Mapping Neocolonial Extractivism: Corporate-State Collusion and Environmental Degradation in Isidore Okpewho’s The Tides

Abstract

This paper examines the neocolonial environmental crisis depicted in Isidore Okpewho’s epistolary novel The Tides (1993). This investigates how postcolonial corporate-state collusion effects degradation of the ecosystem and marginalizes the indigenous populations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. Grounded in neocolonial theory and particularly by drawing on Kwame Nkrumah's formulation of neocolonialism alongside Rob Nixon’s concept of "slow violence"—it addresses three primary research questions: How do foreign oil conglomerates and state apparatuses collaborate to perpetuate neocolonial extractivism; in what ways does The Tides articulate environmental destruction and socio-political disenfranchisement and how do indigenous communities construct modes of ecological resistance and identity preservation against this systemic degradation. The study is done by applying a qualitative textual and discourse analysis methodology while critically evaluating the correspondences between two retired journalists that highlight the structural link between capital accumulation, habitat destruction, and community displacement. The analysis finds that the novel essentially embodies an apocalyptic vision of the environmental ruin, reframing local ecological degradation as an extension of capitalist imperialism besides advancing an activist ecocritical stance-positing environmental preservation as vital to cultural and national sovereignty and offering a critical framework for re-evaluating human-environment relationships within postcolonial African literature.