EXPLORATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND MILITANCY IN SELECTED NOVELS OF CHRISTIE WATSON AND CHIMEKA GARRICK

Abstract

This study critically explores the intersection of environmental degradation and militancy in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, as represented in Christie Watson‘s Tiny Sunbirds Far Away and Chimeka Garrick‘s Tomorrow Died Yesterday. The Niger Delta, though richly endowed with natural resources, has suffered years of ecological devastation and human suffering due to oil exploration and governmental neglect. Drawing on eco-critical theory, the study examines how these two literary texts represent the lived realities of pollution, poverty, and political alienation, and how these conditions give rise to various forms of resistance including militancy. The research highlights how literature is a mode of protest, capable of amplifying the voices of marginalised communities and exposing the complexities behind youth militancy not merely as criminality, but a reaction to systemic violence, economic exclusion, and environmental collapse. Through the characters‘ struggles, the novels reflect the despair, resilience, and resistance that shape life in the region. By foregrounding local voices and socio-ecological trauma, this work contributes to eco-critical and postcolonial scholarship while calling attention to the urgent need for justice both environmental and human. It affirms literature's capacity not only to document injustice but to humanise it, to bear witness, and to agitate for change.