Engaging Cinema in Environmental Crisis: A Paradigm of Documentary Films of the Niger Delta

• Authors: Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah

Title variants

PL

Kino zaangażowane w kryzys ekologiczny: przykład filmów dokumentalnych z delty Nigru

Abstracts

PL

Bogaty w ropę region delty Nigru w Nigerii pozostaje jednym z najbardziej zdewastowanych środowiskowo miejsc na świecie. Jest to spowodowane spalaniem gazu, wyciekami ropy naftowej, nielegalnym bunkrowaniem ropy i aktami wandalizmu dokonywanymi na rurociągach w regionie. Dążenie do ekodemokracji i przerwania ekoapatii skłoniło światowych naukowców do opracowania paradygmatów, które sprzyjałyby transformacji środowiskowej. Na gruncie dyscyplin akademickich, takich jak historia, geografia, antropologia i humanistyka globalna, trwa więc krytyczne zaangażowanie w praktyki i dyskursy, które mogłyby ułatwić osiągnięcie antycypacyjnej adaptacji do klimatu. Tymczasem jednak afrykańskie uczelnie, szczególnie nigeryjskie, dużo wolniej przyswajają krytyczne podejście właściwe Zachodowi. Krytycy filmów ekologicznych w Nigerii nie zbadali w pełni dyskursu środowiskowego, który nabrał siły w innych dyscyplinach kluczowych dla ekologizacji humanistyki. Dlatego też w afrykańskiej nauce wciąż brakuje krytycznych podstaw do analizy związków środowiska i kina lub też, jak to nazywam, dyskursów na temat „zielonego” kina. Na tym tle przyglądam się kryzysowi ekologicznemu w filmach dokumentalnych Delta Blues, The Nigerian Oil Thieves and The True Price of Crude Oil. Analiza treści ma pozwolić na zbadanie, w jaki sposób filmy te zostały wykorzystane do budowania świadomości ekologicznej w regionie. Analiza opiera się na biocentrycznym modelu ekokrytyki Adriana Ivakhiva, który uznaje jedność człowieka i wszystkich stworzeń oraz otaczającego go środowiska, zalecając przejście od humancentryzmu do biocentryzmu.

EN

The oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria remains one of the most environmentally devastated places in the world. This is caused by gas flaring, crude oil spillages, illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism in the region. The call for eco-democracy and the disruption of eco-apathy has driven global academia into developing paradigms that would foster environmental transformation. Interestingly, while academic disciplines such as history, geography, anthropology and the global humanities continue to critically engage in practices and discourses that would facilitate achieving anticipatory climate adaptation, African academia, especially in Nigeria, has been slow to absorb the same critical spirit as the West. In fact, environmental film critics in Nigeria have not fully explored the environmental discourse that has gathered strength in other disciplines central to the greening of the humanities. Therefore, there remains a dearth of critical underpinning for environment and cinema, or what I term discourses of/on the green cinema, in African scholarship. Against this backdrop, I examine environmental crisis in the documentary films Delta Blues, The Nigerian Oil Thieves and The True Price of Crude Oil, and use content analysis method to investigate how these films have been used to create environmental awareness in the region. The analysis is anchored on Adrian Ivakhiv’s biocentric model of ecocriticism, which acknowledges the unity of man and all the creatures and the environment around him, and further recommends a shift from human-centrism to biocentrism.

Keywords

PL

kino; delta Nigru; dokument; ekodemokracja; biocentryzm

EN

cinema; Niger Delta; documentary; eco-democracy; biocentrism

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Slawistyki PAN
• Journal: Colloquia Humanistica
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 1-22

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Stephen Ogheneruro Okpadah

• University of Ilorin
• University of Warwick, Ilorin–Coventry

• https://orcid.org/0000000268043395

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Identifiers

DOI

10.11649/ch.2717

Biblioteka Nauki

31339683