NATURE AS INSTRUMENT FOR REGENERATION: A STUDY OF NIYI OSUNDARE’S THE EYE OF THE EARTH

This study explores the multifaceted role of nature in Niyi Osundare’s The Eye of the Earth, examining how the poet presents the natural environment as a powerful agent of regeneration, transformation, and resistance. Through an eco-critical lens grounded in African literature and Yoruba cosmology, the project investigates how Osundare’s poetry moves beyond aesthetic celebration of nature to assert its moral, cultural, and political agency. Drawing upon selected poems - “Forest Echoes,” “Ours to Plough, Not to Plunder,” “They Too Are the Earth,” and “The Rocks Rose to Meet Me”- the study reveals that nature functions as a spiritual archive, a site of ethical struggle, and a voice for the marginalized. By blending environmental concerns with African oral traditions and postcolonial critique, Osundare challenges exploitative practices that degrade the land and dehumanize its stewards. The analysis incorporates insights from eco-criticism, African environmental thought, and Yoruba metaphysics to show how the poet reclaims the land as sacred and alive, capable of bearing witness to historical trauma and guiding paths toward ecological and cultural renewal. Ultimately, the study affirms that Osundare’s poetic vision advances an African model of environmental justice rooted in balance, reciprocity, and collective survival.