Erica  Shillings

19  March  2008

Does Colonialism Still Exist?

During an average work day I read several press releases from major oil and gas companies.  As an editor for an oil and gas journal, one section that I am responsible for lists oil discoveries, natural gas findings, new locations of oil reserves, etc.  These press releases include how many feet deep the well was drilled, how many barrels of oil are produced daily, and how much is expected to be extracted from the area.  While this information is beneficial to the readers, companies do not mention how many people were driven out of their land to drill the well, how many acres of vegetation were destroyed, and the current status of the area.  The steps taken by an oil and gas company in order to perform drilling operations displays modern-day colonialism.  In relation to this issue, does colonialism still exist?

Ken Saro-Wiwa was a well-known figure both in Nigeria and internationally as a journalist, novelist, poet and television producer (Gilbert  222).  He led a nonviolent crusade against oil operations in the Niger Delta.  Saro-Wiwa protested against the environmental degradation of Ogoniland by Shell’s oil operations (Connors  50).  Saro-Wiwa became active in the struggle of his own ethnic group, the Ogoni inhabitants of the Niger River Delta, and helped to build the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) (Damu and Bacon  51).  Saro-Wiwa had been a fierce critic both of the Nigerian junta and of Shell, the dominant multi-national company in Nigeria, complaining that Shell’s operations had devastated the environment of the Niger Delta, and that the Ogoni people had received little or no economic benefit from oil extraction (Gilbert  219).  Shell has operated in Nigeria from the late-1930s and was already well-established as the main multi-national oil company in Nigeria at the time of independence (Gilbert  221).  Since 1958, Shell has extracted U.S. $30 billion in oil from the delta, but most Ogoni communities have no pipe-borne water, electricity, hospitals, roads or even schools (Damu and Bacon  51). 

Ogoni (sometimes called Ogoniland) is situated in the Niger Delta, within the Rivers State, and there are around 500,000 ethnic Ogonis (Gilbert  221).  The Ogoni people are an ethnic minority in Nigeria and are mostly fishermen and farmers, but since Shell began extracting oil from the rich Ogoni farmlands, their lives have been shattered (Connors  50).  A poorly maintained network of above-ground pipes—occasionally running directly through villages—has led to routine spills of crude oil, much of it on farmland (Cayford  183).  At the same time, there have been over 2,000 oil spills, with over 2 million barrels poured out over Ogoni farmlands (Damu and Bacon  51).  Thick soot falls from the gas flares which dot their farmlands; air and water supplies have been contaminated; the rain is acidic and the incidence of respiratory and other health problems among the Ogoni has sky-rocketed (Connors  50).  Little has been done to compensate the Ogoni for the deleterious effects of oil production despite the immense wealth the federal government has acquired from the region (Cayford  184).

In response to the lack of compensation for the people and land of the Niger Delta, Saro-Wiwa along with MOSOP, took action.  MOSOP’s first act was to present its manifesto, the Ogoni Bill of Rights, to the Nigerian government in 1990.  This bill affirmed the group’s nonviolent philosophy and made several demands (Cayford  185).  Following this, Saro-Wiwa emerged as the leader of MOSOP (Gilbert  222).  MOSOP demanded that Shell clean up the area where its wells have polluted the Niger River Delta, and use part of the oil revenue to lift the Ogoni people out of grinding poverty (Damu and Bacon  51).  In May 1994, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were arrested for the assassination of four of their own chiefs who had in all likelihood been killed by government agents (Connors  50).  After 9 months detention, Saro-Wiwa was tried before a military tribunal, and, with eight other Ogoni, was sentenced to death (Gilbert  222).  His brother and eight compatriots were executed by a military-appointed tribunal, despite international protests, on November 10, 1995 (Connors  50).

Saro-Wiwa’s struggle in the Niger Delta mirrors the character of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.  While Okonkwo took a violent and destructive approach in relation to the white man entering the village of Umuofia, both men made great strives to preserve their land.  In response to the church that the white man built in Umuofia, Okonkwo and the rest of the clan leaders burn it down.  Achebe writes, “Mr. Smith stood his ground.  But he could not save his church.  When the egwugwu went away the red-earth church which Mr. Brown had built was a pile of earth and ashes” (Achebe  191).  While Saro-Wiwa led a nonthreatening campaign in hopes of restoring his land, the events taking place in Ogoni reflect the same predicament that Okonkwo dealt with in his village. 

During colonialism many countries sent explorers to foreign countries to benefit from outside natural resources such as gold and silver.  People of those countries fought to preserve their valuable goods and took great risks in the process.  Since the time of postcolonialism, the modern-day exploitation of foreign countries is oil.  Many of the major oil companies will stop at nothing to gain control over land rich in oil.  This has happened as late as the 1930s to present day in Nigeria.  Shell has exploited and colonized the people, changing the environment and the way of life in the Niger Delta for future generations.  While the exporting resources and financial agenda have changed over the years, the act of colonialism remains the same and continues to exist in today’s world.   

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua.  Things Fall Apart.  New York:  Anchor Books,  1959.

Cayford, Steven.  “The Ogoni Uprising: Oil, Human Rights, and a Democratic Alternative in Nigeria.”  Africa Today  43.2  (Apr-Jun 1996):  183.  EBSCO Host.  U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX.  13 March 2008.  <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2065/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=112&sid=f568b4f0-9008-4e76-beff-be687641bf20%40sessionmgr106>.

Connors, Libby.  “Environmental Racism: Australia, Shell and Nigeria.”  Social Alternatives 16.2  (Apr 1997):  50-52.  EBSCO Host.  U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX.   13 March 2008.  <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2065/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=112&sid=f568b4f0-9008-4e76-beff-be687641bf20%40sessionmgr106>.

Damu, Jean, and David Bacon.  “Oil rules Nigeria.”  Black Scholar  26.1  (Winter/Spring 1996): 51-56.  EBSCO Host.  U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX.  13 March 2008. <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2065/ehost/pdf?vid=8&hid=112&sid=f568b4f0-9008-4e76-beff-be687641bf20%40sessionmgr106>.

Gilbert, David.  “Sponsorship, Academic Independence and Critical Engagement: a Forum on Shell, the Ogoni Dispute and the Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers).”  Ethics, Place & Environment  2.2  (Oct 1999):  219-228.  EBSCO Host.  U of Houston, Clear Lake Lib., Houston, TX.  13 March 2008.  <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2065/ehost/pdf?vid=6&hid=112&sid=f568b4f0-9008-4e76-beff-be687641bf20%40sessionmgr106>.