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ECO-PEDAGOGY IN A POSTMODERNIST’S READING OF
MBAJIORGU’SWAKE UP EVERYONE AND DANDAURA’S 

VENOM FOR VENOM 
 

Emmanuel E. Uzoji 
Department of Theatre and Media Arts 

Federal University Lafia 
Email: emmanuelebere@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

This paper examines postmodern playwriting and eco-pedagogy in 
Nigeria; especially in the wake of environmental challenges the 
country now faces. Environmental degradation, climate change and 
global warming have occupied both international and local 
discourses in the 21st century. No doubt, the impact of climate change 
is real on every part of the globe. Hence, the focus of this paper is to 
explore the new parameters for which we can begin to seek the 
relevance of drama and the dramatic text to issues of contemporary 
importance such as the sustainability of the Earth for future 
generations. The objective is to prove that drama can be used as a 
pedagogic tool to question and seek answers to the fast eroding life-
world. Mbajiorgu’s Wake up Everyone and Dandaura’s Venom for 
Venom are among the many examples that the concern for the 
environment is now taking centre stage in Nigeria’s contemporary
drama. The paper investigates the preoccupation of theatre practice 
in Nigeria and its relevance to the eco-challenges of this sub-Saharan 
African nation. It further makes a case for the engagement of 
Nigerian theatre in the global quest for enviromental sustainable 
development thrives. The study reveals that human activities 
contribute to environtal degradation. It concludes that postmodern 
approach to playwriting can help the enlightenment campaign on 
environmental degradation.  

Keywords: Ecopedagogy, Ecocriticism, Drama, Conflict and 
Ecology 

Introduction 

Climate constitutes the total experience of weather and atmospheric 
behaviour over a number of years in a given region. Rafferty says it is not 
just the “average weather” and variability and the frequency of various
occurrences (2). As natural as it may sound, yet, it can be affected by 



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human activities. As Rafferty put it, “no region is untouched by human 
influence” (2). The release of waste products from domestic and economic
enterprises (burning fossil fuels, synthetic chemical use, trash production,) 
alters the composition of the atmosphere, and gases and particulates 
related to these activities travel to all parts of the globe. Therefore, from 
the simple method we dispose of waste from homes and offices and the 
smoke that emits from our generators and cars, we are either killing the 
earth or sustaining it. 

Climate change on the other hand, is a product of cumulative 
anthropogenic releases of heat-trapping gases that consequently warms 
global climate. This is popularly described as a crisis (Glover 1). Losses 
to ecological values and human societies due to climate change are 
potentially catastrophic, and will be long-lived, largely irreversible, and 
remain for the most part unpredictable. Climate change also refers to the 
changes in the composition and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Mintzer and Leonard state that the last 10,000 years has seen a constant 
concentration of the most important gases in the atmosphere but the last 
two centuries, human activities – including industrialization and 
agricultural expansion have caused the release of large quantities of 
gaseous pollutants into the atmosphere (xi). These emissions have affected 
the average temperature at the Earth’s surface.  

The impact of climate change are felt today in the areas of agriculture and 
food security, access to water resources, impacts on human health and 
geopolitical relationships (conflicts due to competition for resources) 
(Richardson, Steffen and Liverman 102). This predicament is the outcome 
of modernity and the contemporary issue born out of industrial society 
(Glover 1). It is a global crisis yet with a local impact. Every part of the 
earth feels the effect of this ecological catastrophe. Climate change is 
considered as a gradual but devastating threat to the continued existence 
of life on earth. It is a subject that calls for everyone to wake up. 

Todd traces Africa’s experience with climate change to six millions years
ago when one of the most dramatic set of changes on Africa’s ecological
stage took place at the end of the Miocene epoch. For millions of years 
Africa had been in lush tropical forests, offering easy travel, safe shelter, 
and abundant water and foodstuffs here. Then the Ice Age, which had 
begun in the middle Miocene, drastically altered the African continent. 
Though the ice itself never reached Africa, falling global temperatures 
cooled the continent significantly. As more and more water became locked 



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up in ice, sea levels plunged – the Mediterranean shrank to an island sea – 
and Africa experienced an extensive period an acidification. The net effect 
of this climatic change was the devastation of Africa’s rich Miocene
forests (Todd 27). 

No doubt the planetary crisis speaks of the greatest mass extinctions of all 
time. Harthaway and Boff paints the picture thus: 

The combined dynamics of the deepening poverty and accelerating 
ecological degradation are creating a powerful vortex of despair and 
destruction from which it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape. If 
the postmodern dramatist who is the contemporary dramatist fails to act 
with sufficient energy, urgency and wisdom, we will soon find ourselves 
condemned to a future in which the potential for living with meaning, hope 
and beauty has been immeasurably diminished (2). 

The literal meaning of postmodernism is “after modernism” and in many
ways postmodernism constitutes an attack on modernist claims about the 
existence of truth and value – claims that stem from the European 
enlightenment of the 18th century. Quayson relates postmodernism to a 
literary and philosophical tradition of representation which could be said 
to have its own peculiar historical and social trajectory in Western thought 
(647). He further typifies this theory as a vigorously anti-systemic mode 
of understanding with pluralism, borders and multiple perspectives being 
highlighted as a means of disrupting the centralizing impulse of any 
system (649). 

One major trait of the postmodernist cultural movement is the dominance 
of inaccessible and impenetrable prose that characterise many postmodern 
philosophical texts. This is however intentional and reflect specific claims 
about the nature of language and meaning. In disputing past assumptions, 
postmodernists generally display a preoccupation with the inadequacy of 
language as a mode of communication. Among the major postmodern 
theorists are French philosophers Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault 
and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. 

Derrida originated the philosophical method of deconstruction, a system 
of analysis that assumes a text has no single, fixed meaning, both because 
of the inadequacy of language to express the author’s original intention 
and because a reader’s understanding of the text is culturally conditioned
– that is, influenced by the culture in which the reader lives. Thus texts 
have many possible legitimate interpretations brought about by the “play”



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of language. Derrida stresses the philosophical importance of pun, 
metaphor, ambiguity, and other playful aspects of language traditionally 
disregarded in philosophy. Thus, the author’s use of language sometimes
does not detect his identity. His method of deconstruction involves close 
and careful readings of central texts of Western philosophy that bring to 
light some of the conflicting forces within the text and that highlight the 
devices the text uses to claim legitimacy and truth for itself, many of which 
may lie beyond the intention of its author. Although some of Derrida’s
ideas about language resemble views held by the analytic philosophers 
Wittgeinstein, Quine, and Davidson, many philosophers schooled in the 
analytic tradition have dismissed Derrida’s work as destructive of
philosophy. However, despite the disagreements and arguments on what 
constitutes the postmodernist paradigm, Ihab Hassan (123-4), believes that 
postmodernism has its major traits that distinguishes it from modernism. 
These include Dadaism as against symbolism, antiform as against form, 
antithesis as against synthesis, deconstruction as against totalization, 
decreation as against creation, misreading as against reading, anti-
narrative as against narrative, among others. 

Foucault created a searing critique of the ideas of the Enlightenment, such 
as reason and truth. Like Derrida, Foucault used close readings of 
historical texts to challenge assumptions, demonstrating how ideas about 
human nature and society, which we assume to be permanent truths, have 
changed over time. From an array of historical texts Foucault created 
“philosophical anthropologies” that reveal the evolution of concepts such
as reason, madness, responsibility, punishment, and power. By examining 
the origins of these concepts, he maintained, we see that attitudes and 
assumptions that today seem natural or even inevitable are historical 
phenomena dependent upon time and place (Carpenter par 4). He further 
claimed that the historical development of these ideas demonstrates that 
seemingly humane and liberal Enlightenment ideals are in reality coercive 
and destructive.  

Though postmodernism is still epileptic in Africa, Canice Chukwuma 
Nwosu one of the formost African postmodernists says that;  

Creativity is the focus of African postmodern theatre; therefore, it 
glorifies individual, collective and communal creativity. It is 
important to note that creativity here is governed by the free creative 
spirit and devoid of conventional authenticity that fetter 
experimentations. The postmodern creative spirit emphasizes the 



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dualities and vicissitudes of life prevalent in the creator’s
environment. (167) 

Nwosu’ postmodern theory has provided new parameters for
contemporary dramatist to engage in individual creativity of solo plays 
and exploration of environmental vicissitudes of life like climate change. 
Hence, we can begin to study the works of innovative Playwrights like: 
Sam Ukala, Emma Dan Daura, Greg Mbajiogu Kene Igwonu and so on 
from the postmodern point of view. The trend of eco-engagements in the 
arts especially drama is now taking centre stage as the global threat of a 
warming planet and its attendant consequences is now a matter of concern. 
The drive for sustainable development and protecting the earth’s natural
heritage provides a platform for dramatists in Nigeria to engage. Soyinka’s
early dramatic works such as The Lion and the Jewel, Dance of a Forest 
and The Swamp Dwellers can be viewed for any of the ecocentric 
dimensions. The same goes for Osofisan whose play – Morountodun will 
pass for not just a postmodernist dramatic text but can be also reviewed 
from the perspectives of eco-radicalism. Tess Onwueme’s plays such as
Then She Said It and The Desert Encroaches make a strong case for 
climate change and environmental justice both in the Niger Delta and the 
Northern part of Nigeria. 

Environmental Education and Eco-pedagogic Theory 

Darder’s poem quoted below captures the whole essence of this study.
Drama is a creative and expressive area of human activity which provides 
a powerful source of peace-building energy and passion that is not always 
apparent in the formalized processes of political conflict resolution 
(Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall 347). One of the attributes of eco-
pedagogy is to educate the individual on the need to love life and protect 
same. This is the pathway to sustainability. Darder in his poem laments 
over environmental degradation thus: 

We spill our unholy wars upon her belly’s tender flesh, blazing
dislocated corpses, ignite her agony and grief. 

Still, in love with her creations, she warns of our complacency to 
cataclysmic devastation, rooted in the alienation of our 
disconnection, our rejection, our oppression, our scorn. 

And still, we spin ungodly tantrums of injustice against her love, 
against ourselves, against one another. __ Darder (cited in Kahn x). 



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We live in a world where humans must struggle to regain their humanity 
by going back to history to locate their connection with nature and redefine 
their civilization. As the world now yearns for a new civilization that 
underscores our common heritage in mother earth and life, a critical 
understanding of issues in eco-literacy becomes imperative. The other 
dimension that gives justification to this new zeal is the fact that the 
poorest regions of the world have the worst ecological problems. The 
poorest regions of the world are or have been the most exploited regions 
in terms of human and natural resources. The poorest regions of the world 
are also the regions that have seen the worst conflicts angst by growing 
poverty, social injustice and the scramble for scarce resources. 

Eco-pedagogy hence, emanates from these contentions as a body of 
scholarly discourses in the field of critical pedagogy.  Martin and Te Riele 
believe that it is an outgrowth that is not older than 30 years and owes a 
lot to works done by Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal. It has been at the 
centre of efforts “to construct social alternatives that are both credible and
compelling. This has included creating new social contexts and encounters 
that value alternative meanings, knowledge and actions” (23). This
allusion of a three-decade eco-presence in literature may be true for 
Western literature but in Africa and particularly Nigeria, eco-pedagogy 
has been present in our dramatic writings for more than half a century. 
Some of the works of Soyinka used in this study were written in the 1950s 
and in them we find images and messages that challenge the injustice done 
to the environment by humans. 

Environmental education is a multi-discursive field. It is a space of both 
struggle and opportunity for the reconstruction of a web of relations 
between humans and the environment and with each other. This web has 
faded with the advance of civilization, but could enable us to develop new 
treaties between cultures, societies and nature and give rise to new values, 
languages, and meanings that could lead us responsibly to the social 
change that is so critical at this time (Gonzalez-Gaudiano & Meira-Carter 
14).  

Eco-pedagogy is a form of non-formal popular education which Kahn says 
is borne out of developed ideas and practices of environmental 
preservation and conservation that centres on self-consciousness, 
awareness and the need for action by self-realization (5). As an outgrowth 
of critical pedagogy, it questions the status quo, and liberates the mind 
towards change from dehumanization to humanization. The world’s



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economic structure as well as the adoption of globalized capitalism has no 
doubt created a serious dichotomy not only in the distribution of wealth 
but also in the human environment. In the same earth, we have those who 
live in affluence and comfort and those who battle with diseases every day. 
Such is the dehumanization which Freire says marks not only those whose 
humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who 
have stolen it (44). This he said, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming 
more fully human and “this distortion occurs within history; but it is not a
historical vocation” (44). He further believes that the world as we have
come to terms with today is engaged in a struggle led by the oppressed 
peoples of the earth against those who made them less human and was 
quick to advise that this struggle to regain their humanity must not turn 
the oppressed to become oppressors of the oppressors. This is quite 
reminiscent of the flashes of several agitations we have seen in Nigeria’s
Niger Delta. The militarization of the struggle and the seeming criminality 
this struggle takes all in a bid to free the area of further exploitation takes 
the wind off the sail of genuine efforts at resolving the evident eco-crisis 
in the region. For Freire, both the oppressed and the oppressor have lost 
their humanity and the struggle should be aimed at restoring the humanity 
of both (44). This is one problem eco-pedagogy and eco-literacy seeks to 
address. 

One strong strand of the concept of eco-pedagogy is the love of all ‘life’.
The last three decades have been a seemingly wake up call for all peoples 
of the Earth to consciously embrace lifestyles and attitudes that promote 
the sacredness of life. But everywhere we look “social relations of
oppression and contempt for human dignity abound” (McLaren 22). For
McLaren, gobbling up the global life world in the quest for an endless 
accumulation of surplus value has produced some world – historical 
excretory excesses, turning the world into a global toilet of toxic waste 
while adding legions of Marx’s reserve army of labour (20). While this
remains the true story of many developing nations, the arts in most cases 
have celebrated the apollonian heights humans have achieved but at the 
expense of a dying earth. This is what brings to light the need for an eco-
literacy that is place – efficient and can serve the needs of local 
communities. 

Nanda and Warms in this light and draw our attention to the position that 
national narratives show history as a march of progress: 

They celebrate the founding and development of corporations rather 
than the violence that often accompanied such events. They focus on 



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the lives of the wealthy and powerful or sometimes, the infamous. 
The lives, the struggles of families, of members of ethnic and 
religious minorities, of women, and of children are often omitted 
from the record. Their voices are silenced (343).   

Such is the scenario when we have an art that is not only classicist but 
marks the semblance of the ethos of a bourgeois society. Ecopedagogy 
hence seeks the reversal of this trend and pursues the emergence of a new 
body of knowledge and the awakening of a multi-disciplinary approach to 
peace, safe earth and sustainable development. As the world continues to 
grapple with the reality of depleting resources, the battle rages on for the 
remaining natural resources. Standlea believes that an unprecedented 
expansion of human population coupled with an America-styled 
propagation of unlimited economic “growth paradigm” is forcing a critical
historic transition portrayed by ruthless competition over Earth’s
remaining natural resources (1). “It is unlikely that the current state of
affairs and the rate of greed and acquisition, especially characterising 
American economic consumption, will prevail at this pace without forcing 
severe environmental and social conflict and chaos” (Standlea 1). It is
quite obvious as recent global events have proven that where there is oil, 
there is war. Where there is diamond, there is blood. We cannot extricate 
the world’s deadliest conflicts from the quest and struggle for natural
resources as exemplified in Nigeria’s Delta regions and elsewhere in other
African countries as well as the Gulf nations. The politics of these conflicts 
have been the continued desperate quest especially by Western nations for 
these resources. Sadly enough, these conflicts or wars have left in their 
wake environmental havoc of the worst kind not to mention the 
devastation the continued exploitation of these resources bring to local 
communities. 

Postmodern Nigerian Drama and Eco-pedagogy  

Climate change and the reality of global warming has been a topical issue 
in literary discourse in the last three and half decades. Even so, it is a rarity 
to find any substantial engagement of ecological concerns in any major 
work of art including drama. In Nigeria, postmodern drama is still few; 
hence ecoliteracy through postmodern drama is still very low despite the 
fact that the country is gravely affected by ecological disasters in recent 
times. In September 2012, Nigeria’s two major rivers – the Benue and the 
Niger overflowed its banks and rendered many homeless and helpless. 
Major cities such as Onitsha, Lokoja, and Makurdi as well as the Niger 



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Delta were flooded. Roads were cut off and travellers were stranded for 
weeks. This situation is just one of the harsh realities of climate change. 
At the moment, the unpredictability of rainfall patterns leaves the entire 
populace with the gloom of drought and famine with its attendant high 
cost in food prices.  

This reality requires a critical response and for this to be possible there is 
every need to question the very idea of the environment. Harthaway and 
Boff in their study of deep ecology came up with the fact that there is no 
“environment” separate from humanity. Humanity is seen as part of the
natural world, a part of the greater “web of life”. “When we poison the air,
water, and soil, we poison our very selves. When we diminish the beauty 
and diversity of the planetary community, we also diminish our 
humanity.” (Harthaway and Boff 63). 

What then should be the major discourse of the playwright in Nigeria in 
the global quest to demystify the planetary crisis and create a sustainable 
world where all life can thrive? Drama in the last decade has woken up to 
this challenging question. There is a strong urgency to awaken the 
consciousness of society to this eco-neglect that spells doom for everyone. 
In the Philippines in 2008, a group of children and youths in Banaba used 
theatre performances as a tool for advocacy in Disaster Risk Reduction 
(DRR). Using singing, dancing and acting, they communicated their 
perceptions of local hazards such as flooding and river bank erosion, and 
the potentially destructive impacts of these hazards on people’s
livelihoods, properties and lives. They also took the challenge using 
theatre dynamics to communicate risk reduction activities such as tree 
planting and solid waste management (Tarner et al 62).  

In other climes and indeed Africa, we have seen the role music plays in 
throwing up issues and contradictions within society. The Nile Project 
sprang up in Egypt to address the ecological concerns of the Nile. The 
impact the group is making clearly indicates that music can also be used 
to transform human consciousness towards saving the earth. Information 
posted on its webpage shows that the Nile project is already transforming 
what it called the Nile conflict by inspiring, educating, and empowering 
an international network of university students to cultivate the 
sustainability of their ecosystem (nileproject.org). This project shows that 
when applied, Ecopedagogy can indeed serve as a catalyst for 
transformational education and awareness about the global as well as 
regional concerns of a degrading environment. The Nile Project’s model



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integrates programmes in music, education, dialogue, leadership, and 
innovation to engage students across disciplines and geographies on the 
need to address the Nile Basin’s cultural and environmental challenges.
Using music to spark cultural curiosity, the Nile Project engages 
musicians and audiences, encouraging them to feel connected to the 
world’s longest river and to explore new approaches to its large-scale 
social, cultural, and environmental problems (nileproject.org). 

Popular music has served as a tool for creating awareness and educating 
the populace in contemporary times. Yanni, a non-lyrical jazz artiste used 
his music to draw the attention of the world to the beauty and magnificence 
of nature as well as the communality of all human beings. Yanni was not 
only eclectic but his musical pieces served as a voice for nature. This we 
find in Nightingale, A walk in the Rain, Rainmaker, The Rain Must Fall, 
November Sky, Highland, etc. World acclaimed King of Pop – Michael 
Jackson also sang for the Earth in Earth’s Song and Heal the World, where 
he drew the attention of the world to the devastation being done not only 
in Africa but elsewhere through war, drought and exploitation. 

Unlike drama, popular music in Nigeria no doubt has engaged the 
spectrum of the Nigerian society, bringing to light ills perpetrated in the 
society. Ogaga (51) believes that Nigerian artistes have insisted on not 
only foregrounding the pedagogical province of art, but have equally 
captured the realities of everyday existence in postcolonial Nigeria. 
Adeola also adds his voice to these accolades saying; “popular music has
been an important tool in the march towards the growth and development 
of the nation” (81). He strongly believes popular music has been used over 
the years to move the nation forward or otherwise at different stages. This 
is seemingly true when the music of legendary artistes like Fela Anikulapo 
Kuti Onyeka Onwenu, Christie Essien Igbokwe, Sonny Okosuns and the 
likes are considered. 

However, a closer view of the present day Nigerian dramatists shows that 
a few of them have captured Nigerian ecological issues because 
environmentalism is one of the issues that postmodernity erupts at the top 
of the literary discourse. The artist justifies his or her relevance and lays 
claim to the grip of contemporary discourse through his or her engagement 
with the planetary crisis. Glover gives credence to this saying that despite 
the complexities and contradictions, there has emerged a distinct set of 
responses to the concepts of postmodernity giving rise to a postmodern 
environmentalism (19). For Glover, the term postmodern conflates at least 



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two possibilities: firstly, an attack on the understanding and condition of 
modernity; and secondly, to sketch out a future different from the present 
(20). It was inaugurated by the progressive triumph of the market, fluidity 
of identities, the collapse of communism and the “End of History”
(Roberts 3). To be postmodern as Goodman puts it, “is to understand the
limits of modernity and to believe that modernity can be successfully 
overcome only by going beyond it” (13). For her, while modernists see
solutions to all our problems as potentially existing within modern 
parameters, postmodernists see the root cause of the problems in the 
assumptions of the modern paradigm. “There can be no real change unless
we challenge the entire foundation of modernism” (Goodman 12). The
postmodern dramatist is concerned with a rejection of the status-quo – a 
seeming refusal of modernity or the reinvention of the remnants of it. 
According to Canice C. Nwosu:  

Afro-postmodernism is rooted in cultural interaction not subjugation, 
reflecting in the process Africa’s socio-economic, political and 
cultural experiential issues where modernism failed. Afro-
postmodernism should be seen in the first instance in contemporary 
socio-cultural and economic predicament of the African. It should be 
a radical departure from mono-culturalism, tailored towards 
“commodification with commitment” and “satire with bite” (160) 

The postmodern dramatist through his or her work turns history against 
itself to define or redefine a new path for the future. This forms the basis 
upon which drama in the 21st century Nigeria must critically re-examine 
the current socioeconomic and geopolitical structures that plunders the 
Nigerian ecosystem and put its future on the path of peril. This explains 
the resonance of ecological themes and concerns in a few play texts that 
managed to surface in recent times. Sam Ukala for example created 
Harvest of Ghosts to challenge the destruction by oil pollution of the 
environment of the Niger Delta and the execution by the Abacha regime 
in Nigeria of the playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa. The play while offering a 
graphic visual statement of these atrocities “carries a universal message 
about greed, corruption and the destruction of the environment” (Banham
155). Other plays include Greg Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone and 
Dandaura’s Venom for Venom selected for study. 

 

 

 



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Eco-Pedagogy in Wake Up Everyone: A Postmodern Analysis 

Heim says that Mbajiorgu’s Wake Up Everyone has a purpose:  
… to support impoverished farmers, to educate, to build resilience
against the effects of climate change in rural Nigeria. The 
information on climate change is familiar, too, the belief and 
disbelief, the sometimes awkward juncture of different kinds of 
experience, the social power implicit in different kinds of knowledge 
(122). 

The playwright in the preface to the play writes that his effort was quite 
tasking as the subject of climate change is scientific and hence not easily 
adaptable to the stage (6). Mbajiorgu said he was quite surprised that 
despite the frightening effect of climate change, only a few plays have 
been produced on it globally.  

With climate change encroaching on us and the global future looking 
bleak, our world is dire need of a paradigm shift with regards to how 
we relate to our planet. To guarantee the future of our world, drama 
is one of those salient strategies we can employ. The time for jaw jaw 
is over. This is the time for action, let’s join hands and bring about
the needed change (Mbajiorgu 3).  

Wake Up Everyone captures the ignorance that pervades the Nigerian 
landscape on the subject matter. The encounter between the local 
government chairman and Professor Aladinma in the first scene clearly 
shows that climate change still sounds like a fairy tale to many even 
leaders. In that scene, Professor Aladinma says: “Things are no longer the
way they used to be, and even a child must have noticed the changes in 
our climate...” TheChairman cuts in saying: “But these are expected, Prof.
Aladinma. Doesn’t the Bible say that in the last days things like these will
happen...” (13). This situation clearly interprets the ignorance that is 
responsible for the hesitation in tackling the eco-crisis that faces the 
African. There is always a religious explanation to every natural disaster 
rather than face the fact that these disasters are precipitated by human 
activities. In that scene, the professor assumes the role of an ecopedagogue 
as he makes a futile attempt to de-stool the chairman of his erroneous 
contraptions about the planetary crisis. 

This three act play written in simple language brings to its audience the 
reality of climate change and several adaptive measures that can be 
employed to ameliorate its effect. In the play, we have Professor 
Aladinma, Desmond, a PhD student from the UK and the Professor’s



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Green Theatre troupe – an assemblage of fresh graduates brought together 
to dramatize the message of global warming. On the other hand, we have 
peasant farmers who dwell and depend on the land for survival and there 
is also the political class as typified by the Hon. Ochonkeya, the Local 
Government Council Chairman. 

Professor Aladinma, armed with enough information on climate change 
and the pending danger it poses to Ndoliland, goes to the Hon. Ochonkeya, 
with a proposal on how to arrest this looming catastrophe. 

The chairman pretentiously accepted to look into the proposal with the 
promise to present it before the legislative council but only to cast it aside 
soon after the Professor left his office. Meanwhile, Professor Aladinma 
returns to his rehearsal studio and with the arrival of Desmond, continues 
with the sensitization of local farmers. The farmers in the characters of 
Odukwe, Okosisi, Nnadozie and others were to be taught on local ways of 
adapting to climate change by planting drought resistant crops and other 
modern methods of agro-practice that takes into cognizance of reality and 
unpredictability of a changing climate. 

However, a much bigger disaster lay in wait for the land. This is further 
aggravated by the refusal of Hon. Ochonkeya, the chairman to attend to 
the professor’s proposal which would see the government and other
international agencies working together to arrest the coming flood. 
Ndoliland lies in the coastal plains and has been under severe threat of 
eco-degradation owing to years of exploitation by oil companies. The 
topography of the land also makes it susceptible to flooding. The play ends 
with the flood submerging the farmlands as predicted by the professor. 
The farmers are enraged by this development and in the full knowledge of 
the nonchalant attitude of the council chairman; they decided to go for 
their pound of flesh at his residence.   

Thematic Concerns of the Play 

One of the clear messages we get from Mbajiorgu’s Wake up Everyone is 
that natural disasters are a direct consequence of human insensitivity to 
the plight of the environment. Professor Aladinma in Act one, scene one 
says: 

What we are witnessing now is nothing else but planetary reactions 
to man’s mindless activities, period. Our soil and rivers have become
unproductive because of chemicals and oil spillages. The floods and 
erosions we experience are caused by our senseless attempts to 



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reclaim wetlands. What about the carbon monoxides from power 
generators and poorly maintained automobiles, and the unfriendly 
substances flared up into the air by oil companies on daily basis? The 
problems of our world today are caused by us and yet we are reluctant 
to find solutions to them (Mbajiorgu 2). 

Natural disasters as natural as they seem do not just occur. They are 
triggered by humanity’s actions and inactions. What the world faces now
in the name of global warming, ecological degradation or climate change 
are nothing but offshoots of what humans do or fail to do. Quite typical of 
this is the level of corruption in oil politics at the expense of the land and 
the people who depend on it for survival. The play brings this dimension 
to the fore and raises questions about the so-called amnesty programme 
for Niger Delta militants. The disarmament of the youths to a reasonable 
extent calmed the frayed nerves in the region but the continued plundering 
and mindless destruction of the environment has continued unabatedly and 
the creeks smell of the filth continuous oil spillage. The chairman, Hon. 
Ochonkeya in this same scene dialogues with his long time friend and 
partner saying: 

Chairman: I saw oil the spillage incident a grand opportunity to get 
back at the multinational oil companies. When the event 
occurred, I got a fiery lawyer that has been at the vanguard 
of environmental issues to institute a legal action against the 
oil companies. When they perceived the legal consequences 
and the attendant damages they resolved to invite me, as the 
plaintiff, for alternative dispute resolution. 

Jango: Choi!! Na lie – o – o, how the mata come take disappear nah? 

Chairman: Through my lawyer, of course. We agreed that they pay 
three hundred million naira (Mbajiorgu 11). 

This situation chronicles the hypocrisy and approach to the agitations and 
so-called environmental activism that has been the lot of the Niger Delta 
for many years, the level of damage done to the eco-system in this region 
ends up in compensations that are largely unaccounted for and absolutely 
nothing is done to commit the oil companies to clean the filth and make it 
safe once more for human habitation. 

The impact of climate change on agriculture is another matter of topicality 
in the play. Dimkpa, one of the farmers in the play draws attention to the 
deteriorating farms saying: “Go there and see for yourself. My farmland
is dry and barren, with nothing at all to justify all my efforts during the 



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planting season” (Mbajirogu 16). We also see in the play that the reality 
of a changing climate especially in Nigeria calls for an urgent response in 
the area of education and empowerment. There is a great need to educate 
the masses and rural dwellers whose mainstay is farming on the new 
strategies of combating or adapting to the effect of global warming. 
Ugodiya, another farmer responded to Dimkpa’s dilemma blaming him for 
his loss saying: 

You have nobody to blame but yourself. We had series of meetings 
with the Professor on what species of seed yam to plant and how to 
plant in this difficult time of change in climate. We were also 
introduced to different crop varieties and animal species (Mbajiorgu 
16). 

This clearly shows that climate adaptation remains one of the remedies for 
Africa and Nigeria in particular. When people cannot change the reality of 
a warming planet, they have to adapt and the mode of adaptation remains 
the greatest challenge in a continent where literacy and access to 
information remains elusive. 

Today we are seeing the effects of industrialized driven economy sparked 
off by the age of modernity. Emission of a greenhouse gases, 
deforestation, and loss of natural landscape and subsequent extinction of 
the life-world are just a few incidences that stare all in the face. The 
intellectual discourse between the Professor and Desmond in Act two, 
Scene two reveals a dimension to this trend that has become a reality in 
modern day Nigeria. Here we see in vivid pictures that the pursuit of 
modernity has further aggravated humanity’s crisis with the environment. 
The impact of climate change and its causative factors are staring all in the 
face even in the rural areas of Nigeria. Desmond blames it on the quest for 
so-called development fuelled by Western-styled civilization and 
modernity saying: “That’s why we are discharging all kinds of poisonous
substances into the atmosphere in the name of industrialization and 
modern technological supra-efficient machines” (Mbajiorgu 37). 

The play also brings to light the causes and effects of climate change. Act 
two, Scene three sees Professor Aladinma using his Green theatre troupe 
to narrate the story of climate change. With his cast working in his studio, 
they use various dramatic techniques as a tool for raising the 
consciousness of the local farmers on the possible causes of climate 
change and the resultant effect of this crisis on human habitation. The 
scene of the rehearsal shows the current reality of global warming and 



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where the world stands today. Obioma, Adaora, Ekene and Nweke – all 
part of the cast engage in this dialogue: 

Obioma: What have you done? Bio diversity minimization and 
emission of harmful and dangerous substances into the 
atmosphere and you know the adverse effects? 

Adaora, Ekene & Nweke: We don’t. 

Obioma: They are numerous, where do I even start, (counting with 
her fingers as she lists them). Increase in global atmospheric 
temperature, melting of polar ice, rising sea temperatures, sea 
level rise, appearance of radiation-related concerns, change in 
the pattern of precipitation, change in agricultural yield, 
proliferation of a thousand other diseases and health 
problems..(Mbajiorgu 39). 

This shows that the eco-crisis as it is today is the making of changing 
climate. This eco-catastrophe is felt in every part of the globe and more so 
on African shores. Nigeria’s response to these ecological challenges over 
the years has been that of silencing the voices that dare to speak out either 
by military might or by monetary inducement in the name of paying 
compensations. Nweke reminds us in this same scene that the nation has 
not responded with the right antidote to arrest this situation. She states: 

Look at those men carrying heavy weapons. Look at them, all around 
us, murdering our heroes for daring to stop the spillage of oil and 
flaring of gas. And there is the mighty rig, the monstrous equipment 
that rapes and pollutes our waters. (Stares in the distance). What am 
I seeing? (Pause). What are they doing? (Runs to the imaginary 
scene). 

Hei! Stop! Leave those little boys alone, they are too young, too 
young to handle that heavy military equipment. Take your fetish 
amulets off their necks! Can’t go find something better to do than
turning this whole land into corpses and coffins? All you know is 
how to shoot and maim (Mbajiorgu 40). 

The Ken Saro Wiwa saga and how they were summarily executed by the 
than military junta comes to mind as one ponders on the scene above. The 
resultant militancy that grew soon afterwards, the merchants of death 
armed by oil thieves ferrying off stolen oil overseas is also captured by 
Nweke’s statement. We also see the effects of hunger precipitated by 
poisoned sea life. Nweke further illustrates this saying: “Here in Ndoli, our
source of living has gone forever, our fishermen have exhausted what is 



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left of our sacred waters, carting home tender fingerlings that hold the 
secret of future harvest” (Mbajiorgu 41). 

This explains the current spate of importation of sea life. Nigeria’s waters
lie empty due to prolonged and desperate quest to harvest whatever is left 
from a once rich and abundant sea life. Fishermen now grovel through the 
filth of the waters in search of fish that no longer exist. Even the famous 
preserved and conserved waters that once served as an international tourist 
destination such as the Argungu Fishing Festival has gone with the winds 
because the giant fishes that wore the attraction of this festival can no 
longer be found. 

The ineptitude, nonchalance and indifference of nation’s political
leadership to the reality of climate change is another subject matter in the 
play. In Act three, Scene three, Professor Aladinma captures this message 
in this dialogue with Desmond saying:  

Look, Desmond, this country is asleep. Great leaders in other parts 
of the world are busy, embracing serious ideas like how to produce 
alternative energy sources that will replace fossil fuel. Here, our 
leaders are busy sharing oil wells and buying fuel tankers (Mbajiorgu 
50).  

Desmond’s response to this statement brings to light another dimension to
the eco-discourse by exposing the nation’s lack of will to adapt to the
realities of climate change. He states thus: 

It is despeakable, most of the cities in this country are stuffed with 
hotels, filling stations, shopping malls, exotic mansions, and no 
breathing space at all; no trees, no flowers, no parks, no forest 
reserves and no pedestrian walk ways. In every corner, you will find 
one structure or another without adequate waste disposal system, 
unfriendly buildings facing and suffocating one another. Yet more 
people are procuring cement and moulding blocks in these already 
congested cities (Mbajiorgu 50). 

A look at our cities today reflects this reality. The slums are swelling daily 
as more people migrate from the hinterlands in search of a better life. As 
the cities grow in population, nearly non-existent infrastructure is over 
stretched and this also impacts greatly on the environment.  

 

 



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The Conflict of Greed and Eco-degradation in Dandaura’s Venom for 
Venom 

In another vein, Dandaura’s Venom for Venom leads the eco-discourse 
further by exposing the impact of western styled companies to the 
degradation of the Nigerian environment. The play tackles the hypocrisy 
in the so-called development efforts of the West on Nigerian soil. Kevwe, 
one of the elders in the play questions this hypocrisy and flagrant deceit 
of these companies saying: “we believed the company which deceived us 
that they would turn our community into paradise overnight.” (9). Briggs, 
another elder added that, “instead of development, our land has been
pillaged by the company. Our rivers are no longer productive.” (9). 

Dandaura’s Venom for Venom presents the subject of greed as the driving 
force behind all forms of environmental degradation and exploitation 
especially in the Niger Delta. The play explores the motivation behind the 
militancy and the violent approach to the eco-struggles of the region in 
recent years. The play opens with two central characters – Ogenero and 
Tega who represent different ideological divides in eco-activism. Ogenero 
is a selfish insurgent who cashes in on prevailing exploitation in his 
community to milk the resources of the elites and that of the multinationals 
through kidnappings, hostage taking and robbery. Tega on the other hand, 
decamps from Ogenero’s group to lead a non-violent campaign aimed at 
educating the people to reject the continued plundering and devastation of 
the environment. This he achieves by mobilizing the people through the 
power of art (drama). 

The play further portrays the consequences of violent militancy as 
represented by Ogenero who in the end failed tragically while Tega’s
group and their approach brought about a revolution in the hitherto restless 
community. They play ends with the people embracing peace and getting 
the needed result they deserve as everyone comes to a realization that 
violence is not the best antidote for achieving peace and development. 

In scene two, we see the real agenda that gave impetus to the resurgence 
of militancy in the Niger Delta. Ogenero, leader of the militants in the play 
addresses his comrades-in-arms saying: 

My brothers, they call us terrorists, but you and I know that we are 
not terrorists. The real terrorists are the foreign companies that have 
connived with our brothers uphill to exploit us. They destroyed our 
land, polluted our environment. Even the water, our people’s means
of livelihood has been muddled up and poisoned (Dandaura 13). 



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No insurgency erupts without a cause. The insurgency in the Niger Delta 
was primarily angst by the growing deprivation, exploitation of oil wealth 
and subsequent alienation of the people from nature’s good. The growing
poverty index and the mass population of unemployed youths provided a 
ready and willing army for a violent and deadly campaign that further 
exacerbated the conflict in the region. In all, the environment is further left 
battered and bruised by the simmering rivers fuelled by leaking oil from 
blown-up pipelines. The creeks are left unsafe and impregnable as gun-
wielding militants lurk on every side. 

Venom for Venom also brings to light the true purpose of eco-activism and 
the environmental crisis especially in the Niger Delta. The play shows us 
the two strands of the Niger Delta struggle. Ogenero is a violent militant 
with a selfish bent whose modus operandi has a criminal bent. Tega is a 
non-violent activist, a social crusader with a pro-environmental ideology. 
The confrontation between these two characters partly explains the 
dichotomy that pervades the insurgency and the eco-struggles of the Niger 
Delta. This scenario also explains the rise of criminality within the claims 
and agitations of the various contending groups. There are those who took 
to arms to perpetuate mayhem for their selfish gains such as hostage 
taking, kidnappings, oil theft and vandalism. On the other hand we have 
those who push for the safety and productivity of the environment in the 
face of oil exploitation. Tega says: “We must not lose focus. Our
movement is geared towards total emancipation of our people and the 
environment, not murder and arson! We must not commit same crimes 
that have warranted our struggle (16). Just soon after this statement, he got 
kicked out of Ogenero’s camp. 

What then is the present state of the Niger Delta that catalyzed these 
agitations? Scene four of the play provides an answer. At a drinking and 
relaxation centre owned by Mama Etteh, characters simply known as 1st 
Man and 2nd Man provides a reality that has characterised the entire Niger 
Delta environment saying: 

1st Man: My worry is that our crops have all withered.  

There is this strange dust colouring every plant in the farm. Even 
grasses and trees are gradually dying. I am afraid we may not 
have any harvest this season if this problem is not addressed 
soon. 

2nd Man: Haven’t you noticed the disappearance of fishes from our
rivers. The water these days is as coloured as banga soup. At 



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49

first, I reasoned that the gods were angry with us, but only this 
morning, my friend explained that it is oil spillage from the 
Company’s pipes that has polluted the waters (Dandaura 25).  

This situation no doubt explains the danger and uncertainty that prevails 
in oil producing communities. It typifies the reality that the primary source 
of livelihood of ordinary citizens which is agriculture is severely 
threatened by the activities associated with oil exploration. What this 
portends for future generations becomes more worrisome owing to the fact 
that the Niger Delta still grapples with ecological crisis till date. At the 
moment, there are no realistic measures to arrest this trend other than just 
providing amnesty for supposed repentant militants. 

In the play, we also see the potency of non-violent resistance. Scene seven 
shows Tega calling on the people to shun violence but yet to courageously 
lead a struggle that ultimately engages the minds of the people to act for 
change. He says: 

Do not be scared of what the powers that may be will do to us. So 
long as we succeed in sensitizing the people, the people themselves 
will decide on how best to liberate themselves. That is my problem 
with the violent approach; it robs the people of the revolutionary zeal 
(Dandaura 40). 

The eco-pedagogic importance of drama was also captured in this scene. 
Drama is identified as one effective tool for social change with the 
potential to galvanize the energies of the people to change what they do 
not want and bring about what they want. Tega also amplifies this saying: 
“Through such performances, we could teach out people to rediscover 
their identities and regain confidence in their capabilities, limitations and 
potentials” (Dandaura 42). This clearly indicates that drama indeed serves
educational functions that reinvent the innate abilities of the people to 
transform their societies especially their environment. This scene also 
provides us with a self-reflective dimension to change which eco-
pedagogy brings in the discourse with forces that militate against the 
environment. The ideology of change according to the play should and
must be seen to begin with the people and the war against these alien 
forces must be targeted at the conscience. We see this in the resolve of the 
youths at the end of scene seven who declared thus: “We shall never 
exploit the people or collaborate with those who exploit the people. Our 
weapons should pierce the consciences of our oppressors and never their 
bodies” (Dandaura 44). 



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Conclusion 

The import of these plays shows the multi-faceted dimensions to the main 
causes of ecological disasters in Africa. There is no doubt that industrial 
activities largely controlled by multi-nationals have contributed in no 
small measure to the desecration of the once peaceful, surreal and sublime 
temperate Nigerian climate. The constant production of unrecyclable 
waste comes largely from the west and in most cases the Nigerian 
environment is a dumping ground of some sort. 

As the world’s eco-system continues to deplete with every passing day, 
the question remains what role humanity can play to salvage what remains 
of the global life world. The interconnectedness between nature and 
culture provides an impetus for arts especially dramatic literature to 
engage. The reality of climate change dawns on Africa with its attendant 
consequences, drama can indeed mediate and act as a catalyst not just for 
change but also for healing a dying earth. Dandaura’s Venom for Venom 
and Mbajiorgu’sWake up Everyone as presented in this paper is indicative 
of the potency of drama in creating the needed advocacy for a safe and 
cleaner environment. 

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