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framework and textual analysis used to explore the texts.

Keywords: Economy, Exploitation, Betrayal, Disappointment, 
Environmental Degradation

Introduction
           The discovery of crude oil in large quantity in January 15, 
1956 in the Niger Delta region precisely in Oloibiri in Rivers 
State, placed Nigeria among the rank of oil producing countries in 
the world, and it brought lots of revenue for the country. Prior to 
the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria, agriculture was the means of 
the country's revenue as the nation exported cash crops like palm 
oil, palm kernel, rubber and so on to other countries. As a result of 
oil discovery in the Niger Delta region, multinational companies 
began to invest in the country, which resulted to exploitative 
measures and environmental pollution.

 The Niger Delta region is of tremendous strategic and 
economic importance to Nigeria. This is because Nigeria's main 
strategic economic resources, oil and gas are concentrated in the 
region and since these minerals constitute the country's economic 
livewire, the Niger Delta region could rightly be regarded as the 
key to Nigeria's economic prosperity and greatness.

 While the presence of these huge reserve of oil and gas 
turned the .Niger Delta into the most important source of revenue 
for Nigeria, the exploitation of these resources have been carried 
out in such unsustainable manner that not only are people denied 
the benefits derived from their own land, but their very means of 
livelihood and sustenance have been threatened thereby.

 In spite of the stupendous wealth that have accrued from 
decades of oil activities and production in Nigeria, there is 
surprisingly, little or no attention given to the development of the 
region. There is no doubt, however, that oil pollution from oil 

Socioeconomic Exploitation in Kaine Agary's 
Yellow Yellow

Nwafor, John Onyema
Department Of English

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam 
Campus

nwaforjohnable@gmail.com
07037828182, 07087870380

&

Ibekwe, Thaddeus Osinachi
Department of English

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojuwku University,
Igbariam Campus, Anambra State

07037465564

Abstract

This paper examines the exploitation of the natural resources 
found in the Niger Delta as it effects on the economic life of the 
youths in Agary's Yellow Yellow. It portrays the exploitative 
measures used by the eminent and the multinationals oil 
companies to oppress and silence the people of Niger Delta, which 
they use to oppress and silence the people of Niger Delta and 
uncovers the resistance and rebellion of the people. This study 
reveals the excruciating pain the people of the Niger Delta 
undergo as a result of oil exploration in the region. The study also 
examines the dimension of exploitsof the multinational 
companies in partnership with the local chiefs on the people and 
their environment. This situation affects the youths, as it destroys 
their hope of a better future, leading them to commit crimes. This 
problem which requires urgent attention is explored in this study. 
The Marxist approach to criticism is adopted as the theoretical 

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because of environmental pollution caused by the oil companies. 
This situation has warranted many literary artists and critics to 
engage in a battle in order to sensitise and criticise the 
government. Writers like Sam Ukala, Camillus Ukah, Grace 
Usifo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Hellon Habila, Isidore Okpewho etc 
throughout their works have examined the experiences of the 
people. In a conversation with Ezechi Onyerionwu, Ojaide 
explains that:

... his point of view is to touch peoples mind about 
what is happening in Niger Delta through 
imaginative reconstruction of episodes, events and 
situations. And these issues should draw sensitivity 
to ideas about the environment and society which 
concern everybody. . . (36).

 One of the major reasons why we should approach the 
Niger Delta crises from literary and intellectual perspective is, 
according to Onookome Okome in a conversation with Ezechi 
Onyerionwu, "to understand a problem, there is the need .to have 
an intellectual understanding in order to solve it" (617). Creative 
literature by writers has increased their pressures on the society, 
calling for a consideration of environmental laws and rights of the 
people. Also, these writers examine the effects this issue has on the 
younger generation, who feel trapped and look for a way of 
escape.

 In the words of Psalm Chinaka, "the case of environmental 
and ecological menace by multinationals... has led to the 
formation of resistant youths groups..." (Chinaka 28).Therefore, 
the land is the major factor in which other issues like political and 
economic security are hinged on.

 Kaine Agary's Yellow Yellow is directed specifically 
towards x-raying the environmental problems faced by Niger 
Delta communities. These showed their relevance by portraying 

activities has clearly and seriously damaged the environment and 
the livelihood of those living in the oil producing communities.

 The moist damp and humid forest within the lowland rain 
forest environment is home of such crops like cassava, yam, 
banana, pepper which are grown by the people for their basic 
subsistence. As the incessant spill occurs, it spreads into 
farmlands, and water bodies. The toxic seeps into the ground and 
is taken up by the plants' root.

 Furthermore, as most of the spills are accompanied by fire, 
most of the impacted area is completely degraded leaving only 
thick encrusted earth which is black in colour. As a result of these 
activities, tensions have arise among the people because of 
environmental degradation that has polluted and destroyed both 
land and water within the Niger Delta region by various chemical 
and gas flares, even the atmosphere is congested with these 
chemicals that are harmful to human body.

 Since then, various responses as a result of environmental 
pollution, economic exploitation and mostly negligence of 
government dominate the literature of the Niger Delta. Literature 
is very important and crucial to our development. A good number 
of literary -works have been born out of tensions in the region. For 
every society to survive and withstand the test of time, it must have 
literature that preserves its experiences. Literary artists 
throughout the region have presented to us aspects of the struggles 
of the people, their experiences, hopes, despair which fill their 
hearts in sharp contrast with what the media display. As 
Onookome Okome observes, "the tales coming out of Niger Delta 
are not evidence of dead dreams. Rather, they are examples of 
dreams which the suffering people are trying to make into reality" 
(qtd in Darah 23).

 Through their works, we are to feel the plight of the people 
whose means of livelihood like farming and fishing have been cut 

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they actively fight for that.

 The society from which an artist rises always in most cases 
informs the issue he writes about. It is truth that literature is not 
created in a vacuum as it mediates on social and political issues 
that the artist grapples within his existence. Charles Bressler gives 
vents to the above when he says:

Society shapes our consciousness ;that social and 
economic conditions directly influences how we 
believe and value things that Marxism offers us an 
opportunity and a plan for changing the world 
from apathy of bigotry, hatred and conflict 
resulting from class struggle to useless society, 
where wealth, opportunity and education are 
actually visible for all. (115)

 From the above, we can infer that the writer is an active 
participant of his society and by extension recreates the collective 
experiences of the people. Africa experience transcends the 
concept of "Art for Art Sake" theory in which it thrives and 
emerging into a moralistic light in question of societal practices.

 This research is taking its base from Terry Eagleton's view 
in Marxand Literary Criticism, where he posits that what 
Marxism has to deliver story in the struggle of men and women to 
free themselves from certain forms of exploitation -oppression, in 
other words, Marxist theory is based on Class struggle between 
the two different groups of the society. It shows a society where the 
lower class struggles to survive in a capitalist society that 
celebrates, favours and maintains the power of the upper class 
(bourgeoisie) that oppress the poor in a society'. Marxism after 
examining social organisation perceived human history to have 
consisted of a organisation of struggle between classes; the 
oppressed and the oppressor. The theory goes further to explain 
that the ultimate driving force involving the distribution of 

the social and political ills, such as evils of military government, 
marginalization, poverty, prostitution, abuse of power, lack of 
press freedom, and environmental pollution in the work. 

 There are different kinds of literary theories, but this 
research is going to base its analysis on Marxist theory. It believes 
that literary works are written out of experiences which could be 
historical, political, economic or social to expose society's ill, then 
seek a solution for a change.

 Marxist theory is an example of socialist theory that is 
known for its struggle for change. It is named after the propounder 
Karl Marx, a German philosopher and economist. This theory was 
introduced into literary criticism for it supports socialism; how we 
relate with each other for the achievement of change.

 This theory is so broad that it attracted many critics who 
give their own different definitions of the theory. Marxist theory 
believes that class struggle is the bases of historical development. 
In Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx writes that history of hitherto 
existing society is the history of class Struggle.... The modern 
bourgeoisie country that has now sprouted from the ruins of feudal 
society has not done away with antagonism. It has established new 
classes, new conditions of oppression and new forms of struggle 
in place of the old ones. Terry Eagleton in his Marxism and 
Literary Criticism writes "that Marxist criticism is part of a larger 
body of theoretical analysis which aims to understand ideologies, 
the ideas, values and feelings by which men experience their 
societies at various times" (14).Marxism is political, it examines 
the different classes of people, the attitudes of the leaders to the 
general masses.

 While Marxism stands for the destruction of the capitalist 
state and has as its aim in the withering away of the state all forms 
of institutionalized violence, Marxism not only supports the right 
of the working class to exercise a domination over bourgeoisie, 

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theory operates a warning system that alerts the readers to social 
wrongs, it is a mentor to the proletariat pointing out how they can 
free themselves from the powerless position in which they are to 
aim at replacing, the existing, system with socialist ones. This is 
what Lukacs calls "reflectionalism". Achebe in his Morning Yet on 
Creation Day posits that modern African literature is based on 
contemporary human experiences; in order to remain relevant, 
and any writer who tries to avoid the big social and contemporary 
African situations will end up being irrelevant. The primary text 
shows the disillusionment and exploitation occurring in the Niger 
Delta region. Events in the text calls for unity among the people to 
take charge of their resources and create a better life for 
themselves.

 Socioeconomic Exploitation in Kaine Agary's Yellow 
Yellow
Agary's Yellow-Yellow examines critically the conditions of 
women in the contemporary society of Nigeria, especially in the 
Niger-Delta area where women are seen as objects that can be used 
and dumped.

 Zilayefa, a young girl of Greek and Nigerian parentage, 
leaves her rustic existence and the protected grip of her mother in 
the village in search of a better life in the city. With a 
recommendation from her church pastor, she is taken in and 
sheltered by Sisia, an elderly woman, and her young friend, Lolo.

 Zilayefa is thrust into bustling city of Port Harcourt, 
unprepared for the pitfalls awaiting a young girl very unsure of 
herself and in desperate need of direction. In Port Harcourt, 
Zilayefa is confronted by the prejudices against her racial identity. 
She is devoid of an encouraging socialisation she wants in the city 
because of bias that has gripped the society. She struggles with 
accepting the void left by not knowing her father and tries to fill 
that void with the attention of an older lover. Through the 
experience of her budding sexuality, Zilayefa grows to a higher 

resource's, gain production and such matter was "historical 
materialism". Kaine Agary opines that, to be in a society that is 
characterized by Social stratification, featuring the upper class 
(oppressor) and the lower class (oppressed). This they portray in 
their novels, the marginalization of the lower class and the 
exploitation of their resources subjecting them to abject poverty.

 Kaine Agary is famous for her commitment to using 
literature to bring the travails of the Niger Delta people to light. 
The desire to change the Niger Delta situation to a better one has 
been the role of the writers in the region; this is essentially what 
forms Agary's Yellow Yellow - they use art to espouse an 
alternative order in theNiger Delta and Nigeria in general. 

 In Agary's Yellow Yellow, the presentation of Zilayefa's 
mother shows how the discovery of crude oil and its activities 
have brought about numerous problems to the people of Niger 
Delta. We see in the novel the degradation, exploitation and 
squandering of riches by very few' individuals. Zilayefa's mother 
is said to have had life planned out through her farming. She has 
the dream of moving up the ladder in life, but this dream is 
shattered as a result of oil spillage that totally burns down her 
farm.

 Agary presents a organisation of Struggle in the characters 
of Zilayefa and the village boys who strive to survive the 
oppression melted on their society by the oil companies and the 
local Chiefs who are being bribed by the exploiters in order to 
protect their interest. They stand out to cause as much havoc, as 
possible, until the government takes interest in the plight of the 
Niger Delta. This they do by oil bunkering and kidnapping of oil 
companies executives.

 In conclusion, therefore one of the functions of literature is 
to make the populace aware of social ills, and it should be 
sympathetic to action that will wipe those ills away. Marxist 

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leaves the farming and fishing occupation that her mother is doing 
to make sure she never lacks in any aspect of her life and decides to 
go to the city without having a static and definite thing she is going 
there to do which makes her to say, "to try my luck." Her mother 
objects to this notion but all her attempts to stop Zilayefa from 
going to the cityproves failed as she remembers her own situation 
eighteen years ago. After eight d.ys of silence, her mother accepts 
and goes to her church pastor who recommended Pastor 
Ikechukwu to take care of Zilayefa when she reaches Port 
Harcourt. Zilayefa is givn a great deal of advice by her mother and 
Mama Ebiye which they believe will change her life for better and 
suggest that she travels secretly.

 At Port Harcourt, she meets Pastor Ikechukwu who now 
introduces her to the woman that will take care of her, Sisi, an 
elderly matriarch and her friend Lolo. Sisi t ces Zilayefa home and 
introduces her to Clara and Esther who discloses to her that she s a 
JJC—Johnny Just Come—who is eager to peace and easy to yield. 
She is later sent o Mr Moses by Sisi who now offers her a job in a 
hotel as a waitress. She later discovers a friend, Emem, who is 
unlike her and they discuss so many things about themselves. 
Emem is a Calabar girl who is nurtured and brought up in Port 
Harcourt. Her mother did the same as Zilayefa's mother who is a 
trader in Port Harcourt. She was renamed "Pussycat" just as 
Zilayefa is nicknamed "Yellow-Yellow."

 Zilayefa now starts to experience so many good and bad 
things in the city as -he came to the city naively. She purposely gets 
inundated in the extravagant aspects of life as she learns how to 
drive. She sees how the white men come to Port Harcourt and mess 
around with girls and thereby producing so many mixed breeds in 
the city, her mother later writes her to make sure she is well and 
reminding her all that she has to know. She later travels by air to 
Lagos through the help of Damiete who is Lolo's leer.

 During the sixtieth birthday of one of Lolo's father's friend, 

level of knowledge and understanding and defines for herself what 
a girl's life has to be, most especially a girl of her age.

The story has its main setting in an African country, Nigeria. There 
are some sub-settings like Port Harcourt, the start where Zilayefa's 
mother is when she meets Zilayefa' s father who is a Greek. This is 
also the place where Zilayefa spends most of her lifetime as a 
grown girl in search of a better life in the city. This is the period 
during theNiger-Delta crises which leads to girls, like Zilayefa, to 
thrust into the city in search of a comfortable place of settlement.

 Zilayefa is a child got from an illicit affair of a Greek man 
and an Ijaw woman. Zilayefa's mother Bibi is entrusted with the 
hard task of solely bringing up a child without a helper because her 
man whom he meets when she is eighteen years old when working 
as a secretary in the oil company, leaves her for his home place, 
zilayefa grows up without knowing her father as she would always 
like to know her father, but her mother has always been 
discouraging her from asking questions about her father. Zilayefa. 
is known by the name Lage by her parent and her friends and 
relations.

 One day a nobleman, Chief Semoke, dies in Lagos and is 
brought back in his village to be buried. During the funeral 
ceremony, Zilayefa runs into a man, Sergio, who comes home for 
the burial of the late Chief Semoke with his friend Tarilabo. Sergio 
was an antique-furniture dealer from Spain who travels 
extensively for his business and has met Tarilabo on one of his 
business trips. With time Zilayefa knows more about Sergio and 
wants to follow him go to the city as all apertures of her thought are 
consumed with what the city life can be.

 Being too workaholic and diligent when it comes to 
running ordinary home errand, Zilayefa is absolutely prolific to 
her mother. At studies too, she is more serious, which makes Mr 
Diseye to count her as one of the erudite ones in her class. Zilayefa 

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 These poor women are more vulnerable to the changes in 
the environment in part because social, political and economic 
exclusion means they almost have fewer choices about where they 
live. In Yellow-Yellow, women bear the brunt of natural hazards, 
loss and the depletion of forest, polluted air, water and soil and the 
negative impacts of industrial activities. Zilayefa laments that:

The day my mother's farmland was overrun by 
crude oil was the day u, dream for me started to 
wither but she carried on watering it with hope. 
The black oil that spilled that day swallowed my 
mother's crops and unravelled the treads that held 
together her fantasies for me (10).

 In her novel Yellow-Yellow, Agary shows her daughter as 
Yellow-Yellow because of her hit-and-run sexual escapade of a 
Greek father who the mother only knows by name. Zilayefa's 
mother tries to ensure that her daughter's life does not take similar 
unfortunate path as hers did and so everything is done to protect 
her. She does everything to programme her daughter for success 
through formal and informal education that had eluded her. 
Zilayefa her daughter gets into the same ditch that her mother 
wanted her to get away from. Zilayefa sees herself with pregnancy 
not for the playboy which expatriate but for native sugar daddy 
who she sees as a father, dumping her like whites, as she cry thus:

 My mother took care of all my needs, went far to make sure 
that I got education. She used to tell me that I would be better than 
her, that aslong as I was educated, I would be able to take care of 
myself. She sacrifices everything to make sure I went to school.

 In the novel, Agary portrays women as not having any 
option but to sell their bodies to men, especially the foreign oil 
expatriates who use young ladies as nothing but sex bags.I could 
find my way to a place like Bonny, the base of expatriates working 
for the oil companies, and sell my body to a whity. Some girls from 

she runs into another man, Admiral, who is introduced to her by 
Lolo as Retired Admitf Kenneth Alaowei Amalayefa or Admiral, 
Uncle Ken. Admiral is a married man who is blessed with children 
but is still a philanderer. He is a handsome old man whom Zilayefa 
likens and pictures as being as old as her father. At first, Zilayefa 
sees Admiral as being too old to be her lover but after-being 
inordinately and badly advised by Emem, she capitulates to 
Admiral's demands of being his lover. Finally, Zilayefa surrenders 
her virginity to Admiral. She is now turned to a full woman by 
Admiral and flourishes her with anything she wants as she has 
forgotten her mother's advice and the intention of her coming to 
the city, which is to get educated.

 She is now in her damnable aspect of life, as she has never 
thought well. On this particular stance, she now tries to immerse 
herself into every extravagant aspect of life as she is only 
interested in having fun. She later discovers that her period has 
ceased and after much consultation, she discovers that she is 
pregnant. She tells Admiral about it and he recommends a clinic 
for her. Zilayefa later meets Sergio. Though her love for Sergio is 
not as strong as it is on the first day she met him, she makes no 
mistake of sleeping with him. Being at a city, she no more 
remembers her education, which has been put to a stop by either 
Sergio or Admiral. She later aborts the child after she has taken 
some plants recommended for her.

 In Yellow-Yellow, Kaine Agary presents to us the current  
predicament of women in the Niger-Delta, how they are treated 
negatively by human and environmental factors for the Niger-
Delta women. Environmental sustainability is fundamental to 
their overall wellbeing and development. The environment is 
important to these women living in poverty not only because their 
existence to a large extent relies on substantial endeavours, which 
depend on natural resources, but also they perceive that their 
wellbeing is tied totheir environment in terms of livelihood, 
health, vulnerability and the ability u control their lives.

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Delta, foreign oil expatriates and local men see young girls as 
nothing but sex bags that they can use and dump. Admiral fell in 
love with Zilayefa (Yellow-Yellow) after promising her heaven 
and earth that he will take care of everything to make her succeed 
in life, being old enough to be her grandfather. She agrees to love 
him because she loved Admiral and allow him take her virginity. 
Admiral turns her down when she was pregnant. He only gives her 
money to see Dr George for abortion. This shows that she is 
nothing to him except for sexual gratification. Yellow-Yellow says 
thus:

There was no room for a discussion. He did not ask 
whether I wanted to keep the child or not. He did 
not care, and if I kept the baby, I was definitely on 
my own. Admiral did not have any time to commit 
to me again (163).

 Like Sergio keeping his family in faraway Spain and sit 
back here in Nigeria to exploit young girls whom no doubt will 
never marry. Rather, they dump the girls even after they 
impregnate them, the men believe that money can make 
everything. Zilayefa remembering the sweet voice of Sergio 
promising to be with her and not believing he can leave his family 
to anybody else.

 Kaine Agary in her novel Yellow-Yellow and her unique 
manner portrays women in the Niger-Delta. Before now, youths, 
especially male folk, have been the ones crying out of the Nigerian 
nation about their continued economic, socio and political 
marginalisation. Agary shows us the dehumanisation, 
disillusionment and exploitation of the Niger-Delta women and 
that women are the major victims of the effect of oil exploitation in 
the region. Agary puts the suffering of women in the hands of the 
reign oil expatriates and in the hands of local men who 
discriminate, subjugate and relegate women to the background. 
Then, many questions come to her mind:

my town did that in order to send money home.

Even when they are lucky enough to find a mistress, "the mistress 
would beat them daily, deny them food, and after years of service 
send them back to the villa without having improved their lives, as 
promised." At home, men expect the women to suffer and cater for 
the basic needs of the family. The woman is oppressed when she 
fails to do this Men demanded a healthy meal when they were 
hungry, disregarding the fact that the women had to work extra 
kilometer to get firewood or cultivate and harvest the food now 
fertilised by their sweat and blood. More so, at home and at the 
communal levels, the women are discriminated against. They are 
not allowed: participate or contribute to societal issues, even if it 
concerns them.

 However, the men claim that according to tradition, it was 
their exclusive right to make all the decisions inside and outside 
the home. They draw the line for women, particularly in 
communal meetings on various town issues. This discrimination 
or denial is born out of the idea and fear that women, if given 
chance as thus:

If we allowed women free access to this meeting, 
they reasoned, where would it end? The next thing, 
they would want to do is mount their men inthe 
bedroom or question their husband's decision. No 
real man could accept that (40).

 This discrimination did not exist at the communal level 
alone. In home economics, the men never allowed the women to 
decide or contribute on how money should be spent. Those women 
who dared were beating heavily.

 Agary in her novel Yellow-Yellow portrays men being 
encouraged in the region to take advantage of their oil wealth to 
engage in sexual intercourse with many young girls. In Niger-

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life of ordinary woman in the Niger Deltta and people who try to 
survive the economic, physical environment and politics of the 
Niger Delta. In all these men see them as just sexual objects meant 
for their pleasure.

 However, women should be given equal opportunities 
because they will contribute to the growth of the area, despite all 
these sufferings and rejection, we see the character of Sisi and 
Lolo who through their creativity and hard work are able to 
acquire great wealth for themselves despite their level of 
education. Unlike Admiral who used his wealth to exploit ladies, 
Lolo and Sisi uses their own wealth in human development. They 
adopted and brought up Zilayefa as if she is their relative and Sisi 
employed Clara as a sales girls in her shop finally. Agary's novel 
has opened our eyes to see how women in the Niger Delta are 
discriminated on the part of the local men and white men who 
usewomen as no thing: but sexual machines and objects money 
can buy.

I had wanted to understand what it was besides 
money that mad beautiful twenty year old girls 
look at their short, fat, ugly fifty-eight year old men 
and then men called them "born-throways," 
''ashawo-pickins' and father unknown" (171).

 However, what these men failed to understand in the view 
of many feminists like Agary and others is that the women come 
from the man's ribs, not from his feet to be walked upon; not from 
his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal in treatment 
and opportunity. Women suffer discrimination; they are often 
called or labelled witches just because of their appearance. Agary 
laments that women with distended belies that look like pregnancy 
caused by urine fibroids were confined to their rooms because a 
diviner "who is a man" had said or confirmed them to be witches.

 Agary shows women in riverine areas and their 
exportation by oil expatriates, that is, the oil companies and men 
of the region, using young girls as nothing but sex bags. If the 
women of this region will sit and think about their future, like 
Zileyafe did when she saw herself in a situation she did not want in 
life. Also, women should stand together to fight for the equal 
opportunity with their male counterparts.

Conclusion

 This paper explored how the people are exploited, 
especially economically, in contemporary African Society with 
special reference to Nigeria. Kaine Agary views women in Niger 
Delta as being exploited by the oil expatriates as nothing but 
sexual bags.

 Agary's novel Yellow-Yellow has taken our attention away 
from the stories of militancy and violence and in turn focus on the 

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Okumagba, Paul.  "Oil Exploration and Ethnic Militia Activities 
in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria." African Research 
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Onyerionwu, Ezechi. "Books Review: celebrating Giant strides in 
literary creativity in Ikechukwu Asika's, Tamara". ANSU 
Journal of Arts and Social Sciences vol. 2.1(2013): 124-
1:26. 

Orife, Beatrice. "Some Feminist Response to the Niger Delta in 
Fiction/' From Boom to Doom; Protest and Conflict 
Resolution in the Literature of the Niger Delta. Ed. 
Chinyere 

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Agary, Kaine. Yellow Yellow, Dtalkshop, 2006.

Aldo. Leopold. A Sand Country. Oxford University Press. 1949.

Amuta, Chidi.  Towards a Sociology of African Literature.   Zim 
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Chinaka, Psalms. "Demythologizing the Masquerade of Violence 
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COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2025
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