Obi and Rustad bring together some of the world's leading analysts on the Niger Delta insurgency for a gripping expose of the roots of the conflict and how actors in the region have responded to the crisis. The authors offer a deep, sobering, and multi-dimensional understanding of how the Niger Delta's descent into conflict came about and why it persists. This book will quickly become required reading for both scholars and practitioners interested in untangling these complex threads in order to promote peace, democracy, and development in the Niger Delta, and in similar resource-driven conflicts as well.
Darren Kew, Associate Professor, Conflict Resolution Program, University of Massachusetts
The crisis in the oil-producing Niger delta - a crisis at once political, economic, ecological and social - stands at the heart of contemporary Nigerian political economy. Oil and Insurgency in the Niger Delta will become the reference point for future debates on the origins and dynamics of conflict and political violence in the Nigerian oilfields. Obi and Rustad's collection charts the descent from Ken Saro-Wiwa's non-violent mobilization of the Ogoni in the 1980s and 1990s to the insurgency of the present. A pathbreaking book containing important insights into the complex landscape of oil, politics and the so-called "resource curse". Empirically rich and conceptually rigorous, this collection of essays is a tour de force.
Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley
An invaluable resource for understanding the complex and interrelated dynamics of violence, exploitation, resistance and social change in the region.
Pambazuka News