Environmental Injustice in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water (2011)

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to investigate the representations of environmental injustice in Helon Habila’s novel, Oil on Water (2011). In fact, the study is an ecocritical exploration of the intersection between the neocolonial manipulation of the Niger-Delta region in Nigeria and its environmental devastation. It also investigates how neocolonialism is the worst kind of imperialism, capturing the dilemma of the people of the oil-rich Niger-Delta region, through the exploitation of both the multinational oil corporations and their own government. Furthermore, the paper examines the drastic ecological, economic and sociopolitical consequences of neocolonial destruction of the environment in the Niger-Delta region. In his novel Oil on Water, Habila skillfully delineates the struggle of the Nigerian people against these injustices and their modes of resistance to neocolonial control and manipulation of the natural resources of the area.