Oil has brought destruction to the Niger Delta; women and human rights may save it

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, I speak with travel writer Noo Saro-Wiwa. She has documented the violence and natural destruction that the presence of oil companies have brought to the people of the Niger Delta in her latest book, The Burning Ground: Oil and Militancy in Nigeria.

Saro-Wiwa is also the daughter of the late activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995. Her father led a peaceful resistance against the oil companies' presence in the Niger Delta by mobilizing 300,000 people from Ogoniland in 1993. It is fair to say his activism started the movement against the destruction and exploitation led by oil companies in the nation. While peaceful at first, Noo Saro-Wiwa says many people gave up hope on peaceful resistance when the government failed to hold the companies accountable, and men turned to forming violent militant groups.

"Oil has been literally the worst thing that's happened to the Niger Delta. If I could go back in time and I had the power, I would never have allowed oil to have been discovered," she says.

While her latest book chronicles the harm of oil and the resulting violence, I put it to her that it's also a story about how the absence of women's rights is destroying societies. Saro-Wiwa explains how Nigeria isn't unique in this regard, but rather a stark example of how this dynamic plays out.

" Going around the Niger Delta and talking to activists like Emem Okon … I could see very clearly how women's rights directly affects the environment … and society, and how the absence of those rights feeds into this militancy which ultimately hurts men."

Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.

Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Banner image: A man fishes in the Niger Delta near the village of Diebu, Nigeria, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Image by Jon Gambrell / AP Photo.

——

Timecodes

(00:00) A heavy price to pay for oil

(06:09) The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People

(16:17) Militancy

(21:54) Governments are 'not interested in sustainable peace'

(26:11) Women as a stabilizing force

(29:44) Women's rights directly affects the environment

(36:54) Oil has been 'the worst thing to happen to the Niger Delta'

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