HOME, SPACE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: GEO-SPATIAL REPRESENTATION OF THE YORUBA PEOPLE IN NIGERIAN LITERATURE

Abstract

Yoruba geography within Nigerian literature. It examines how writers construct spatial homes that are 
both physical and symbolic, reflecting the people’s cosmology, social organization, and ecological 
consciousness. Drawing on selected works by Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, and T.M. Aluko, the study 
investigates how geography, ranging from the sacred forest to the urban landscape, shapes narrative 
forms, character identity, and cultural memory. The descriptive research design was used through close 
textual analysis and geocritical reading as works of three Nigerian of Yoruba extraction were purposively 
selected for this study. The study finds that Yoruba literary geography is a site of negotiation between 
tradition and modernity, spirituality and materialism, rootedness and displacement. The study concludes 
that the representation of home and environment in Yoruba literature is central to the articulation of 
cultural identity, serving as a dynamic space through which Yoruba writers preserve indigenous 
worldviews while critically engaging the challenges of social change and contemporary realities.