Narratives of Climate Change and Herdsmen’s Invasion in Nigerian Newspapers: Rethinking the Crisis from an Ecofeminist Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines representations of the interplay between climate change and herdsmen’s crisis in Nigerian newspapers, specifically The Vanguard and Daily Post. The study argues that through newspaper narratives, which foreground political and literary approaches, it is established that climate change is an underlying factor that triggers the reoccurring crises between the Fulani herdsmen and their host communities. These conflicts, as the study reveals, are detrimental to the survival of the women, especially those residing in the rural communities whose main vocation is farming. It highlights the economic and sociological challenges faced by the women in these conflict-prone areas as foregrounded in the storylines of the examined newspapers. The Ecofeminist theory, which underscores the intersection between environment and feminism, is deployed in this study to investigate the relationship between climatic problems and the herdsmen’s hostilities towards farmers, particularly womenfolk. The study concludes that creating a complementary policy will enable communities and NGOs find lasting solutions to the herdsmen-farmers conflicts.