The Powers of Poetry: Creative writing from the Niger Delta as a tool for environmental justice

Abstract: Inspired by centuries of activists who used creative writing as a tool to encourage reflections and inspire change, this thesis looks at the possibility of poetry to be used as an environmental justice tool. In particular the ability of poetry from Nigeria to engage Dutch people with problems around Shell’s exploitation of the Niger Delta and its people, is investigated. Using decolonial and Critical Race Theory frameworks, historical and systemic injustices are discussed. Furthermore, the intersection of the concepts of climate change denial and slow violence is explored. Expert interviews and an inductive literature review informed the design of this research, which uses online focus group research and questionnaires as the main method of data collection. This thesis concludes that poetry has a great potential to help break down colonial and racial inequalities in representation, although poetry is not a form that Dutch people engage with commonly. Even though the external validity of the research is low, it can be concluded that there are four main powers of poetry as an environmental justice tool, namely: creating emotional connections; overcoming distance; addressing overwhelming solutions; and exposing systemic inequalities.