Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil

by Ike Okonta, Oronto Douglas, George Monbiot

On February 22, 1895, a naval force laid siege to Brass, the chief city of the Ijo people of Nembe in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. After severe fighting, the city was razed. More than two thousand people perished in the attack.

A hundred years later, the world was shocked by the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa—writer, political activist, and leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. Again the people of Nembe were locked in a grim life-and-death struggle to safeguard their livelihood from two forces: a series of corrupt and repressive Nigerian governments and the giant multinational Royal Dutch Shell.

Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas present a devastating case against the world’s largest oil company, demonstrating how (in contrast to Shell’s public profile) irresponsible practices have degraded agricultural land and left a people destitute. The plunder of the Niger Delta has turned full circle as crude oil has taken the place of palm oil, but the dramatis personae remain the same: a powerful multinational company bent on extracting the last drop of blood from the richly endowed Niger Delta, and a courageous people determined to resist.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Environment, The World, Nigeria

270 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Daniel Haumschild · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, certainly, but relatively poorly constructed, edited, compiled. It seems obvious that the authors bit off more than they could chew in 350 pages and so the book reads a bit like free jazz at times. That said, one can glean a shocking view of the destructive capacities of oil extraction and refinement and the overall disgusting treatment of an entire population by both the Nigerian government and the corporate giant.

[Zachary]

Fascinating (albeit terrible) subject, very poorly presented, and surprisingly self-righteous. On the other hand, if I had gone through what these authors' countrymen have gone through, I would be speechless.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes into a lot of detail, very relevant to today, would recommend

[Rachael MacLean]

This book has a definite agenda, so if you like your history to not take sides I would not choose this book. That being said, I loved it and I thought it was both an incredibly well researched peice of scholarship and an amazing call to action.