Eco-consciousness and Eco-activism in Children’s Literature: An Eco-Pedagogical Reading of Ben Okri’s Every Leaf A Hallelujah

Abstract

Over the years, man has engaged in different socio-economic activities that destroys the environment and threatens his own existence. This has brought about a widespread concern across different disciplines of what the future ecology will be like. The representation of the environment, as well as the promotion of environmental sustainability has gained prominence in literary discourse, leading to the emergence children ecological literature which is hinged on the ‘catch them young mantra.’ This study attempts to underscore the role of literature in raising ecological consciousness in children and encouraging them to be actors in safeguarding the environment. Through a critical reading of Ben Okri’s Every Leaf a Hallelujah, the paper examines the author’s effort in advancing this goal. It investigates the novel’s exposition of major environmental harms such as deforestation, pollution, and transgression against plants. Using ecopedagogy as its theoretical framework, the study interrogates the use of tales, fantasy, illustration, and pictures as instructional tools for raising ecological awareness in the text.  It further examines the engagement of activism through proactive and reactive behaviours as ways to eradicate environmental despoliation. The study concludes that through children's environmental literature, child readers are spurred to actions of environmental preservation through empathy and imitation of heroic child characters.