De-Stigmatizing Sex-Working and Re-Asserting the Humanity of the Female Figure in African Literature

De-Stigmatizing Sex-Working and Re-Asserting the Humanity of the Female Figure in African Literature

Ngozi Dora Ulogu, Ph.D.

Department of English Language and Literature, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.8100128

Received: 27 September 2024; Accepted: 05 October 2024; Published: 09 November 2024

ABSTRACT

The literary sphere is replete with the female figure as sex-workers and objects of sexual exploitation, for gratification and pleasure, and are classified as such. This goes with denigration and stigmatization. Remarkably, culpability about the objectification of the female, especially young girls lies with the men of varied ages, and class. These girls are usually betrayed and abandoned, consequently leaving them stranded and in very hopeless situation. The general conception, even certain studies postulate that females indulging in sexual adventure and trapped in sex trafficking are classified as prostitution, immediately connoting sex in exchange for money. Fictional representations abound which throw up instances of such stereotypes. But traducers have neglected to question the humanity of the so-called sex-workers, the circumstances surrounding their identity and the environment of existence. This study takes a reverse trajectory to inquire and adduce the fact that those class of females are only leaving out their humanity and sexuality, but are merely caught up in the intricacies of a disadvantaged environment. Using the framework of ecofeminism, this paper embarks on a literary analysis of girls who are enamored by curiosity, desire and emotion to explore their femininity, but are caught in the trap. The primary texts are Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain and Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow which explore issues of objectification and betrayal of the key female characters, who are used and dumped like the environment that are constantly being abused. The study sues for empathy and recognition of rights and humanity of the females.

Keywords: de-stigmatization, ecofeminism, humanity, sexuality, sex-working

INTRODUCTION

According to Jennifer Musto, and Elena Shih, sex-working must “encompass different types of intimate arrangements that blur the boundaries between erotic, emotional, and economic labor. Sex work is also part of an industry and commercial market that is global in reach and diverse in its spatial, legal and occupational organization”. These are some of the valid submissions that uphold the humanity of every female, including the stigmatized and labeled sex-worker, a standpoint that compares to that on ecofeminism.

The concept of ecofeminism in affirming the humanity of the female hood in relation to the environment, stems from the fact that it gives voice and theoretical placement in projecting the feelings and thoughts left unfilled by other branches of feminism. According to Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, the compass of this field includes “a range of subjects, from questioning society’s bias for viewing women as innately connected to nature, to the reverse position of embracing the theme of female-nature connection”. (496). Ecofeminism opens up a new field of interrogating the relationship of a woman’s connection to nature.

Maria Mies, a Marxist feminist scholar known for her theory on capitalist patriarchy,  and Vandana Shiva, a world renowned environmental leader and thinker have a strong partnership that symbolizes the common good among women who struggle to create life-affirming societies. They are of the opinion that “the mainstream feminism has many tributaries with different objectives and strategies. The most fundamental form of feminism is expressed when radical feminism highlights the contradiction of women’s everyday experience under masculine domination”. Ecofeminism describes the form of synergy with other aspects of environmental thoughts that take account of sexuality as well as gender, having its task as “to probe the intersection of sex and nature with an eye to developing a sexual politics that more clearly includes considerations of the natural world and its biosocial constitution, and an environmental politics that demonstrates an understanding of the ways in which sexual relations organize and influence both the material world of nature and our perceptions, experiences, and constitutions of the world” (Greg Garrard 27). The framework of ecofeminism in this study is to interrogate the intersection of the circumstances of the female figure and nature, exemplified by the environmental, both aerial and aquatic sphere, namely; the Niger Delta oil-spilled rivers and the bar beach, as found in the fictional texts.

For Ariel Sallah, ecofeminism explains how both financial and environment crises are sex-gendered, noting that “capitalist patriarchy excludes woman’s work and wealth creation in the mind and deepens the violence by displacing women from their livelihoods and alienating them from the national resources on which their livelihoods depend, their land, their water, their seeds and biodiversity”. The effect of this scenario is the stigmatization on the women folk who become the victims of these ugly activities. Women are abused, just like the environment due to the misuse and oppression by men. This paper argues that the stigmatization of the sex worker does not show the women in good light and pushes that this labelled group are humans capable of human reasoning and feelings and therefore should be allowed to live out their humanity. It also calls for elimination of the patriarchal abuse and oppression on the female and on the natural environment in order to build a friendly relationship that is mutual and respectful.

Sex workers are viewed as a class of adults who out of circumstances receive pecuniary or material gratification in exchange for a consensual sex or any erotic action. According to Open Society Foundation 2019 report “sex workers sell sexual services in order to earn a livelihood. The vast majority choose to do it because it is the best option they have. Many sex workers struggle with poverty and destitution and have few options for work” (2019). Poverty therefore is the bottom line of sex working. But this class of people many times become victims of exploitation, and are intimidated, abused and betrayed.

Examples of Issues of betrayals and abuse abound in literary texts, such as those under review: Kaine Agary’s Yellow and Yellow, and Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain. These texts published in 2006 and 2021 respectively have been variously studied by scholars. For instance, Jonas Egbudu Akung and Azubuike Iloeje studied Kaine Agary’s text in their work, “Yellow- Yellow: A Study in Ecocriticism” and examined the life of the heroine Zilayefa against the backdrop of the harsh realities of the oil spillage in the Niger Delta and the consequent damage on the land and the concomitant effect on the women. The paper made an Eco critical analysis of the text and drew an example of “the relationship between the woman and the environment whereby the woman represents nature that is violated, given rise to unwanted children; the “African profit”, “born throwaways”. On their own part, Ololade Adeyemo and Abimbola Shittu in their study “The Damaged Woman in the Damaged Environment: An Ecofeminism Critique of Kaine Agary’s Yellow -yellow”, examined the connection between the violation of the woman and the degradation of the environment. This they achieved using the standpoint of Vandana Shiva’s patriarchal capitalism, which echoes the interconnectedness of all life and counters unhealthy relationships that oppress the women and the environment, suing for inclusiveness by all in order to achieve an egalitarian society and a healthy environment.

Literature review on Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain exposed the socio-political problems of abuse of power by the ruling elite as well as, a widespread brazen corruption and social inequality in contemporary Nigeria. These issues are highlighted in Niyi Akingbe’s “Rallying Against-Dehumanization, Repudiating Military Brutality in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain”,  while Koukou. N’guessan in “Military Delinquency in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain, highlighted the criminal behaviour of the military who have upturned their trollies for political power. These thematic issues of violation of the female and the environment, and political corruption and the effect on the socio-economic wellbeing of the female formed some of the existing studies on the text, yet leaving a long gap of issues unattended. This paper therefore takes a different direction to inquire into the humanity and femininity of the female characters who are victims of the stigmatization based on the nature of their circumstantial existence. The so-called sex-workers are invariably stripped of their human rights and emotions, and are rather tagged, immoral, due to the reasons not  of their making, except that they are conditioned by poverty and unfavourable prevailing economic, and social circumstances.

Using the framework of ecofeminism, as it helps to make a link between gender relations and the environment, this study makes a literary analysis of the circumstances of life surrounding the females who also are enamored by curiosity, desire, and emotion due to their sexuality and humanness to explore their humanity and femininity but are caught in the web of patriarchal abuse and many times eventual betrayal. Characters such as Zilayefa in Yellow-Yellow and Iyese in Arrows of rain are studied in direct relation to the violation and abuse of the environment and eventual degradation of both aerial and water spaces by human oppressive activities.

Conceptual Analysis

Social construct designates a group of female as sex workers. They are seen as people of easy virtue and are marked with derogatory terms and are particularly stigmatized. By this branding, these girls and women are tagged with undesirable characterisation that narrows their social identity. They are viewed with shame and humiliation and are usually victims of marginalization anchored on stigmatization defined by Merriam Webster dictionary as “a process of describing or regarding something such as a characteristics or group of people in a way that shows strong disapproval”. Consequently, sex workers are branded with negative identity and with a negative social meaning.  An article in the Nordic Social Work Research, on “Outline of a Theory of Stigmatization in the Personal Social Services”, explains “that stigmatization as a social construction of a less-than-desirable place in society impacts individuals differently based on their group … Within a cultural context such as physical location”. (Bjom Blom, Carpholt and Krull. 4). Stigmatization discriminates individuals one from the other who are separated and labelled in a way that earn them loss of status and shifting of power in relation to the others. It places a moral question on the victims, a moral impropriety of stigmatization which views sex working as an immoral act.

Therefore deriding sex-working compromises the safety of sex-workers and puts their lives at risk as they are seen as debased. Thus, it makes it difficult for them to report abuses or seek redress because they are vulnerable and predisposed to incarceration and vulnerability. Stigmatization robs off on the humanity of the sex-workers; for whom Open Society Foundations observes that “sex workers like most workers, have diverse feelings about their work, some dislike their work but find that it is the best or only option to make a living. Some are agnostic about the work but find that it offers flexibility or good pay and some enjoy the work and find it all around rewarding or fun”. Regardless of what perception and cajoling of the sex workers by the society, they live out their humanity and rights as human beings. And so the question: What is the humanity being referred to here? Various writers have defined the term: humanity.

According to Hugo Slim, Humanity is described as” human behaviour that cares for other humans because of a profound and universally held conviction that life is better than death, and that to live well means being treated humanely in relationships of mutual respect”. (Hugo Slim). Sex-workers are humans, they have their emotions and care for others. And as stated by Liubov Ben-Noun, “humanity is the human race, which includes everyone on earth. It is also a word for the qualities that make us human, such as the ability to love and have compassion, to be creative and not be a robot or alien. The word is from the Latin “humanitas” for human nature, kindness” (2). Sex workers are capable of loving and engaging in a healthy mutual relationship. They have basic human and emotional dispositions including ways of thinking, feeding and acting that are natural in human beings.

The Circumstantial Realm of Sex- Workers

The compelling thrust of the sex-worker usually originate from the poor background of existence. Poverty is seen to be the common denominator in their identity. Thus the urge to navigate through or overcome the financial and emotional lack precipitate their vulnerability. Statistics from Statista on share of global population living below the extreme poverty line in Nigeria from 2016 to 2023 indicate that:

In 2023 nearly 12 percent of the world population in extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering the poverty threshold at 1.9 US dollars a day within the scheduled timeframe, the share mainly rose, overall the number of people in extreme poverty in Africa was estimated to reach 422 million in 2023 (Doris Dokua Sasu).

These numbers lay bare the unemployment situation and the effect of poverty on the people, especially, the less privileged.

Literary scientists portray such demographics in their narratives as in Yellow Yellow which won for Kaine Agary, a sociologist and public policy analyst the NLNG prize for literature in 2008. The novel’s narrative according to Emma Kiltzke pictures” a young Nigerian woman, Zilayefa , whose village home is destroyed by an  oil spillage and inspired by those who’d found a better life before her. She relocates to Port- Harcourt a bustling city with opportunities around every corner. but these opportunities only accentuated the reality of Nigeria’s situation”. This situation shows up as material poverty and devastation of the environment. The reality of oil spillage in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria adds to the impoverishments of both the water ways and the people specifically, the female folk. The destruction of the farmland by oil spillage reveals the level of abuse and the consequential suffering it portends. The text opens with the graphic description of the thickness of crude oil on water and the volume of damage on farm land. To make the situation worse, the company responsible for the spillage pushes the blame to the youths, alleging sabotage. And so according to the narrator “in a single day, my mother lost her main source of sustenance.  However, she had lost the land a long time ago because each season yielded less than the season before” (Yellow Yellow 4). In effect, these were caused by burst pipelines that left thick crude oil on the farm lands and rendered them useless for farming activities. Jonas Egbudu Akung and Azubuike Iloeje argue on the irony of oil exploitation, noting that “the people who own the oil do not benefit from the proceed of oil exploration, they live in squalor in slums and nothing is done to alleviate the suffering caused by the damage to their environment while on the contrary, those who do not own this oil feed fat on oil proceeds’’ (76). This scenario presents the abuse and betrayal that trail the environment in the Niger Delta. From this, we can make out the circumstances of life of the protagonist, Zilayefa, a young girl whose life is predicated on the environment her mother, a single parent, depended on to bring her up, which efforts have been ruined by the oil spillage. Zilayefa’s mother suffers severe financial burden in bringing her up, but she takes up the responsibility of the care giving and strives to navigate through an exploitative relationship. Olalade Adeyemi and Abimola Shittu in their essay, “The Damaged Women in the Damaged Environment: An Eco-feminist Critique’’ highlight the poor economic circumstances the females in the text find themselves noting that “Agary’s  Yellow  Yellow  chronicles the journey of a given Caucasian girl growing up in the deteriorating Niger Delta environment who experiences intense hardship, especially after her mother’s farmland becomes contaminated by an oil spill which eventually shatters her dreams for Zilayefa’s future” (19).  This submission affirms the multiple effect of the abuse caused by oil spillage on the farmland. Poverty thrives and the women strive for survival.

Zilayefa, a young blooming girl escapes from the boredom of her mother’s strict guidance and from the dull village life as she resolves to move to Port Harcourt, the city of oil and white men. The youth of the Niger Delta being ignorant of the educational package made available for them, Zilayefa’s mother is not able to sponsor her to the university because she does not have enough money and she recounts, “I could not even take the qualifying examinations because I did not have the registration fee. She promised herself that she would find one in time for the next year, after that, all she thought and spoke about was how to find the money for my schooling” (Yellow Yellow 11). Unfortunately, the youth of the Niger Delta, including Zilayefa, could not access the educational scholarship, due to the fact that they could not get appropriate information and guidance, and so “the problem was that we never got more information after the announcement. Nobody told us where we could go to apply for them. Somewhere out there were marvelous scholarships from the oil companies, but they were useless to us because no one in my village knew how to get them” (11). Having lost the opportunity, Zilayefa takes her future into her hands and dreams of leaving the village to the urban Port Harcourt. And according to her, “I decided I would have to find someone to take me away. It would have to be during one of those celebrations where many people came in from the city…” (17).  Zilayefa plans for her future, she needs to connect to people to help her change her situation.

The young girl by planning to escape the unfavourable situation through the help of other human beings means she is a human being with fresh and blood. She falls into relationships in order to survive. Thus, going by Robin Coupland’s definition of humanity as “an attitude, a morality, or sentiment of good will towards fellow humans” Zilayefa exhibits her humanity in aligning positively in relationships. She as much as possible respects her aunties: Sisi and Lolo. She maintains relative obedience and allegiance to them, such that she desires to be as Lolo. “I was content being Lolo’s tail and experiencing many new things with her. Her maturity was inspiring and I hope that I could one day handle people much older than me with respect while getting what I wanted, just as she did” (83). It is at this level of decision to align herself to mature relationship that Zilayefa engages in what is erroneously classified as sex-working. This narrative describes relationship as immoral and indecent, looking at her flirtations with Sergio and Admiral.

The first to condemn Zilayefa’s inquisitiveness is her mother who disapproves her going to Port-Harcourt at the first time, she being worried and asking her if “she wants to go and become a prostitute in Port Harcourt”. Insinuating that she wants to go and spoil her life. Beautiful girl like you wants to go and throw away her life in Port Harcourt”. (43). This was actually the image of Port Harcourt at the time, filled with expatriate oil workers and young girls and women who compete for their attention.

The relationship between Zilayefa and Admiral is seen in a negative light as sex-working and so it is being castigated. But on the reverse trajectory, this paper posits that the girl Zilayefa is only acting human, and living out her humanness. This idea is reflected in Mbanefo Ogene and Luke Okolo’s psychoanalytical explanation of Zilayefa’s action as they described “Laye as a victim of repressed compulsive instinctual drive due largely to her environmental or naturalistic factors. The circumstances of her birth occasioned by oil exploitation in her Niger Delta region has devastating imprint on the psyche of her mother, who becomes stricter than usual to shield her only daughter  from the pervading destructive environmental influences…” (164). This submission suggests that Zilayefa is only a normal Freudian personality and a victim whose pleasure principle and life instincts work perfectly. Zilayefa understands what she wants in life at that time, she seeks a father figure and so she needs a relationship. She needs to find a better future and so she moves ahead and relocates to Port Harcourt with the full knowledge of what the town may offer. She maneuvers her kind hosts, Sisi and Lolo to live on her emotion and enjoyed her escapades, as long as she was able to dribble everyone to carry on her affairs with Admiral.  She actually succeeded for a while as she was free from the watchful eye of Lolo, who is busy with her own relationship battle.

Zilayefa is conscious of her relation with Admiral, and so she knows what she is doing. She is not under much compulsion in surrendering her virginity to him. In fact, she willingly gave out her innocence to Admiral because she wants to experience the feeling of womanhood. The narrative indicates that he lead her willfully to his bedroom, and she curiously succumbed to him. Going further she narrates her experience saying: “it all felt very awkward as I fought the intruding sounds of my mother’s admonishing and disapproving voice, telling me not to spoil myself. Nevertheless, I reasoned that she was far away, and there was no way she could know that I had spoiled myself; at least I hoped that she would not be able to tell only by looking at me. With this consolation I gave up my virginity to Admiral” (Yellow Yellow 144). She affirms, “Admiral had taken my innocence, which I had given willingly and happily to him. I hoped it gave me a special place in his heart. I was more concerned about how he felt about me than how I felt about the whole experience and its implications” (144). At the end, she is reassured of a better deal and future with Admiral as he promised to see her through her schooling. Her relationship with Admiral which though looks transactional exhibits more of unflinching emotions and inner longing which makes it less a business deal.

To live out the compassion in humanity, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement recognizes alleviation of human suffering, protection of life and ensuring respect as the first fundamental principle and primary purpose of humanity. These play out in the decision of Zilayefa and her relationship with Admiral, purposely geared towards mutual compassion. Here, Zilayefa desires Admiral’s attention as a father figure, and says, “I considered the fact that he was very attentive to Alaere and that I could maybe look forward to him showing me the same attention” (135). Zilayefa is intentional in living out her existence by her affair with Admiral. However, the story changed for her when circumstances throw up her case as transactional at the point she finds herself entrapped with pregnancy. For a while, her intimate affairs with Admiral goes on well and rewarding for until the time she gets pregnant and thinks the connection will continue. Admiral pushes her away, breaks away and shuts her off. This is because he wants his freedom and so does not want to be answerable to his actions. Zilayefa comes to term with her situation as she reminisces her good time with Admiral who provided her with some money to get rid of the baby. She remembers his promise of, ‘’I will take care of whatever you need” and tells herself that those words could be falling on another girls ears, “another girl desperate for love  or just in it for the money. Admiral did not have to tell me he was not ready to have more children” (173). She quickly understands the meaning of Admiral’s non- appearance and thinks he has moved on probably with other young girls. This point reflects the rejection, and betrayal usually suffered by women in relationship, as well as the pollution of the environment by man’s unfriendly activities.

The transactional relationship is much more obvious in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain. The female characters are on a business of prostitution, selling sex for money. However the case of Iyese, the major female character is slightly different. She presents a double identity; as a prostitute or sex-worker, and a girlfriend, a scenario that throws up the discussion here. In Arrows of Rain. rape and prostitution presents as the highpoints of military oppression of the girls .The narrator recorded rape of the prostitutes by the soldiers  who are in the habit of raping and murder of girls. Major Palat Bello initiates a sex-based relationship with Iyese, a sex-worker. Despite the numerous presents that Bello provides her with, she does not love him because Bello treats her as a spare wheel that is only useful when a tyre is flat, which in the military slang, is referred to as “standby’’ to warm Bello’s bed whenever his wife travels . Koyakou N’guessan explicates (Aboh 2015) idea of “standby”  as referring to “a sexual act that happens at calculated intervals thereby reducing Iyese to an object that is used to satisfy a man’s sexual urge ‘’(19). But in her conversation with Bukuru, the journalist, Iyese confesses to her real identity, “my real name is Iyese. The name connects me to the spots where I was born, to my mother’s womb, my father’s blood… It is the name with which I get angry or feel happy… “(Arrows of Rain 122). She continues, “as for Emilia, it’s like a label on a loaf of bread, or the name a vain man gives to his mansion, calling it paradise or Harmony. Emilia is the name with which I return all the fake smiles that greet me at night. It is the name I use for my made up moans and my fake orgasm. It’s the name with which I throw my thighs apart for a stranger’s erection and afterwards take his money. It’s a name that takes the rapes of my body so that Iyese may go unhurt .It’s a name with which I am connected to the night and else’’ (123]. This outburst explains the dual identity of the sex-worker. Emilia, with the original name of Iyese, assumes as a new name so as to still feel the humanity in her. She feels frustrated hiding her feelings and emotions by trading them off in a kind of exploitative alliance.

The girls in the text are violated and raped by the soldiers who “drive in the city each night and fill their trucks with girls, whether they are prostitutes or not. The girls are taken to the beach where they undergo the sexual assaults of the military till dawn… Any girl found on the roadside when their trucks are passing is an easy prey who suffers from the tyranny of the junta” (N’guessan 20). These soldiers wield superior powers over the girls and get them abused as much as they want and at times kill them and dump their bodies by the beach, thus desecrating and polluting the environment. The beach that serves as a rendezvous for their orgies at the same time is left with obscene bodies of murder victims of the girls which eventually are pushed down the river, thereby polluting the aquarian environment.

Iyese’s relationship with Isa Bello brings out her humanity in all its ramifications, jettisoning the idea of her as a sex-worker. Isa Bello has a history of being a brute right from his childhood, having been banished from the palace of  his father, an Emir, due to his raw nature coupled with his obsession to alcoholism. He is such a person who “had fallen in love with the idea of himself as a man from whom people skulked away in dread. Despite his father’s entreaties, threats and the final extreme measure of banishing him from the palace, he went on drinking. He would not change, even after he lost one eye in a fight” (Arrows of Rain 151). This is the character of a person that unfortunately enslaves Iyese in a forced relationship. Bello’s attempt to get Iyese respond to his erotic whims as he wishes is anchored on her innate feelings. She acts according to her emotions and convictions. She is not yielding to his desire. This comes to a climax when Iyese refuses him paternity of her son. He feels so enraged that he goes to the extent of snuffing away life from the girl, and stabs her innocent baby. N’guessan believes  that “a feminist struggle therefore motivates Iyese’s refusal to grant fatherhood to Bello who is a typical godfather of patriarchy” (23). Iyese first encountered Bello as a sex-worker when she agrees to follow him to his house from a party. She found him charming, and “when he eventually raped her she threatened to report him to his wife but he reminded her that his religion entitles him to four wives and any number of concubines, she became his standby; whenever his wife went away he called me to warm his bed” (Arrows of Rain 149). Iyese in her real human form rather falls in love with Ogugua who becomes her confidant. The two share in intimate discussions as he holds her secrets. Iyese enjoys intimate relationship with Ogugua even as she carries on with her occasional hangouts with her female and male friends.

The balkanization of Iyese by Isa Bello after he had had intimate relationship with her aligns with the violation of the environment after it had produced fruits and held a lot for the people. In the horrific state, after being attacked by men sent by Bello, Iyese narrates an experience to Ogugua: ’’yesterday about six in the evening, I heard their knock and thought it was you, as soon as I opened the door one of them grabbed me and covered my mouth, they pushed me down on the bed and forced against my legs. He brought out his dagger and said he wanted to teach my vagina a lesson‘’ (155).The metaphor cutting off the vagina in this barbaric act portrays the attitude of degrading the environment. She explains that after he had stabbed her, she started bleeding and still ‘’that’s when he entered me with his penis” (154). This is ruthlessness that can only be from a brute as Bello, ravishing what he has destroyed. This attitude is only made possible by the inert and utmost feeling of intimidation and subjugation. Individuals defile the environment that holds their existence, and on which they live their lives.

CONCLUSION

Social construct and narratives condemn female sex working or outright prostitution. This they do without according the de-stigmatized class the right of existence and emotional right. They are regarded with disdain and stereotyped. The big question that is unanswered remains, why do women go in and out of sexual relationships? Secondly, why do they have multiple intimate partners, either for money or for pleasure? This paper has identified the fact that female sex workers try to live out their existence, by navigating the prevailing circumstances. Meanwhile, these criminalized set of human beings are flesh and blood drawn by natural curiosity, or life instinct to explore what presents itself to them. Criminalization of sex-working is against the tenets of healthy society although as propagated it compromises sex-workers health and safety by making it difficult for them to report right abuse and violation. The classified sex worker is seen to be driven by the instinct to live well and thereby becomes transactional with one who has something in return for them with a level of respect.

Similar respect is expected to be accorded to the environment which has eluded it. Hence, it is clear that the land and sea realms are usually neglected and desecrated by the unfriendly activities of the people that live on it. It is therefore important to note that the overall health of our environment is an issue that affects us all regardless of our gender or sexual identity. This is why Eco-feminists highlight structural unbalances as a way of diverting action to creating an equitable society. They advance the need for individuals of all genders to be able to live in safe environment with access to vital natural resources such as water, food, and energy supplies. In achieving the sustainable developing in the 2030, it is pertinent for the government in the country to work towards eradicating poverty and creating economic development through dismantling inequalities and creating decent work and opportunities for all.

WORKS CITED

1. Adeyemo, Ololade and Shittu, Abimbola. “The Damaged Woman in the Damaged Environment: an Ecofeminist Critique of Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow (2006)”. Studies in Aesthetics and Arts Criticism. Vol.1, 1. https://royalliteglobal.com/saac. Pp.17-23. 2021.
2. Agary, Kaine. Yellow-Yellow. Dtalkshop, Lagos. 2006.
3. Akingbe, Niyi. “Rallying Against Dehumanization; Repudiating Military Brutality in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain. “Nordic Journal of African Studies. Vol.22, 3. https://www.njas>fi>njas>article>download:pdf. Pp 158-176. 2013.
4. Akung, Jonas Egbudu and Iloeje Azubuike. “Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow: A Study in Ecocriticism”. Lagos Notes and Records Issues,vol. 17. 1 (2011). 2020.
5. Bien-Noun, Liubov. The Role of Humanity for Human Life”. Researchgate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351913974/The.Role-of-Humanity-for- Human-Life. 2021.
6. Bloom, Bjorn, Carpholt, Camilla and Krull, Ivy. “Outline of a Theory of Stigmatization in the Personal Social Services”. Nordic Social Work Research. Routledge Taylor and Francis, https://www.diva.portal.org/smash/get/divaz.1813076/FullTest/01.pdf.
7. Garrard, Grey. “Ecocriticism: The Critical Idom”. Third Edition, Routledge. Taylor and Francis Group. 2023.
8. Klitzke, Emma. “Kaine Agary’s Ecofeminist Take on Environmental Injustice in the Niger River Delta”. Scalar.use.edu. Accssed: 17/4/24
9. Merriam Webster Dictionary. “Stigmatization”. https://wwww.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ stigmatize. Accessed: 6/4/24.
10. Musto, Jennifer, Jackson, Crystal. A and Shil Elena. Prostitution and Sex Work. Researchgate. https://www.researchgate/publication/304183/740-prostitution. Accessed: 6/4/24.
11. Ndibe, Okey. Arrows of Rain: A Novel. 20^th Anniversary Edition. Bookcraft, 2021.
12. Ogene, Mbanefo S, and Okolo, Ndudi Luke. Kaine Agary’s Yellow Yellow: Ecofeminist Bildungsroman Novel. Preoregess vol.3. www.ezenwaohaetorc.org. pp. 156-174. 2023.
13. Open Society Foundations. “Understanding Sex-Work in an Open Society”. https://www.opensocieyorg/explainers/understanding-sexwork-open- society. 2019. Accessed: 6/4/24.
14. Salleh, Ariel. Ecofeminism: Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva. https://du.cuncic2/plugin-file.php/1165830/mod-resource/content/mies%2c Accessed: 2/4/24.
15. Sasu, Doris Dokua. “Share of Global Population Living in Extreme Poverty in Nigeria 2016-2023”. Statistica: Society and Demographics. Statista, com. Accessed. 17/4/24. 2023.
16. Slim, Hugo. “The Power of Humanity: On Being Human Now and in the Future: Humanitarian Law and Policy”. https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2019/07/30/power-of-           humanity-being-human-now-future/. Accessed: 6/4/24. 2019.