As Ryszard Kapuściński observed in 1982: “the concept of oil expresses perfectly the eternal human dream of wealth achieved through lucky accident, through a kiss of fortune and not by sweat, anguish, hard work. In this sense oil is a fairy tale, and like every fairy tale, a bit of a lie”.
As the Nigerian government pushes to restart oil production in Ogoniland, decades of pollution, dispossession and broken promises cast a long shadow over the future.
