LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

This paper highlights the significance of language in literary
communication of cultural values and reaction to environmental
degradation as consequential effect of modernity and technology in
Africa as portrayed in The Famished Road (1991). Conceived on the
premise of postcolonial space, the paper adopts the qualitative text
based analytical method as its tool of analysis. It is discovered that
Ben Okri’s efforts to tackle the problems of the effects of
decolonisation in Africa and the consequential devastation of
Africa’s rain forests by technological innovations is altruistic in The
Famished Road (1991). Through the vagaries and restlessness of the
abiku protagonist: Azaro - the spirit child, Okri focuses on the cruel
engagement of deforestation triggered by Western corporations and
exposes the continent’s clumsiness to restore a harmonious
relationship with nature and environment. The paper shows that
The Famished Road (1991) also highlights the ancestral links of the
forest with the African folklore and imagination. This paper
recommends the engagement of literary discourses in both national
and continental dialogues on environmental protection and
development in Africa and the World.