Carruthers's
green call may be more noise than pure signal and while the
revealing study of the South African park system and its
impulsive
white nationalist roots, "Nationhood and the National Parks: message that drives this fashionable literary ap-
proach may attenuate with time, it is nonetheless a genuine,
Comparative Examples from the Post-imperial Experience."
if impure and often self-contradictory, call for information
13 There are many research studies from the 1980s and
exchanges
1990s that link development and the environment. Barbara and interpretive responses to the global environ-
mental crisis.
Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rocheleau's book Gender, En-
vironment, and Development in Kenya is one example of
them. Particularly obvious is the richness of work linking
women's environmental efforts and African development.
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Ecoing the Other(s): The Call of Global Green and Black African Responses

Author(s): William Slaymaker

Ecoing the Other(s): The Cal

The call of the other is a call to come, and that

-Jacques Derrida, "From Psyche: Invention of the Other" (343)

N THE 1990S THE GLOBAL GROWTH OF LITERATURE AND

criticism devoted to environmental and ecological topics w

? 2001 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA I29

ticipation in it by white scholars in and outside

versity. Restoring about

tally inspired poetry in Scenes and Visions,

An updated literary history edited by Oyekan

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