ABSTRACT
This chapter centers critically on eco-protest and communication in Tanure Ojaide’s collection of poems titled Daydream of Ants (1997) and Delta Blues and Home Songs (1998). The selected works demonstrate the extent to which Nigerian poetry conveys complex interface between man and environment at an epoch when ecological complications pose threats to the natural space of marginalized communities, their wellbeing, source of livelihood and existence. This study proceeds on the assumption that postcolonial eco-critical investigation of Nigerian poetry sheds deep insights regarding how sense of place, exploitation of natural resources, displacement, contamination of landscapes and militancy especially of dispossessed communities are coextensive. As forms of literary activism and resistance, the works of study outline a global consciousness in demanding for socio-environmental justice by emphasizing the connection between repressive social constructions such as toxicity, deprivations, violence, increasing industrialization/globalization and environmental paradoxes apparent in Nigeria and the world.
