Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil in the Niger Delta

In 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer, political activist, and leader of the Niger Delta's Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), was summarily executed by Nigeria's brutal military junta. MOSOP was formed out of a final, desperate need to protest the destruction of a people's land and culture by two forces: a giant multinational corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, and a series of corrupt and repressive Nigerian governments. With the support of the Nigerian regime, Shell has instituted practices such as gas flaring (the ignition of gas in the atmosphere), the laying of dangerous high-pressure oil pipelines above ground, and the pollution of water sources, degrading the land and leaving many local people destitute. In contrast to the beneficial picture of the corporation's activities painted by its public relations professionals, authors Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas have found persuasive evidence that Shell and the Nigerian government share responsibility for making the Niger Delta one of the world's most endangered ecosystems. As compelling as it is important, Where Vultures Feast is a story that demands to be heard.