Environmental Humanities of Extraction in Africa

Book excerpt: This book brings together perspectives on resource exploitation to expose the continued environmental and socio-political concerns in post-colonial Africa. The continent is host to a myriad of environmental issues, largely resulting from its rich diversity of natural resources that have been historically subjected to exploitation. Colonial patterns of resource use and capital accumulation continue unabated, making environmental and related socio-political problems a dominant feature of African economies. The book pursues the manifestation of these problems through four themes: environmental justice, violent capitalocenes, indigenous knowledge, and climate change. The editors locate the book within the broad fields of political ecology and environmental geopolitics to highlight the intricate geographies of resource exploitation across Africa. It uniquely focuses on the socio-political and geopolitical dynamics associated with the exploitation of Africa’s natural resources and its people. The case studies from different parts of Africa tell a compelling story of resource exploitation, related issues of environmental degradation in a continent particularly vulnerable to climate change, and the continued plundering of its natural resources. The book will be of great interest to scholars and students from the interdisciplinary fields of the environmental humanities and environmental studies more broadly, as well as those studying political ecology, environmental policy, and natural resources with a specific focus on Africa.