Traore, M. Kente, 2019 KENTE, 2019, VOL 1, NO. 1, 74-89 An Ecocritical Reading of Selected African Poems Moussa Traoré ABSTRACT Department of English University of Cape Coast, Ghana This paper discusses some ecocritical ideas in selected poems by
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[email protected] Kofi Awoonor, Kofi Anyidoho and the Negritude poets David Diop and Birago Diop. Drawing on postcolonial ecocriticism theory the paper focuses on ecocritical symbolisms and their ramifications in order to show how African poets attend to the environment, community and modernity’s many flaws. The consideration of the Negritude poems in this study stems from the fact that Negritude Literature in general and the selected poems in particular have been examined mainly within the context of Black African identity and the antiracist effort in general. The paper demonstrates that ecological motifs or symbols are deployed by some African poets to express life, survival, and nostalgia. KEYWORDS Anthropological, Ecocriticism, Negritude, Poetic, Sustainability Page 74 Traore, M. Kente, 2019 Introduction In this essay, I am particularly interested in how African poets attend to the environment, the presence of community, and a pressing need to articulate criticisms of modernity’s many flaws. The special way in which two Negritude poets, David Diop and Birago Diop use environment- related symbolism and metaphors like “the tree” among others is also one of the main points that this paper dissects; the environment is used by Negritude poets to render the beauty of African