Eco-metaphoric construct as resonance for sustaining nature: an interrogation of Kelechi Ogbonna’s <i>The Tamarisk: A Healing Shrub</i>

Abstract

The world over the years has been experiencing a great number of natural disasters with all its vagaries of draughts, flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis, fire outbreaks, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, earthquakes, just to mention a few. Nigeria, as a country, is not spared of some of these disasters. All these can be linked to humans’ indiscretion towards their natural gifts, mostly in the area of habitat wreckage, commercial exploitation, pollution, among others. In an attempt to forestall further havoc on its fauna and flora, Nigerian environmental activists have been putting ink on paper to create awareness on the management, control and impacts of negative ecological practices. Under the auspices of different taxonomies and polemics such as ecotheatre, ecocentrism, ecocriticism, ecopoetics and many others, quite a substantial quantity and quality of literary discourses have been generated. Adopting qualitative methodology, this paper attempts an analytical study of The Tamarisk… (though figuratively), with a view to adding a voice to the sustainability of nature in order to give life more meaning. It is believed that this piece of theatrical metaphor will be the catalyst that would spur more Nigerian creative writers to furnish eco critical treaties in the area of appreciation, management and control of natural environment.