Reimagining nature through postcolonial ecocriticism: Literary resistance in contemporary African fiction

Many postcolonial African nations grapple with the complex relationship between economic growth and environmental sustainability. This study analyzes Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), Ngũgĩ’s Devil on the Cross (1982), and Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) using postcolonial ecocriticism in order to examine how these African authors reimagine nature as a symbol of identity, resilience, and resistance. The approach links colonial histories to ecological concerns, challenging colonial environmental narratives while foregrounding Indigenous views. Using close reading and thematic analysis, this study focuses on how land and ecology intersect with culture, power, and social justice. Drawing on Nixon’s concept of slow violence and Iheka’s aesthetic of proximity, it examines how these authors reveal the long-lasting, often invisible, effects of environmental degradation and the intimate relationships between humans and the natural world. The findings indicate that the selected novels reclaim landscapes as cultural and moral spaces rooted in Indigenous ecological ethics and communal values. Both novels challenge colonial portrayals of Africa as “wild” or “uncivilized,” instead depicting nature as integral to collective memory, cultural identity, and sustainable being. Through this eco-critical lens, the authors critique the enduring ecological consequences of colonialism and advocate for a sustainable, human-centered relationship with the environment grounded in Indigenous environmental knowledge.