African Ecocriticism

This guest lecture by Prof. Beukens was a string opener to the course. Ecocriticism is something that I am very interested in, and therefore I was glad that it had a place in the course. It was eye-opening to talk about the discourse from such a different point of view. The lecture showed me that Africa is very absent in our worldview, which extends itself to our literary experiences. This made me realize that we learn and know so little about the continent and its cultures, even though it is definetely worth learning.

I went to Africa this summer, to Tanzania and Zanzibar, and this winter I went to Marrakesh. I did notice, especially in Tanzania, that there indeed was a lot of poverty but especially a lot of trash, everywhere. Even in the remot Masai villages, there were plastic bottles everywhere. This is not something they tell you when you book a trip to Tanzania. But, the good thing is that they are working on it. There is a ban on plastic now, so even a tourist you could not take any plastic into the country. This measure is extreme, but I think it will really work and I hope that more countries in Africa soon follow that example.