Echoes of Environmental Degradation and Social Dislocation in Niyi Osundare's City Without People
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Date
2024
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Abstract
Sustained research on the poetry of Nigerian writer Niyi Osundare has largely concentrated on his sociopolitical preoccupations and unrelenting celebrations of nature, particularly in the tradition of the Romantics, including the unique stylo-linguistic character of his writings. Moreover, as a nationally and internationally decorated poet, scores of well-placed studies continue to privilege Osundare’s more popular volumes, creating a critical gap in his overall “global humanistic vision” (Diala). One such issue, addressed in the less-acclaimed City Without People (2012), is environmental abuse and its direct link to human suffering. The sombre, quite melancholic City Without People dwells on nothing else but Osundare’s own traumatic experience of Hurricane Katrina. However, starting with the volume’s ominous title, a closer reading reveals a work that points to environmental degradation as a vital part of the larger issue of climate change. Eco-criticism, a broad investigative tool for dissecting global ecological issues through the intersections of literature, culture, and the physical environment has been adopted as the theoretical framework for this paper.
The devastating consequences of environmental ill-treatment on all aspects of human life are signified in this work. While the volume’s super-ordinate focus stays on Osundare’s losses from Katrina, the causative theme of climate change, particularly as engendered by human mishandling of the natural environment, is firmly embedded. Therefore, this paper argues that City Without People echoes environmental degradation as a contributing factor to climate change.
Purposively selected for analysis of this focus are four poems: “Water Never Forgets” (19), “Path of Thunder” (20), “City Without People” (35), and “Katrina’s Diaspora” (43). The paper concluded that Osundare’s City Without People compellingly addresses environmental degradation and its severe threats to man’s physical and social well-being.