Air: Actant and Metaphor in George Osodi’s Niger Delta
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7064-1450
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The work of African photojournalists is still assumed as mere documentary record or as a means of representing a supposedly defined post-colonial national identity. The article distances itself from that reading and shows how Osodi articulates testimony, document, fiction and poetic image in ‘pensive images’ that ponder some ecological dynamics and tensions of the Niger delta, one of the most bio- and ethno-diverse and oil-exploited regions in the world. To this end, the article assumes a formal and contextual interpretation of the series Oil Rich Niger Delta (2003-2007) which, in dialogue with elements of the history of this oil-producing nation and region, and with references from oral tradition, poetry and ecocriticism, understands the air as a subject and actor in a broad ecological network of humans and non-humans, and as a metaphorical resource with which Osodi investigates some of the complex ecological tensions and a new cosmology of the Delta. Emphasizing on air as both a metaphor and acting element, it shows how Osodi breaks with the idea that African photojournalism is primarily anthropocentric, and how he meticulously works with connections between humans and non-humans as part of a rich social assemblage in which the photographer gives dignity to actants and actors.
Ecology, actants, African photography, Niger Delta, cosmologyEcologia, atores, fotografia africana, delta do Níger, cosmologiaecología, actantes, fotografía africana, cosmología, delta del Niger
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