AN ECOFEMINIST STUDY OF TANURE OJAIDE’S TALE OF THE HARMATTAN AND GILBERT OGBOWEI’S MATILDA

Abstract

The portrait of a ravished young woman captures the natural
environment of Niger Delta environment despoiled by the activities
of multinational oil companies. In spite of the image of the sexuallyviolated woman as is aptly captured in the ecological engagements of
such poets as Tanure Ojaide, Gilbert Ogbowei and others, available
scholarly essays on their poetry have not focused on the ecofeminists
elements in their collections. These essays have examined different
perspectives, especially; the ecomarxists’ concern. This present paper
therefore, examines ecofeminists manifestations in Ojaide's Tale of
the Harmattan and Ogbowei’s Matila. The Ecofeminism theory
examines the relationship between nature and women. The basic
assumption of this theory is that women and nature suffer the same
fate in a patriarchal society. The study reveals that both poets explore
the deleterious state of the Niger Delta environment from an
ecofeminist perspective. In both poetry collections, both poets
capture the degraded Niger Delta environment through the image of
a ravished woman. It is the recommendation of this paper that more
studies be done the impact of industrial activities on women of the
region.