Human-driven Environmental Threats in Contemporary Nigerian Literature: An Eco-critical Discourse of Christie Watson’s Tiny SunBirds Far Away

Abstract

The current ecological and climate related crises in most vulnerable countries like Nigeria are due to the unchecked unsustainable practices for short term survival. These unsustainable and unabated human-driven activities pose significant threats to the nation’s ecosystems through widespread oil pollution leading to climate issues, ecological refugees, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution of air, water and farmland which in turn result in the humanitarian crisis today. Nigeria’s eco-writers as eco-warriors aptly rise to the occasion through their works by exposing man’s inhumanity to nature, with the aim of creating critical thinking and deeper understanding of the devastating consequences of human-driven actions as well as strive for harmony via policies and ecological stewardship. It is against this backdrop that this paper explores the environmental deep concern in Christie Watson’s Tiny SunBirds Far Away (2012). It employed ‘Postcolonial ecocriticism as its theoretical framework to portray the continued negative impacts of the legacy of environmental imperialism in ex-colonies like Nigeria. It also highlighted Watson’s vivid portrayals of the consequences human-driven actions on the planet Earth, with a view to transform humanity’s relationship with the natural world from that of exploitation to sustainable harmonious coexistence. This study concluded that, Nigeria’s environmental and climate issues are mostly exacerbated by the continued unsustainable and unabated human-driven actions, inadequate environmental safe guards, unpatrioticism, greed and eco-ignorance, hence recommended the use of the moral Eco-ethics enshrined in eco-narratives to create ecological consciousness to mitigate the ongoing ecological crisis posing threat to the planet and future generations.