Highlighting Publications from 2025: Ecotexts in the Postcolonial Francosphere

Ecotexts in the Postcolonial Francosphere
Edited by Nsah Mala and Nicki Hitchcott. Published 11 July 2025, Liverpool University Press

Continuing our series highlighting publications from 2025, we focus on a volume that shifts the geography of environmental thought.

Through the diverse voices of the French-speaking world, this book explores the various ways in which francophone writers, visual artists and activists are responding to the global climate and environmental crises threatening the Earth today, through an imperative postcolonial lens.

As well as discussing a range of environmental issues, from soil erosion to nuclear testing, it also considers ways in which francophone writers have become ecological activists.

Moving the Spotlight Away from Europe

Ecocritical scholarship in the French language has mostly focused on authors living in France or Belgium. This volume shifts this conventional focus by moving the "centre of the world" away from Europe and puts the spotlight on the rest of the French-speaking world. In covering most of the Francosphere: Africa, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, South America and Polynesia; this volume provides a radical "de-centring”.

Vital Voices 

This book expands the map and changes the conversation. It investigates the "afterlives" of colonial and neo-colonial exploitation, linking contemporary environmental degradation, such as soil erosion, nuclear testing, and toxic waste, directly to the historical structures of empire.

From the "poisoned" landscapes of pesticides in Martinique to the "vegetal discourses" of Cameroonian poetry, the book demonstrates that the climate crisis is not just a scientific problem, but a cultural and political one that requires a decolonized imagination to solve.

Diverse Ecotexts

While it encompasses more conventional literary forms such as novels, short stories and poetry, this volume also embraces graphic novels, visual narratives, and zines.

• Graphic Novels and Visual Narratives: Exploring how images communicate the "slow violence" of environmental change.
• Zines: Highlighting the grassroots, DIY nature of textual activism.
• Blue Humanities: Navigating the oceanic identities of island nations often ignored in land-centric climate discussions.

Transdisciplinary spirit 

This volume blends different subjects bridging History, by looking at how old colonial empires changed the land; Science, by discussing issues like soil erosion, toxic waste, and nuclear radiation; and Culture, by looking at how people in the Caribbean or Africa feel about these changes.

From Theory to Action

Nsah Mala is a celebrated Cameroonian poet and researcher, and member of the BRIDGES Thematic Hub for Planetary Wellbeing, University of Cologne, whose work on the Congo Basin Futures project recently won the Dubai Foresight Award. Nicki Hitchcott, is a leading expert in African and Francophone studies. Together, they have assembled contributors who bridge the gap between academic theory and on-the-ground action.

“The book seeks to engage in current debates including the afterlives of colonialism, critical animal and plant studies, and Indigenous knowledges, widening the scope of francophone ecocriticism beyond the usual compartmentalisation." — Liverpool University Press

Series: Francophone Postcolonial Studies (New Series, No. 16)
Publisher: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781836243144