An Ecofeminist Reading of Egara Kabaji’s The Blacksmith, His Pregnant Wife and the Ogre

Abstract

Media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter and WhatsApp are becoming popular podiums on which global oral literatures are staged and consumed in contemporary society. As the world and media evolve, African oral literature continues to become more vibrant on these platforms where presentation of audio-visual texts is common. Thus, this paper focuses on the YouTube narrative by Egara Kabaji: “The Blacksmith, His Pregnant Wife and the Ogre” and explores representations of feminine subjugation in the natural world through the lens of ecocriticism and ecofeminism in particular. The paper examines the ways in which the narrative represents the relationship between women and the environment. The study further shows how this connection reflects the domineering patriarchal structures in African landscapes. An eco-consumption of both oral and visual texts in the narrative displays local and global ecological concerns that are related to climate change and environmental injustices fuelled by repressive human and non-human constructions that operate against the feminine. The study examines how a fight against environmental injustices and repressive patriarchal systems would offer a solution to the woman’s problem. This study however, acknowledges the pivotal role that man plays in fighting against feminist oppression and ending environmental injustices.