A Postcolonial
Ecocritical Study of African Dystopian Climate Fiction: It Doesn’t Have to
Be This Way
Faruk Hasan,
PhD Research Scholar,
Department of English,
Aliah University, Kolkata,
West Bengal, India.
Abstract: This
study aims to comprehend why environmental activism in African literature is
represented as a failed attempt to resist the perpetuation of climate
criminality. Through textual analysis of
the South African author Alistair Mackay’s dystopian climate fiction, It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
(2022), this paper challenges the conceptual frameworks that portray indigenous
environmentalism as anti-nationalist. Mackay’s novel illustrates how political
indifference escalates the pursuit of climate justice into radical and even
violent forms of resistance. Drawing on postcolonial ecocriticism, this paper
elucidates how the Western model of development establishes itself as a form of
neocolonialism across the political and environmental landscape of the
non-Western world. In Mackay’s novel, South Africa is represented as a
bifurcated nation caught between two conflicting material and ideological
trajectories: developmentalism and environmentalism. In the story, Luthando, a
black African man of queer identity, protests against the Western capitalist
system for accelerating the climate crisis, but he encounters opposition from
pro-industrial Africans. This articulates how environmental attitudes in
postcolonial countries are shaped by what the postcolonial critic Homi K.
Bhabha has termed ‘ambivalence’. Analysing the ambivalent responses to
ecological issues, this study will emphasise the central question of why
ambivalence is significant for speculating about a sustainable future. This
study will investigate whether climate fiction serves any environmental purpose
or merely functions as propaganda for Western ideologies. Moreover, the
integration of the dystopian element in the story will be analysed as a mode of
satire against the Western heteronormative religious and capitalist practices.
It will examine how these Western ideological apparatuses exacerbate the
identity crisis of queer people in a climatically post-apocalyptic world.
Keywords: Ambivalence, Climate fiction, Development,
Postcolonial ecocriticism, Resistance.
Introduction:
Development in Postcolonial Ecocriticism
The
representation of environmental issues in postcolonial literature plays a
crucial role in developing an understanding of the human-nature relationship. A
sense of resistance against the oppressive political ideologies of Western
society constitutes an important element of the mainstream literature of
postcolonial nations. These political ideas refer to a set of beliefs that have
perpetuated and historically legitimised Western dominance over the colonised countries.
Notably, the colonial expansion was exploitative not only for the colonised
people but also for the ecological system of their nations. This indicates that
Western ideological frameworks are shaped by colonialism and capitalist
expansion. In this sense, the resistance to the violence of colonialism is also
a resistance to the ecological exploitation of capitalism.
One of the
primary goals of postcolonial ecocriticism is to analyse in depth the Western
framework of development. Western developmental ideals perpetuate colonial
patterns of dominance through the exploitation of natural resources, the
marginalisation of indigenous knowledge, and the strengthening of the Eastern
countries’ financial dependence on the West. Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin
analyse Western developmental ideologies as “a disguised form of
neocolonialism” (29). These postcolonial critics argue that Western ideologies
of development function as a “technocratic apparatus to serve the economic and
political interests of the West” (29). By using cultural hegemony,
environmental regulations, and economic pressure, Western nations exploit
developmental strategy as a tool of neocolonialism to maintain the legacy of
colonial authority over the postcolonial nations.
It is widely
acknowledged that the term ‘development’ is strategically ambiguous, customised
to the many demands of its users, and grounded in the vast cultural
presumptions and assumptions of the West (Black 3). Similarly, the German
sociologist Wolfgang Sachs argues that the concept of development is shaped by
its relation to the economies of First World nations. He points out that “what
development means depends on how the rich nations feel” (Sachs26). In fact,
development is “a form of strategic altruism” designed to serve the political
and economic interests of developed countries of the West (Huggan and Tiffin
30). These developed countries function as neocolonial agents to dominate the
geopolitical and economic conditions of postcolonial developing nations.
Hence, it is legitimate
points to make that the development theories have an intimate connection with
the false promises of the colonial masters who started their colonial
enterprise with the mission of civilising the people of the colonised nations. Oswaldo De Rivero, a Peruvian
diplomat who served as Ambassador to the United States, contends that
development is essentially a myth promoted by the West (110). It
re-establishes the social, political, and economic divide between the First and
Third World nations that it falsely seeks to bridge under the pretence of
modernisation. He emphatically
asserts that this development myth encourages less-developed nations of the
Global South to emulate their wealthier northern counterparts. Imitation of the
Western model of development compels non-Western countries to adopt a
capitalist model that is both blatantly unjust and environmentally disastrous
(De Rivero 110).
This Western
model of development perpetuates Western dominance by categorising ‘developed’
and ‘underdeveloped’ nations in ways that exacerbate structural inequalities.
Moreover, the West’s development narrative is both an economic framework and a
hegemonic tool. It consolidates the West’s social, cultural, and political
authority over postcolonial nations by shaping their aspirations, policies, and
socioeconomic structures in accordance with dominant Western paradigms. Western
dominance over the East’s economic and political conditions deepens the gap
between the rich and the poor. This creates a modern form of ‘‘socio-economic
apartheid: a planet in whose northern hemisphere there is a small archipelago
of wealthy nation-states, surrounded by the majority of mankind’’ (De
Rivero24). This demonstrates that development functions both as an agent of
economic management and a technique of discursive control.
Western
Development Ideology and the Inequal Economic Structure:
Mackay’s It Doesn’t Have to Be
This Way is set in a fictional town named Kapelitsha Island, which
resembles Khayelitsha, Cape Town’s largest informal settlement. This fictional
township is depicted as nearly uninhabitable: water has run out; oceans have
risen and engulfed the coastal regions, and the unbearable temperature controls
the slum outside “The Wall”, which has separated the economically and
politically influential people from the poorer section of society. The affluent
people have either taken refuge in “The Citadel, a heavily guarded climate-controlled
dome city on Signal Hill or migrated to “the New Temperate Zones, countries
like Greenland, and “the northern reaches of Canada, Alaska, Norway”
(Mackay195). Mackay has portrayed South Africa in ways that explain how
postcolonial nations mimicked Western patterns of development. This also
demonstrates how the theoretical praxes of development have generated an
unequal economic structure not only between the West and the East but also
within the periphery of postcolonial nations.
Nonetheless, the
mimicry of Western socioeconomic and cultural practices has made it difficult
for people in postcolonial nations to comprehend the underlying discursive
motives of Western developmental theory. Development serves as a self-serving
rhetoric of neocolonialism, as it is practised by individuals and institutions
whose primary goal is to exploit others under the guise of social uplift.
(Black 268). In Mackay’s novel, the indigenous people, like Andile, are
portrayed as victims of transnational corporate capitalist development. Andile
is from the rural region Wild Coast, which he has to leave because “[i]t wasn’t
safe for [him] any longer” (Mackay95). What these multinational companies call
developments have exacerbated the precarity for the indigenous people by
rendering the local environment fragile and toxic. So, what is development for
these companies is, in reality, an exploitation for both the environment and
indigenous people.
Therefore, it is
possible to argue that rather than abolishing Western imperial practices,
modern development ideologies uphold them through partnerships between
postcolonial governments and multinational corporations (Esteva 9-11). In the
novel, Andile says:
We don’t want to
be poisoned. We don’t want our cattle to die. We know [big corporates] put all
kinds of chemicals into the soil. We don’t want people to get sick, we said, it
didn’t matter. The mine makes money, so the mine went ahead. We lost.
(Mackay95)
This elucidates
how the Western capitalist mode of production is supported by the governments
of postcolonial nations, which prioritise development over ecological
sustainability. This is why indigenous environmental activism is considered
antithetical to national development. In the novel, the representation of the indigenous
community’s failure to draw the government’s attention to ecological disruption
accelerated by the capitalist mode of production illustrates the ambivalent
attitude that Western development ideology inculcates in the minds of
postcolonial people. The concept of ‘ambivalence’ is developed by Homi. K.
Bhabha employs it to describe “a process of disavowal” inherent in the
relationship between the coloniser and the colonised (122). The relationship
between the coloniser and the colonized is ambivalent, marked by both repulsion
and attraction toward the coloniser’s hegemonic culture (Ashcroft et al. 13).
On the one hand, the colonised oppose the imperial practices of their colonial
masters. On the other hand, they mimic colonial ideologies to get out of the
oppressive domain of colonialisation. Thus, they are always in an in-between
space that heightens their ambivalence toward colonial culture.
In Mackay’s It
Doesn’t Have to Be This Way, the clash between environmental activists and
counter-protestors best illustrates this postcolonial ambivalence towards
Western development ideology. The black African environmental activists protest
against the multinational corporations whose exploitative activities exacerbate
the planetary crisis of climate change. Nevertheless, they confront
counter-protestors whose focus is not on environmental sustainability but
economic development. For them, climate change is not “a real Problem”
(Mackay70). Their real problem is financial insecurity. They are ready to
follow the Western patterns of development to deal with this material crisis:
“Environmental Protections Kill Jobs! … We Want Housing!
Re-Industrialisation=The Future. Open the Economy! The West Got Rich This Way,
Now It’s Our Turn” (70). People in developing countries in the Global South are
most vulnerable to environmental crises, and their precarity is either a direct
or an indirect result of the capitalist economies of First World countries,
which encourage the commodification of natural resources.
Ambivalent Attitude
Towards Environmental Catastrophe:
The impact of
environmental vulnerability is not experienced equally by people in developing
countries. The disproportionate effects of climate change and other
environmental crises are a crucial factor in fostering ambivalence toward
ecological sustainability. People from unstable financial backgrounds, such as
Luthando or Andile, whose lives have been directly affected by environmental
collapse, have a different experience from those who are economically dominant
and politically powerful, such as the president or the counter-protestors in
the novel. Indigenous peoples’ firsthand knowledge of the catastrophic impacts
of climate change prompts them to organise protests against government-aided
transnational corporations. Their environmental campaign aims to prioritise
ecological sustainability in modern development. Several questions emerge that
problematize the relationship between development and sustainability: Is it
possible to imagine sustainability without development? Could humanity survive
an environmental catastrophe without economic development? However, does
economic development really ensure a sustainable future?
In postcolonial
ecocriticism, there is a perplexing connection between the concepts of
development and sustainability. In postcolonial environmental studies, the idea
of ‘development’ is analysed in terms of ‘economic growth’. According to
Wolfgang Sachs, proponents of development ideology use sustainable development
as a new strategy to counter criticism of development’s harmful effects (29).
Like Wolfgang Sachs, Arturo Escobar argues that instead of addressing the
social and environmental issues, sustainable development is the First World’s
most recent strategy to colonise the last areas of Third World social life’’
(198). In Mackay’s novel, this has been represented through the speech of the
President, who accused the climate activists of “undermining the national
development plan” (Mackay76). The President’s speech demonstrates that economic
growth, rather than the environment, needs to be protected to achieve
sustainable development.
However, in
postcolonial environmental studies, it becomes a significant concern whether
economic growth alone can ensure sustainable development in a climate-changed
future, because “[t]here are no jobs if climate collapses; there is no food”
(Mackay70). Moreover, if development truly facilitates the creation of a
sustainable future, who will benefit from it? This is what has been
fictionalised in Alistair Mackay’s It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way. In
the novel, a nonlinear narrative technique is employed to address the causes
and effects of climate change. The novel has two narrative timelines set in the
present and the future. In a future timeline in which climate change has
ravaged the world, Cape Town is depicted as divided into two parts. The poor
people confront climate catastrophes outside The Wall, while the wealthy and
influential live a luxurious life within the climate-protected zone of the
Citadel. Although Western ideology of development has generated a sustainable
environment for the affluent citizens inside the Citadel, it has no positive
impact on the lives of economically less powerful people, for whom it is
“almost impossible to find food and water and shelter” (230).
Indigenous
Environmentalism as a Form of Resistance to the Climate Crisis:
In his novel,
Alistair Mackay portrays an ambivalent picture of the Western model of modern
development through the characters of three queer friends: Luthando, Viwe, and
Malcolm. In the novel, they meet at a reforestation festival. The depiction of
these characters is used to trace the ecological damage done by the colonisers.
The reference to “invasive alien species [that] acidified the soil” (Mackay11)
suggests the ecological scars left by colonial rulers. Moreover, the statement
that “there are no overhead leaves to intercept the rain” (11) illustrates how
colonial practices, in the name of modern development, led to deforestation,
which in turn has accelerated the current climate crisis. This articulates a
connection between colonialism and the present planetary crisis of climate
change.
Hence, the
reforestation campaign can be interpreted as a symbolic act of restoring
indigenous environments from colonial degradation. The saplings, planted in the
forest, represent a form of ecological resistance—an act that reclaims what was
lost to the European colonisers. Luthando’s remark— “the white man laid waste
to our forest, and now we must put it right” (Mackay12)—highlights the
environmental damage that the European colonial mission of development had done
in the colonies. In this sense, the reforestation campaign in the novel could
be described as an “act of decolonialisation” (12), an act that exposes the
hollowness of the colonial discourse of development.
The colonial
ideologies of development persist even after colonisers left their colonies.
The continuation of the colonial authority through the discourse of
developmentalism over the postcolonial nations is described as a form of
neocolonialism. In his book Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism
(1965), Kwame Nkrumah introduced the concept of ‘Neo-colonialism’, arguing that
although the former colonies are officially independent, their economic and
political conditions are controlled by the former colonial powers (1). The
former colonial powers and the new superpowers, such as the US, continue to
exert influence over the cultures and economies of third-world countries even
after they attained political independence (Ashcroft et al. 178). The First World
developed nations exert their authority over the developing nations through
indirect means rather than direct military control. It indicates that
colonialism has not yet ended. Instead, it has just changed its mode of
domination over the developing nations. It highlights that:
Old-fashioned
colonialism is by no means entirely abolished. It still constitutes … Once a
territory has become nominally independent it is no longer possible, as it was
in the last century, to reverse the process. Existing colonies may linger on,
but no new colonies will be created. In place of colonialism as the main
instrument of imperialism we have today neo-colonialism. (Nkrumah1)
Though there are
dissimilarities between colonialism and neocolonialism, their underlying
ideology of establishing dominance over the colonised people remains the same,
that is, the discourse of development.
Rather than
abolishing traditional imperialism, contemporary development manifests it in
novel forms, such as the persistent partnerships between national governments
and colossal transnational corporations (Esteva 9-11). In this sense, the
economic and environmental exploitation of postcolonial developing nations is
carried out not only by former colonial states but also by postcolonial governments
that support transnational corporations in the name of national
development. In Mackay’s novel It
Doesn’t Have to Be This Way, Luthando and his fellow environmental
activists conducted “peaceful protests”(98) to demand climate justice. However,
these nonviolent efforts were ignored by the government and received no
political attention. This indicates that political leaders in developing
postcolonial nations replicate the actions of colonial rulers during the
colonial period. Like the colonisers, these postcolonial governments are
oblivious to the environmental damage that modern capitalist industries
accelerate under the pretence of national development.
Moreover, the
mimicry of the colonial model of development shapes the mindset of people in
developing nations to such an extent that it is difficult for them to take
climate change seriously. In the novel, Mackay depicts the escalating climate
crisis and the political responses to it. The political preference for economic
growth over ecological crisis is represented by juxtaposing two climatically
catastrophic incidents: one in the present and the other in the past. In the
past, Cape Town nearly ran out of water. In the novel, the Black South African
character Luthando witnessed this disastrous situation as a child. Luthando
“remembers the great drought that brought Cape Town to its knees… There were
headlines all over the world about Cape Town: the first major city to succumb
to the ravages of climate change” (Mackay55). Luthando’s childhood experience of
the climate crisis leads him to anticipate recurring water scarcity in the
present. However, the South African government downplays the severity of the
drought to maintain the city’s economic growth. The municipal authorities are
aware of the national economic damage, particularly the commercial decline of
the tourism industry, resulting from ‘Day Zero’, a government-led strategy
implemented in the past to address the water shortage crisis. The government’s
reluctance to acknowledge the severity of the crisis highlights the ambivalent
relationship between national development and environmental sustainability in
postcolonial nations. Despite being vulnerable to climate change, postcolonial
developing nations adhere to the Western development paradigm that prioritises
short-term economic expansion at the expense of long-term environmental
sustainability.
Mackay’s It
Doesn’t Have to Be This Way illustrates how the pursuit of economic growth,
understood as essential to the national development of postcolonial nations,
often supplants climate resilience. The statement “you do not get economic
growth by placing grey-water buckets in the fancy hotel bathrooms” (Mackay55)
illustrates how environmental sustainability is understood as antithetical to
economic development in postcolonial nations.
Notably, in
Bradley’s novel, Luthando condemns the government’s policies that prioritise
the interests of powerful industrialists over environmental protection. He
expresses frustration with political leaders who make “empty promises” (Mackay
97) about clean energy yet continue to rely on coal, thereby contributing to
the worsening climate crisis. The political inaction on climate change prompts
Luthando to start ‘guerrilla gardening’. It is the act of establishing
plantations in public or private places that belong to others. The term
‘guerrilla’ alludes to the absence of legal authorisation “to grow [plantation]
in a given space—and this makes guerrilla gardening illegal in most cases”
(Kuchta). The motivations for guerrilla gardening vary depending on the
sociopolitical and personal preferences. According to Luthando, guerrilla gardening
is “a public service,…To green the city. It provides oxygen and resilience
against climate change” (Mackay50). In the novel, Mackay portrays Luthando’s
guerrilla gardening as a form of environmental resistance to capitalist
expansion in the postcolonial context. However, all his efforts fail to elicit
any political intervention in the ecological crisis. His failure in
environmental activism reinforces postcolonial ambivalence towards economic
development and environmental sustainability.
In fact, it is
the capitalist exploitation of natural resources, driven by Western
self-serving development theory, that has intensified the unsustainable
conditions of people in developing nations worldwide. Nonetheless, development
is not antithetical to sustainability. It is the capitalist ideology of
development, focused on serving the interests of the wealthy, that must be
replaced by ‘post-development’. Post-development is a set of pragmatic
approaches that reassess development at the grassroots levels. It confronts
“the fundamental contradiction of global capitalism and economic growth with
the goals of equity, empowerment and a sustainable environment” (Saunders17).
Rather than rejecting development, a liberal view of it, as espoused by the
Indian economist Amartya Sen, should be promoted. According to Sen, the
principal objective of development is not to attain economic growth but to
expand human freedom. Here, freedom refers to everybody’s right to participate
freely in the global market. However, the market is not intended to be a
vehicle of self-interest but a tool for establishing social justice (Sen295).
Hence, development is not only about economic growth but also about several
socioeconomic and political factors that enhance ecological sustainability and
preserve the quality of all life forms.
Conclusion:
Mackay’s It
Doesn’t Have to Be This Way belongs to the genre of climate dystopia.
However, to challenge utter pessimism, the author employs a distant futuristic
setting as a tool of “defamiliarisation”. Distant settings in the novel evoke
readers’ perception of the spatiotemporal dimensions of climate change by
defamiliarising them with the realities of this planetary crisis within their
familiar world. The authors defamiliarise the known world by depicting a
post-apocalyptic future shaped by climate change. The fictionalization of
climate crisis through a defamiliarised setting “makes [humanity] see the world
anew, not as it is but as it could be; it shows the world in sharp focus to
bring out conditions that exist already but which, as a result of [humanity’s]
dulled perception, [they] can no longer see” (Varsam 206). In fact, by
employing the narratological device of the defamiliarised setting, Mackay draws
readers’ attention to humanity’s relationship to the real world and asks whether
they are making the right choice. Hence, it can be argued that the integration
of dystopian elements into the novel’s plot serves as a satire of Western
capitalism that exacerbates the ongoing climate crisis.
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