By: Nicholas Johnson & Chris Morrill
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March 20, 2019
Members from Kebetkache show us water samples from nearby villages. They might look different colors, but once opened, there is the same chemical stench.
In January 2019, Grassroots International attended Nigeria’s National Summit on Water as a Human Right: From Resistance to Real Solutions Against Corporate Control. Solidarity Program Officer Mina Remy and graduate fellow Nicholas Johnson also tacked on a few days to learn more about the deep history of environmental justice activism in Nigeria.
The photo blog below, the second of the two-part series on our recent trip to Nigeria, focuses on the site visits. Mina and Nick visited the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), the Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Center, and the Ogoni land in the Niger Delta.
The environmental crisis is deadly. Thanks to the contamination by oil production, life expectancy has dropped to 41 years and birth complications for pregnant women have increased. Not only has the water been dirtied, killing fish, but the air has been polluted and the soil poisoned.
We hope these photos adequately capture the resilience of the Nigerian people in their struggle against corporate contamination of the environment for profit. We extend our gratitude to our graduate fellow, Nicholas Johnson, for accompanying us and sharing his gift of photography.
Solidarity Program Officer for West Africa & Haiti, Mina Remy, discussing HOMEF’s approach to Ecological Politics with executive director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
Nnimmo Bassey
The brave women of Kebetkache and members of Grassroots International.
Members from Kebetkache show us water samples from nearby villages. They might look different colors, but once opened, there is the same chemical stench.
Sign with the Shell corporate logo demonstrating their involvement in the oil extraction and ecological destruction.
Picture of a 24/7 gas flare at a nearby oil extraction site. It’s cheaper for the oil company to burn the gas as waste than invest in technologies that would reinsert it in the reservoir.
Arrival to the Goi Community of Ogoni Land, in the Niger Delta, Home of the Ogoni people. The Ogonis are an indigenous peoples in Southeast Nigeria.
A Chief of the Goi community & Nnimmo of HOMEF describe the trifecta of ecological atrocities left in the wake of oil drilling in the area: air, water, & land all polluted.
Picture of the Delta. Notice the green and gray chemicals ingrained throughout the river bed.
A closer look at the river bed contamination.
Despite the pollution, fishermen are still forced back to the river to fish for what few creatures still reside in the water. Ogoni Land, Nigeria.
Fishermen show what they caught out of the river: fish with bodies full of oil.
We sit with chiefs, activists, and community members to learn about their strategies and organizing needs.
