Eco-spiritual Trauma and Ecological Justice: A Literary and Ethnographic Study of Ecospirituality in Niger Delta Poetry

This project is located in, and makes an original contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship on ecology and religion in contemporary Africa, with a distinct methodological focus on African literature, specifically poetry, as a lens to understand and revisit eco-spirituality in the context of ecological trauma and the quest for ecological justice specifically in Nigeria.

In the study of African and Nigerian poetry, the gradual shift from the versification of socio-economic and political issue to environmental and spiritual themes has received considerable attention. This type of poetry which explores ecological motifs has been termed ecopoetry (Walton, 2018).

African ecopoetry often engages the continent's rich ecological endowments including the fauna, flora and other biotic and abiotic elements that make up the ecosystem. It also deploys religious symbolism in highlighting the many environmental flaws in the region (Traore, 2019). The poetry highlights issues such as draughts, deforestation, floods, and other human-caused environmental conditions.

On the other hand, Niger Delta poetry, as an offshoot of African ecopoetry, specifically explores the environmental degradation caused by the oil exploration activities of multinational corporations operating in the region (Egya, 2016; Abba, 2020).

While offering a rich insight into the socio-political and economic consequences of environmental pollution (van Opijnen, 2021), Niger Delta poetry also highlights the religious and spiritual implications of the pollution (Idialu, 2021).

It foregrounds the desecration of sanctuaries, and ancestral hallowed grounds as the surrounding lands and rivers are overran by toxic spillage (Aghoghovwia, 2014).

Thus, religion is of enormous significance in engaging the ecological concerns in the poetry of the region as it provides an auspicious and integral framework for investigating the effects of pollution on sacred groves, creeks and other religious sites.