GENDER AND DECONSTRUCTION OF HEROISM IN NIGER DELTA ECO-DISCOURSE: CHIMEKA GARRICKS’ TOMORROW DIED YESTERDAY
Abstract
This paper examines gender disparity in the construction of heroism in the Niger Delta environmental struggle in Chimeka Garricks’ Tomorrow Died Yesterday. The paper argues that a cursory interrogation of gender dimension of literary trajectory of the resource-rich region constantly reveals an established literary canon that volarises men in the context of the Niger Delta struggle, while portraying the female as a subaltern, perpetually cowering in the shadow of a male hero. Against this backdrop, this paper questions this male-centered narrative and renegotiates gender identity for gender balance in the making of heroes of eco-activism in the Niger Delta. The paper adopts eco-feminism as its theoretical position. One of the major assumptions of eco-feminism is that women are more culturally and biologically tied to the environment than men. Through analysis of some extrapolations from the primary text, this paper interrogates the misogynistic positions from which the narrative of environmental activism in the region is projected. The paper concludes that, contrary to this preference for male-centered narrative, women have always been in all fronts of the Niger Delta struggle, and not just appendages to men as represented in some literary works on the issue.
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