Ecocide and Environmental Terror: Landscape Dynamics and Ecological Catastrophes in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Tarimoweni Justline Egule

doi:10.56201/ijgem.vol.12.no4.2026.pg1.14

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Ecocide and Environmental Terror: Landscape Dynamics and Ecological Catastrophes in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Tarimoweni Justline Egule

Abstract

This paper examines how war adversely alters the environment in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun through the lens of ecocriticism. The paper offers an alternative perspective on the novel, which had drawn commentaries largely from its political motif. Hence, an ecological reading of the novel offers a nuanced understanding of how cultural art engages with environmental sciences to unravel underlining ecological challenges while also espousing environmental principles on earth sustainability. As a literature-based study, the methodology is qualitative; a textual analysis of novel. The paper appraisal of the novel offers insight to the devastating impact of war on the environment; which gives rise to ecocide that mutates into environmental terrorism, landscape dynamics and environmental health catastrophes. The finding shows that the novel highlights the devastating impact of war on the environment. The war created terror, massive destructions to both natural and built environments and a massive refugee crisis; displacing people from their ancestral lands. This displacement leads to environmental degradation, as refugees are often forced to settle in areas with limited resources. The paper concludes that through an ecocritical lens one can better appreciate the ways in which Adichie's novel explores the contrastive relationships between environmental terrorism and environmental serenity. The environment is humanity home and it is a physiological source of livelihood and raw materials. No matter the conflict, humanity must be preserved by preserving the environment. There is potential end to conflicts, but its effect on the environment may be eternal. Key Words: War, Ecocide, Landscape Dynamics, Ecocriticism, African Literature.

Keywords

WarEcocideLandscape DynamicsEcocriticismAfrican Literature.

References

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Ecocide and Environmental Terror: Landscape Dynamics and Ecological Catastrophes in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun

Abstract

Keywords

References

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