Paper short abstract:

Using several novels from Africa, I re-read them in the light of questions which arise in debates in urban political ecology and environmental justice, particularly around waste and urban squalor.

Paper long abstract:

Urban Political Ecology (UPE) scholars generally argue that power relationships are inherently unequal in environmental change dynamics, and that this leads to environmental outcomes where marginalized communities experience greater negative consequences - thus nudging UPE scholarship directly into conversations about urban environmental justice. UPE still has work to do on African questions of urban environmental justice and urban violence, including what Nixon has termed "slow violence," outside of South Africa. African cases offer possibilities for opening up new ways of understanding intersections between urban political ecology, urban environmental justice, and violence. One hidden manner of highlighting the possibilities of this research frontier comes in an engagement with ecocriticism and African literary environmentalism, in the under-explored environmental analysis of African urban literature. Using several novels from Africa, I re-read them in the light of questions which arise in debates in urban political ecology and environmental justice, particularly around waste and urban squalor.