Blood and Oil: Testimonies of Violence from Women of the Niger Delta

The discovery of oil in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in 1956 triggered a chain of events that has led to the political and economic marginalisation of the inhabitants. Despite 40 years of oil production and hundreds of billions of dollars of oil revenue, the people of the Niger Delta remain in abject poverty without even the most basic amenities such as water and electricity. Rivers, farmland and fishing creeks have been subjected to devastation, due to the activities of the Western oil companies operating in the Niger Delta, whilst the people themselves have been on the receiving end of repression and brutality by successive Nigerian governments. Blood and Oil gives voice and agency to the women of the region. We hear them speak of their fears and sufferings and pains. We hear them speak of rape and defilement and death. They speak of loss of property and limbs and loved ones but are made extraordinary and heroic by their deeds and there determined refusal to be oppressed.