The Discourse of Nature and the Planetary Crisis in Nwanmuo’s: The Wisdom of the King and Onwueme’s “What Mama Said”

Abstract

The engagement of Nigerian drama in the landscape of ecocriticism has been in the front burner of 
scholarly discourse in the last three decades. Many have argued that little is known or heard about the 
contributions of drama to this already vexed issue of arts and ecology. Literary critics over the years have 
x-rayed works done in this regard and findings have revealed that lierature have contributed to the ecodiscourse in the five decades. However, drama overtime especially has not spared the neglect of nature 
and its eco-elements by the human race in its quest for survival. This paper takes a cursory look into the 
sphere of ecocriticism and the contributions of two notable Nigerian dramatists - Chris Nwanmuo and 
Tess Onwueme to the field of eco-humanism. Nwanmuo’s Wisdom of the King and Onwueme’s What 
Mama Said come into focus as among the many voyages of drama into the world of science. The 
objective here is to excavate the echoes of nature in these plays and from the discoveries in the study, 
these plays represent an apt description of the state of Africa’s ecological landscape and the role 
mankind plays in this eco-degradation. Drama no doubt has a role to play and has been doing so in 
creating the needed awareness on humanity’s place in curbing the anti-environmental activities going on 
in many parts of the African continent. The paper concludes that largely eco-problems are not just a 
consequence of exploitation and exploration of natural resources but largely a result of decades of 
neglect, inhumanity and poor leadership.