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Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction
Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2026
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| _version_ | 1867613733965004800 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Aluoch, Fred Okoth |
| author2 | Green, Louise |
| author_browse | Aluoch, Fred Okoth Green, Louise |
| author_facet | Green, Louise Aluoch, Fred Okoth |
| author_sort | Aluoch, Fred Okoth |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135551 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:40:50.669Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/135551 Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction Aluoch, Fred Okoth Green, Louise Smuts, Eckard Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English. Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2026. Aluoch, F. O. 2026. Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/016f489f-e4eb-4268-a4ba-0b8c9e64d082 This dissertation explores social and environmental concerns in African literary narratives through the lens of water. The study is an experiment in reading for water—a method of literary analysis that traces the sensory, political, and agentic power of water across narratives. My aim is twofold: First, to expand what it means to read for water; second, to use the method in analyzing selected African literary texts where water features prominently. The primary texts under scrutiny depict water in its diverse guises, including rain, rivers, dams, streams, mist, fog, and bodily waters and are drawn from the geographical breadth of Africa. My study focuses mainly on inland waters, and hydro-imaginaries. The thesis takes cognizance of the boundary-effacing aspect of water and the way reading for water re-defines literary regions beyond the conventional national borders and continental mapping. The dissertation extends the method of reading for water in relation to four broad thematic areas: water containment in dams, the pollution of water bodies, water scarcity, and the inspirited aspect of water. Building on Hofmeyr et al., my study uses a hydro-infrastructural framework to show how three novels—Head’s When Rain Clouds Gather (1969), Serpell’s The Old Drift (2019), and Mahjoub’s Nubian Indigo (2012)—depict small dams as pragmatic responses to drought, while mega dams embody colonial legacies and postcolonial nationalist ambitions. My investigation of water as a carrier of contamination focuses on the polluted environment of the Niger Delta as depicted in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water (2010), showing how in this novel, as well as in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were (2021) and Dayo Ntwari short story “Mother’s Love” (2015), water distributes pollution through the environment, indicating the interconnectedness of ecological entities. Drawing on Hofmeyr’s notion of hydro-colonialism, I examine representations of water scarcity in Karen Jayes’s novel For the Mercy of Water (2012), Louis Greenberg’s short story “Oasis” (2015), and Wanuri Kahiu’s short film Pumzi (2009). My analysis highlights the ambivalence of water management, which both enables access in contexts of acute shortage and, through corporate commodification, produces stark inequalities. Finally, the thesis explores narrative depictions of inspirited waters in Saida Hagi-Dirie Herzi’s “The Government by Magic Spell” (2004), The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (2015), The Lake Goddess by Flora Nwapa (2017), and “The Healer who Married the Water” by Lerato Mahlangu (2023). Throughout the study, I note how water exceeds human control in numerous ways, acting as an unruly and disruptive force. My analysis of inspirited waters establishes that the more-than-human powers that imbue water with a form of agency contribute to its unruliness and its tendency to remain elusive, constantly evading human control. The unruliness extends to aquatic-spirited beings whose interests do not necessarily align to those of humans. This research is multi-disciplinary and draws on elementally-inclined approaches like critical oceanic studies and new materialism. The focus on water and the environment in this study contributes to the growing fields of Blue Humanities and African postcolonial ecocriticism. Doctoral 2026-04-01T10:22:01Z 2026-04-01T10:22:01Z 2026-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135551 en Stellenbosch University 235 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Aluoch, Fred Okoth Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title | Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title_full | Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title_fullStr | Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title_short | Hydrocolonialism, Scarcity, and Pollution: Reading for Water in African Fiction |
| title_sort | hydrocolonialism scarcity and pollution reading for water in african fiction |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/135551 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT aluochfredokoth hydrocolonialismscarcityandpollutionreadingforwaterinafricanfiction |