Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part A (2025)

This paper undertakes an ecocritical exploration of environmental degradation as portrayed in Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist and Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Both novels critically examine the destructive impacts of human activities on the natural world, using environmental decay as a symbol of broader socio-political corruption. Through an ecocritical lens, this paper investigates how the authors depict the degradation of land, water, and air, reflecting a dual concern for ecological collapse and societal corruption.
In The Activist, Ojaide presents a harrowing depiction of the Niger Delta’s environmental devastation due to unchecked oil exploitation. He vividly portrays how the land, once fertile and life-sustaining, has been transformed into a wasteland, with polluted waters and barren farmlands. The novel reflects the corporate greed and governmental neglect that lead to the destruction of both the environment and the livelihoods of the indigenous communities, raising urgent questions about environmental justice and sustainability.
Similarly, in the beautyful ones are not yet born, Armah critiques the post-independence disillusionment in Ghana, symbolized by the polluted, decaying environment. The rampant waste, filth, and pollution of the land and sea mirror the moral and political corruption engulfing the society. Armah’s portrayal of the physical decay of the environment serves as a metaphor for the spiritual and ethical degradation of the people.
This paper argues that both authors use the motif of environmental destruction to critique the exploitation of natural resources, the marginalization of vulnerable communities, and the ethical decline of society.