Politics of Africa

Professor Campbell

Caitlin Hoover

March 28th, 2016

Where Vultures Feast Book Summary

INTRODUCTION

        In Where Vultures Feast, Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas examine how the Niger Delta and its people were exploited by capitalism through the Royal Dutch Shell Company and the corrupt Nigerian government. The authors discuss how Royal Dutch Shell came to extract resources from the rich Niger Delta, how the government began taking personal profit, how the Ogoni people fought back, and how this exploitation ultimately destroyed a rich and fertile ecosystem, leaving local people rot with disease, loss of agricultural way of life, and pollution. This paper will summarize the book by dividing its content into three parts: The Niger Delta, Corrupt Government Officials and Royal Dutch Shell; The Ogoni People, Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP; and the Environmental Impacts. Throughout these sections the paper will prove how colonial ideology of domination over nature ultimately leads to genocidal thinking and the idea that some beings are superior to other by using the Niger Delta as a case example.

WHERE VULTURES FEAST

The Niger Delta, Corrupt Government Officials and Royal Dutch Shell

        The Niger Delta is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world with incredible oil resources, and when slavery was abolished, companies began coming to the Niger Delta to extract resources to sell as trade commodities^[1]. However, this was not the beginning of colonial recognition of the rich resources of the Niger Delta, “Britain’s interest in Nigeria’s oil dates back to the foundation of the country itself.”^[2] When Royal Dutch Shell began extracting oil in the Niger Delta it began to change the economic and political status of Nigeria completely and the mass profits Royal Dutch Shell was incurring was a beacon to the corrupt leadership in Nigeria. “Oil and its by-products have always provided Nigeria’s military leadership a lucrative source of unearned income. While corruption and misappropriation of the country’s huge oil revenue is the favorite past time of the military and civilian elite, General Ibrahim Babangida, who gave himself the title of ‘President’ as soon as he seized power in 1985, turned corruption into an industry, and in the process cornered billions of dollars in oil revenue for himself.”^[3] 

Although government and military officials in Nigeria were aware of the environmental damage of oil extraction, and of the fact that little of the country’s wealth made its way to the people who were now in a state of starvation and impoverishment, they chose to acquire wealth and turn their backs on their own people instead. This proves how the colonial ideology of domination over nature leads to genocidal thinking and disrupts the natural balance of life in Africa. Officials were willing to accept the deaths of millions of people to have a portion of wealth from Royal Dutch Shell’s exports.

The Ogoni People, Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP

        Prior to the arrival of Royal Dutch Shell, the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta used its resources such as the mangrove trees for herbal medicine, rope, and its rich fertile soil for agriculture. “The Ogoni, a rural closely knit community of farmers and fishermen, have lived in the central part of the Niger Delta for millennia.”^[4] However, when Royal Dutch Shell began exporting mass amounts of oil from the Delta the entire economy of Nigeria changed and Royal Dutch Shell seized the rights to the Ogoni people’s land through “Colonial Mineral Ordinance”^[5], however this transition did not bring revenue to the local people, “Very little of this wealth found its way to the communities of the Niger Delta from whose land the oil was extracted, however.”^[6] Not only did Shell seize the lands the local people used for their agricultural livelihood, the corporation also polluted the land so profusely that it is left infertile and worthless for agriculture. Even still, colonial ideology of domination over nature does not give rights to the land, and Shell continued to build rusty, old and leaking pipelines above ground and running through the land of farmers. This pollution also lead to the wide spread issue of respiratory problems and disease in the region.

        Ken Saro-Wiwa saw the devastation of these communities and established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People or MOSOP. With Ken Saro-Wiwa’s outspoken condemnation of Royal Dutch Shell through peaceful protest and the growing popularity of the movement, he began protesting the extraction of resources from the Niger Delta and the damage it was doing to the Ogoni people. “All over the Niger Delta, the complaints and grievances are shockingly similar- villages and whole communities pinning away in poverty and neglect under the intimidating shadow of a bloated shell.”^[7] As Ken Saro-Wiwa began gaining more momentum with MOSOP the corrupt Nigerian government and Royal Dutch Shell became fearful of losing out on the mass amounts of profit they were making. The corrupt Nigerian officials began funding small militias to coordinate attacks on the Ogoni people and “it was clear to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other MOSOP activists who was behind these unprovoked attacks.”^[8] Eventually, in an attempt to silence Ken Saro-Wiwa and the activists, the Nigerian military sentenced him and six other people to death by hanging.

Environmental Impacts

        Due to the process of resource exploitation by Royal Dutch Shell, the Niger Delta is considered the most endangered Delta in the world today. Aside from the damage the pollution has reeked upon the Ogoni people through disease, destruction of agriculture and respiratory issues which all lead to shorter life spans- the ecosystem of the Niger Delta is quickly collapsing and gas flaring is a direct contributor to climate change. “The human ecosystem of the Niger Delta is being strangled to death, slowly but relentlessly. With an annual population growth of 3 percent and the daily migration of young people to the few cities in search of scarce jobs in the oil industry, pressure on habitable land and the ecosystem itself has become intolerable. Health indicators for the area are poorer than for the country as a whole, and the pervasive water-related diseases (malaria, dysentery, tuberculosis, typhoid and cholera) are linked with environmental degradation, which itself is a function of the activities of the oil companies, among other factors.”^[9] 

        In addition to the destruction of the Ogoni people’s way of life and the environment of the Niger Delta, Royal Dutch Shell is also contributing to the destruction of the earth as a whole. Being one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases globally, the destruction of the Niger Delta ecosystem is rapidly expanding. “It is estimated that the gradual sinking of the Delta combined with sea level rise as a result of global warming will force 80 percent of the population to move if they are not to parish as wide strips of their habitat are washed away. Conflict over land and other economic resources is on the rise as Nigeria’s feckless government, in collaboration with Shell and the other oil companies, appropriate the bulk of the wealth of the area. Population growth is so rapid that it is estimated that food production will have to double in the next twenty years if starvation is not to complete the harvest of death the environmental devastation has already triggered.”^[10]

CONCLUSION

        Through the colonial ideology of domination over nature, Royal Dutch Shell began to exploit the natural resources of the Niger Delta to make a capitalist profit. With no regard to the well-being and livelihoods of the Ogoni people, much of the Niger Delta’s natural ecosystem has been completely destroyed. Yet what is most concerning, is the lack of international community attention to the subject. The degradation of the Ogoni people and Nigeria’s welfare as a whole has been completely forgotten in the scramble for wealth. The corruption of the government and military officials is accepted as some kind of norm. This is a prime example of domination over nature leading to genocidal thinking, when corporations and governments are willing to kill millions of people and the environment to gain a profit in the world of capitalism.

WORKS CITED

Okonta, Ike and Douglas, Oronto. Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil. Verso Publishing 2003. Brooklyn, NY. Pp. 1-228.