Abstract :
Jenny Robson’s Savannah 2216 AD, a dark, futuristic novel for young
adults, provides a strong critique on much of the world’s predilection for saving
Africa’s animals at the expense of those human communities who are perceived to
be in the way of the preservation of the continent’s remaining wild spaces. Using
Robson’s novel as template, this article examines a few of those discourses
regarding wilderness and conservation that have attached to Africa. Savannah 2116
AD strongly yet indirectly hints that literary educators should revisit the often
unquestioned adoption of ‘greening’ agendas in school curricula which persist in
re-colonising geo-political spaces by ignoring the fact that erecting fences between
perceived conservators and destroyers, between spaces for wild animals and
humans, merely condemns Africa’s animal riches to eventual death
