By Emma Klitzke
 

...for many in other lands had never seen my portrait,
neither of when I was paradise
nor now as I lay dejected;
they only knew of the treasure found in me.

-Kaine Agary, speaking for the Niger Delta in "My Blessing, My Curse"

Kaine Agary is a native Nigerian, currently living in Lagos. Throughout her life, she has devoted much time to writing about the Niger River Delta and the struggles that Nigeria has faced because of the oil boom. In her essay, "My Blessing, My Curse," she uses a woman's perspective to highlight the injustices that the people of Nigeria have faced since the struggle for oil began in this country.

"My Blessing, My Curse" reads much like "Lament" by Debra Marquart, a poem about the oil boom in North Dakota. Both works are about how the struggle for oil tears apart the beautiful land that encases the resource, and both works draw emotional response in their readers by comparing the devastated land to a woman. Agary's essay is narrated by Nigeria herself[Nigeria as a whole or the Niger Delta more specifically?] , using very human concepts to illustrate the country's beauty (and fated destruction). In the beginning, Nigeria describes herself as paradise: Her head is covered in "great bunches of plantain;" her legs "[stand] long and strong, the healthiest of rubber trees;" and "between [her] legs [is] a secret treasure." This treasure is the oil for which the Western world has been exploiting her for decades. But Nigeria gets trapped in a marriage to a "white lover" who plans to use her for the precious treasure she keeps secret. Before long, even her sons, native Nigerians, are using their own mother for wealth and power, with "eyes...devoid of compassion." The essay ends in despair, and a cry for help.

The comparison of Nigeria to a woman is persuasive and emotional. It reaches out to the people of Nigeria, especially to the Ken Saro-Wiwa supporters who face roadblocks and hardship every day of their lives, and it shows them that they aren't fighting alone. It also forces the Western reader to see Nigeria not as foreign and unimportant, but as a real place with real people, and real, irreversible damage. Western oil consumers can draw a connection between the "white lover" and themselves; because of our desire for faster, wealthier, better lives, we've lost track of the wellbeing of the land that gave us this resource, not to mention the wildlife and people that still live there. Kaine Agary intends for this essay to have a tremendous effect on readers everywhere, and it does exactly that.

Agary doesn't only write for the masses, but also for the individual. Her novel, Yellow-Yellow, is the narrative of a young Nigerian woman whose village home is destroyed by an oil spill. Inspired by those who'd found a better life before her, she relocates to Port Harcourt, a bustling city with opportunities around every corner. But these opportunities only accentuate the reality of Nigeria's situation: The oil companies supply the best jobs, so, in order to live a prosperous life in Nigeria, one's best option is to keep feeding the corrupt businesses that are destroying the land in the first place.

[Comment: I like the argument you are developing here--especially in terms of the ecofeminist comparison of the earth to a woman and to women in society (though you might say more about this latter comparison--does the novel do more to move from the allegory of the "white lover" exploiting Nigeria's "treasure" and into the effect on the lives and health of women in the Delta?). Can you develop your argument about the novel Yellow-Yellow a bit further? Draw in some postcolonial theory to discuss the neocolonial pressures from the multinational corporations, global demand for oil supply, and asymetical global political power. It sounds like the novel provides an analysis of how the global economy perpetuates the corruption and neglect of those who live in the environmental sacrifice zone. What implications and conclusions can you draw from this analysis to inform our larger project here? Be sure to introduce all of your sources--for example, where did you get the information in the first two sentences? Respond also to the chapter in Ogaga Okuyade's collection. Include references --js]