Author Description

The people of the Niger delta in southern Nigeria are locked in a life-and-death struggle with Royal Dutch Shell to safeguard the source of their livelihood -- their environment. This extraordinary book reveals the rape and plunder of this unique, environmentally-sensitive region once rich in natural resources. Written by close collaborators of the late Ken Saro-Wiwa -- and providing the background to his execution by the Nigerian government in 1996 -- this volume demonstrates how the ecosystem of the Niger delta, and the lives of its people, have been systematically destroyed by Shell. The result of many years' investigative work by Saro-Wiwa, and the authors, on the covert collaboration between oil multinationals and the Nigerian government, this book examines the catastrophic effects of gas flaring, indiscriminate oil spillage and waste dumping. The authors provide evidence of how Shell, with the backing of successive Nigerian governments, has extracted billions of dollars worth of oil and gas from the inhabitants of the Niger delta since 1956, and yet have given nothing of substance in return.