Nature in the Balance: The Commodification of the Environment in Niyi Osundare's The Eye of the Earth

Uzoechi Nwagbara Doctoral Researcher Department of English University of Wales, United Kingdom

Abstract

This study examines the commodification of the natural world through the practice of global capitalism as depicted in Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth (1986). The paper argues that Osundare’s eco-poetry is predicated on a commitment to reveal the historicist-materialist underpinning of global capitalism and its devastating effects on the Nigerian environment, particularly the Niger delta. Drawing on Marxist concepts of commodification, environmental ethics, and ecocriticism, the article demonstrates how Osundare envisions a de-commodification of Nature as well as a re-articulation of socio-economic relations through committed, environmentally conscious poetry. The volume is presented as a poetic work devoted to the reclamation of the earth that has been made prostrate by capitalist practice, while also calling for alternative political and environmental systems and better leadership in Nigeria.

Keywords: ecocriticism, commodification, Niyi Osundare, eco-poetry, environmental ethics, global capitalism, Nigerian literature

Introduction

Nigerian environmental writers which include Niyi Osundare, Tanure Ojaide, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Odia Ofeimun, and Nnimmo Bassey among others have articulated a way of re-imagining the Nigerian environment that melds socio-economic existence with environmentalism. They have called for a prioritisation of green discourse for better leadership and socio-economic relations, as well as environmental sustainability. In order to give face to the invisible but palpable presence of capitalism on the Nigerian environment, Osundare has turned to eco-poetry through The Eye of the Earth, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize-winning volume that reverberates with environmental politics and its ancillary woes.

In The Eye of the Earth, Osundare’s second volume of poetry, his main concern is a reconstruction of Nigeria’s natural world, which faces despoliation and commodification, including a call to save the earth from inept practice that inheres in global capitalism.

Nature in the Balance: Refracting the Commodification of Nature

In most of the poems in the collection, Osundare speaks poignantly about the wanton destruction of man’s natural neighbours: the flora, fauna, and rivers by capitalist practice. In poems such as “What the Earth Said,” “Eyeful Glances,” and the longest of all poems, “Forest Echoes,” there is a reference to good, pristine Nature that has come under heavy attack by capitalism. The poem “Ours to Plough, Not to Plunder” adumbrates the call for environmental conservation and eco-poetic melody, declaring “This earth is ours to plough and plant” and “This earth is ours to plough, not to plunder.”

Osundare’s call and emphasis on re-emergence of past values and their restoration, when the flora and fauna had peace and sprung earth’s riches bountifully, are revealed in poems like “Earth” and “Harvestcall.” The fictitious space Iyanfoworogi is a real social space, a market in the Southern part of Nigeria where the poet-persona envisions a return to the season when the market bristled with beautiful bounties of nature.

Towards the Poetics of Environmental Ethics: De-commodifying Nature

Ethics is a normative investigation into the principles and rules governing man’s conducts as how these principles relate to justice, good and evil. Ethics has a lot to do with the environment — it questions man’s relationship to his surroundings, man’s thorough understanding of his responsibilities to the natural world, and his obligation to biotic wholesomeness. What underpins the clamour for environmental ethics in Nigeria is the urgency of impending ecological disaster ravaging the world.

Osundare’s eco-poetic project of de-commodifying Nature in the volume finds anchorage in environmental ethics. His preoccupation is informed by a consciousness fully overawed by the desire to question the ethical basis of capitalism on Nigeria’s environment. Osundare celebrates Nature and imagines a return to pristine values to save Nigeria’s ecology and environment.

Conclusion

In content, language, and craft, Osundare has demonstrated in The Eye of the Earth a commitment to collective labour relations to earth as well as its resources. Osundare envisions a de-commodification of Nature as well as re-articulation of socio-economic relation that is predicated upon eco-poetry. Osundare’s contention in this regard is that our beleaguered natural world is precipitated by capitalism. Therefore, Osundare’s criticism of capitalist formation as well as its ancillary practices culminates in alternative political and environmental system — a call for environmentally friendly politics that will bring environmental sustainability and better leadership in Nigeria. Thus, The Eye of the Earth is a poetic work devoted to reclamation of our earth that has been made prostrate by capitalist practice; it also inheres in the quest for alternative order for better leadership in Nigeria.

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