The Plantation

Ovo Adagha’s “The Plantation” is a short story that dramatizes the 1998 pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria. It was published in A Life in Full and Other Stories, a collection of submissions for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing. The story focuses on several themes, including the struggle between nature and civilization, the effects of colonization and modernization, the moral and physical costs of greed, and the consequences of stubbornness.

Namidi is a farmer who grows rubber trees. A petroleum pipeline runs under his farm. From depictions of the greenery and the rubber trees to the whistling of the birds and the “cold drizzle of early morning dew” (76), the plantation’s wild beauty stands in contrast to the signs of human activity that intrude upon this natural place.

Namidi notices the smell of petrol (gasoline). The smell brings to Namidi’s mind men in khaki uniforms from the city who installed the pipeline. Namidi recognizes that the pipeline must have a leak, and he thinks he should alert the villagers. Instead, his greed overtakes his impulse to help, and he goes home. Seeing Ochuko, his six-year-old son, he looks at the boy with his oversized pants and feels shame.