Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2022, 10, 15-28 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2022.101002 Jan. 10, 2022 15 Open Journal of Social Sciences The Glocal Conundrum: Anthropocene, Oil and Globalization in Niger Delta Literature Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega Department of English and Literary Studies, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria Abstract This paper examines writers from the Niger Delta’s responses to the problems caused by humans’ activities to the region’s natural environment. It identifies some underhand efforts of local individuals and foreign multinationals re- spectively in extracting its natural resources while also locating interconnec- tions in the actions of both that have glocal implications and continue to pose great danger to environmental sustainability. For textual illustrations, the pa- per draws on several literary reconfigurations of this conundrum even as it applauds the different writers’ activism and advocacy for environmental re- suscitation. Keywords Glocal, Conundrum, Anthropocene, Niger Delta Literature, Oil, Environment 1. Introduction The Niger Delta is a unique region in Nigeria because it is the home of the na- tion’s oil industry which brings in over eighty percent of the federation’s reve- nue. Oil, a natural resource that was first discovered in commercial quantities in this region in the late 1950s is a much sought-after commodity internationally and as such has become one of the forms of contact between local and global communities. An interface between the local and global is what informs the concept of the glocal in this study. We, therefore, posit that operations of both local individuals and foreign oil companies in the region have consistently led to unmitigated consequences of environmental hazards. A number of existential threats such as depletion of biodiversity, coastal and riverbank erosion, oil spill- age, soil fertility loss, deforestation, gas flares, and the improper disposal of in- dustrial wastes from the oil industry, especially the local oil refineries are some of the fallouts. All of these pose great challenges to the landscape and life scape How to cite this paper: Ojaruega, E. E. (2022). The Glocal Conundrum: Anthro- pocene, Oil and Globalization in Niger Delta Literature. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 15-28. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.101002 Received: October 27, 2021 Accepted: January 7, 2022 Published: January 10, 2022 Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access