Rethinking Agency in Kenyan Animal Conservations

Ng'ang'a Mbugua's Terrorists of the Aberdare

Bibliographic Data

ID2173316
AuthorsJames Wachira (0000-0002-9796-4070, English Studies and Anglophone Literatures, Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, Bayreuth, Germany, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume34
Issue3
Pages294-307
Publication date2022-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-6815 • E-ISSN: 1469-9346
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13696815.2022.2053505
OpenAlexW4224254519
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

Species loss is a feature of the development intentions of post-colonial countries like Kenya. Kenya like other postcolonial regimes has often linked wildlife conservation with development agendas. The value of wildlife to post-development aims is evident in the approach taken by state-backed conservation efforts as well as in the language used. Thus, wildlife designates a category of animals that are also capital for the tourism industry, state property and a national resource. However, this is complicated when an animal causes harm to some people leading to the animal being seen as a nuisance. In this article I engage with the agency of language in creating the “problem animal” phenomenon in the context of Kenya's post-independence development agenda. I make my case with a close reading of Ng’ang’a Mbugua’s novella Terrorists of the Aberdare (2009). I argue that literary scholarship’s attention to subjectivity and empathy enables new ways of imagining human-animal engagement

Agency (philosophy · Context (archaeology · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Geography · Kenya · Political science · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Wildlife · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Ecology

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