WOMEN AND NATURE AS TWIN VICTIMS OF EXPLOITATION: AN ECOFEMINIST READING OF KAINE AGARY’S YELLOW-YELLOW

This paper examines the interconnected exploitation of women and nature in Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow from an ecofeminist perspective. Set against the environmental and socio-economic realities of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the novel portrays the devastating consequences of oil exploration, including polluted rivers, destroyed farmland, declining fishing, poverty, displacement, and the loss of traditional livelihoods. The study adopts a qualitative literary analysis, drawing on ecofeminist criticism to explore how patriarchal, capitalist, and environmental structures jointly contribute to the oppression of women and the degradation of nature. Through the experiences of Zilayefa, Bibi, and other female characters, the novel reveals how environmental destruction increases women’s economic dependence and exposes them to sexual exploitation, abandonment, violence, unwanted pregnancy, and emotional trauma. The analysis further shows that Agary symbolically connects the violation of the female body with the exploitation of the land and natural resources of the Niger Delta. Both women and the environment are represented as vulnerable entities controlled, used, and discarded by dominant patriarchal and economic forces. The paper concludes that Yellow-Yellow presents the Niger Delta crisis as both an ecological and gendered problem, thereby emphasising the need for environmental justice, female empowerment, economic inclusion, and responsible resource management.