A Path Through Landscapes of Waste
Abstract
This contribution suggests a parallel analysis of the debut works of two post-colonial African writers, A.K. Armah and A. La Guma, inscribed within the recent trend labelled 'literature of waste'. Scrutinised through ecocritical and sociological theories, their works stand out for the striking way in which they provide a unique reading of the Sub-Saharan continent as remnant of neocolonialist processes that have been relegating it, both metaphorically and concretely, to a waste bin for the throwaway economies of the developed countries.
Settings buried in garbage reveal themselves not only as metaphorical devices, but as literary pretexts able to open up a window on existing African nightmarish landscapes. Among them the Agbogbloshie electronic-waste dumping ground in Ghana, a receptacle of 'next-generation' rubbish originated at the heart of industrialised nations and illegally shipped to the other end of the world, where waste joins wasted humanity.
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