Toward an African decolonial ecology: agri/cultures, food insecurity, and sustainability in Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather

The discourse on ecocriticism in African literature predominantly centers fossil fuel extraction and the consequent ecological degradation. While discussions often underscore the impacts of ecocide on living beings, there is a noticeable lack of attention to some critical socio-ecological issues, such as the abandonment of African indigenous, sustainable agricultural practices for a Western capitalist model, which prioritizes the monocultures of cash crops for the benefit of multinational agribusiness, exacerbating food insecurity across the continent. Bessie Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather is one work of African eco-fiction that stands out for its portrayal of issues that emerge when traditional food production methods clash with imported industrial methods. While the novel has been analyzed for such themes as migration and gender roles, its examination of the collision of indigenous and foreign epistemologies in the pursuit of a sustainable and equitable food system in rural Botswana remains insufficiently explored. Focusing on efforts by Gilbert, the British agronomist, to regulate traditional methods of farming in the fictional Botswana town of Golema Mmidi, and drawing from Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s conceptualization of epistemic decoloniality, this paper argues that When Rain Clouds Gather provides a distinctive ecocritical perspective to contemplate factors that inhibit food security in postcolonial Africa.