#niger delta

[colonellickburger]

Ed Kashi. Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, 2004–06

[thoughtlessarse]

Shell pumped oil through Nigeria pipeline for years despite pollution evidence, documents show

The oil giant says the documents ignore the critical context of the complex operating environment at the time.

British multinational Shell continued operating a major oil pipeline in Nigeria for years even though it knew it was causing widespread pollution - despite a warning from its own staff and its own technical standards, internal documents obtained by the BBC show. The files, including emails and presentations, reveal that a senior Shell executive cautioned as early as 2008 about the risks of continuing to pump millions of barrels of unrefined fuel through one of the company's main pipelines in Africa's biggest oil producer while it was subject to massive and destructive uncontrolled theft and infrastructure failures. Across Nigeria's oil-rich southern Niger Delta, decades of oil spills have left a landscape deeply scarred, with wetlands increasingly coated in crude and contaminated sediment. The BBC obtained the internal documents after Shell disclosed them as part of ongoing legal proceedings in the UK brought by communities living around the creeks and mangroves of the Niger Delta, who want Shell to be liable for the pollution caused by more than 100 leaks stemming from theft and illegal refining of oil between 2011 and 2013 that have damaged their health, environment and livelihoods. The 60-mile (96.5km) Nembe Creek Trunk Line runs near the riverine community of Bille, which is made up of 45 islands, from inland oilfields to a coastal processing site for exporting.

continue reading

[agelessphotography]

Oil Bunkering #9, Niger Delta, Nigeria, Edward Burtynsky, 2016

[humanrightsupdates]

Amnesty International UK Urgent Action: Protect the Bille residents in the Niger Delta

230 emails have been sent. Help us get to 500

The residents of the town of Bille, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, are continuing to face a serious health emergency.

Bille is a coastal community that is located on an island in the mouth of the Niger Delta and is only accessible by boat. Fishing is one of the community’s main industries.

Since October 2025, methane gas has been bubbling up in nearby rivers and swamps and is now affecting a significant amount of the town’s drinking wells. Bille’s school children have been forced to move to another community for safety.

In April, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission visited Bille to launch an investigation into the leaks and has ordered oil companies operating nearby to find a solution.

While this is a positive development, little has been done to identify and stop the leaks - research into methane leaks in other parts of the world have linked them to poorly decommissioned oil and gas wells.

The Government of Nigeria has a duty to protect the residents of Bille from potentially lethal methane leaks, including any which may be caused or contributed to by private actors, such as oil companies.

Write to the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources to demand that they protect the residents of Bille now.

[kemetic-dreams]

CULTURE SUMMARY: IGBO

By IFI AMADIUME

ETHNONYMS

Ala Igbo, Ani Igbo, Ibo, Ndi Igbo.

IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATION

Igbo is the language spoken in Ala Igbo or Ani Igbo (Igboland) by the people who are collectively referred to as “Ndi Igbo”; their community is known as “Olu no Igbo” (“those in the lowlands and uplands”). Before European colonialism, the Igbo-speaking peoples, who shared similarities in culture, lived in localized communities and were not unified under a single cultural identity or political framework, although unifying processes were present via expansion, ritual subordination, intermarriage, trade, cultural exchange, migration, war, and conquest. Villages and village groups were generally identified by distinct names of their ancestral founders or by specific names such as Umuleri, Nri, Ogidi, Nnobi, Orlu, Ngwa, Ezza, and Ohaffia.

There are several theories concerning the etymology of the word “Igbo” (wrongly spelled “Ibo” by British colonialists). Eighteenth-century texts had the word as “Heebo” or “Eboe,” which was thought to be a corruption of “Hebrew.” “Igbo” is commonly presumed to mean “the people.” The root - bo is judged to be of Sudanic origin; some scholars think that the word is derived from the verb gboo and therefore has connotations of “to protect,” “to shelter,” or “to prevent”—hence the notion of a protected people or a community of peace. According to other theorists, it may also be traced to the Igala, among whom onigbo is the word for “slave,” oni meaning “people.”

Igbo-speaking peoples can be divided into five geographically based subcultures: northern Igbo, southern Igbo, western Igbo, eastern Igbo, and northeastern Igbo. Each of these five can be further divided into subgroups based on specific locations and names. The northern or Onitsha Igbo are divided into the Nri-Awka of Onitsha and Awka; the Enugu of Nsukka, Udi, Awgu, and Okigwe; and those of the Onitsha town. The southern or Owerri Igbo are divided into the Isu-Ama of Okigwe, Orlu, and Owerri; the Oratta-Ikwerri of Owerri and Ahoada; the Ohuhu-Ngwa of Aba and Bende; and the Isu-Item of Bende and Okigwe. The western Igbo (Ndi Anioma, as they like to call themselves) are divided into the northern Ika of Ogwashi Uku and Agbor; the southern Ika or Kwale of Kwale; and the Riverrain of Ogwashi Uku, Onitsha, Owerri, and Ahoada. The eastern or Cross River Igbo are divided into the Ada (or Edda) of Afikpo, the Abam-Ohaffia of Bende and Okigwe, and the Aro of Aro. The northeastern Igbo include the Ogu Uku of Abakaliki and Afikpo.

Today Igbo-speaking individuals live all over Nigeria and in diverse countries of the world. As a people, however, the Igbo are located on both sides of the River Niger and occupy most of southeastern Nigeria. The area, measuring over 41,000 square kilometers, includes the old provinces of Onitsha, Owerri, East Rivers, Southeast Benin, West Ogoja, and Northeast Warri. In contemporary Nigerian history, the Igbo have claimed all these areas as the protectorate of the “Niger Districts.” Thus began the process of wider unification and incorporation into wider political and administrative units. Presently, they constitute the entire Enugu State, Anambra State, Abia State, Imo State, and the Ahoada area of Rivers State; Igbo-speaking people west of the Niger are inhabitants of the Asaba, Ika, and Agbo areas of Delta State.

[lotusyiyen]

[artifacts-archive]

Fragment of a Kneeling Figure

Inland Niger Delta region, Mali, Northern Africa and the Sahel, 11th-14th century

Little is known about the meaning and function of the terracotta figures discovered in various sites around the abandoned city of Jenné-Jeno in modern Mali. Archaeological excavations revealed that figures like this partial example were set into the walls and foundations of buildings, suggesting they served a religious purpose. The loincloth and stack of bracelets on this figure indicated high social rank. The snakes wrapping around his torso are common in the iconography of the Inland Niger Delta and undoubtedly had symbolic significance.

[nasrineamani]