Naturalizing Africa

Anthropocene Narratives of Living with Resource Extraction in Africa

“…14 Reading African works specifically, Cajetan Iheka adds that literary analysis elucidates and informs ideas about environmental challenges. 15 Oral history deepens and extends this focus on the meanings and values of environmental change, by highlighting the perspectives of women and men who did not leave written works behind. While some of the oral histories quoted here have been conducted by myself, in July and August 2018 in Mufulira, I also rely on published oral history transcripts from other researchers.…”

“…42 Ojaide's work highlights important interspecies and ecosystem entanglements: environmental degradation negatively impacted human wellbeing and enticed various forms of resistance, at times taking violent forms. 43 Still, it should be emphasized that in places like Port Harcourt many people did not protest against the oil industry. Instead, they learned to live with pollution, by relying on smaller fish or seeking alternative livelihoods.…”

The Aesthetics of Proximity and the Common Good

“…Thinking in the Aristotelian tradition of the common good, Iheka expresses concern that "African environments are porous as well as malleable to the toxicity introduced by Western agents and their African collaborators." 21 But rather than indulge in blame, he is concerned with what ought to be done. He is "drawn to the seductive charm of the idea of a rehabilitated human."…”

“…This comes about when that individual opens up "to both human and nonhuman Others [as] an ethical obligation." 23 I now attempt to articulate the ethical obligation implicit in Iheka's observation, and I do so by analyzing Wangari Maathai's meditation on the environment. Given that Iheka has discussed Maathai's memoir, 24 I focus rather on her book of essays, The Challenge for Africa, restricting my discussion to what I identify as her cultural philosophy of environment, specifically the interconnection between moral responsibility and political consciousness-much in the tradition of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.…”

Binti’s R/evolutionary Cosmopolitan Ecologies

“…44 For his part, Iheka believes that "the technological advancements at the heart of the posthuman idea make it unsuitable for the African context" given the "unequal access to equipment of technological mediation" and that "reliance on the West for these technologies has been indispensable to their exploitation by their unequal partners in the Global North." 45 This may be true enough, but Okorafor seems intent on using the SF genre to project and prepossess a future in which African peoples like the Himba are not shut out of technological agency and its posthuman possibilities. The Himba create "astrolabes," devices peoples all over the galaxy (including the domineering Khoush) depend on for communication and identification.…”