Re-imagining the Sudanian savanna: a decolonial and ecocritical reading of Born on a Tuesday and Cœur du Sahel

Since the emergence of African ecocriticism, scholars have primarily focused on Anglophone literary texts. However, a new paradigm is emerging that engages with cultural production beyond that in English. Notably, Francophone works, once on the margins of ecocritical scholarship, now receive particular attention. What is more, ecocritical scholars not only read Francophone African works but also bring them in conversation with those in English from the same ecoregion. While contributing to this trend, this article aims to shift the focus to a specific ecoregion that has been largely overlooked by ecocritics: the Sudanian savanna. It examines a Francophone novel alongside an Anglophone novel from two neighboring countries—Djaïli Amadou Amal’s Cœur du Sahel (2023) and Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday (2015). I intend to show how a decolonial reading of these Cameroonian and Nigerian novels can, especially when read together, draw attention to both the destruction of the environment and provide an antidote to the (neo)colonial representation of the savanna.