scholarly journals From Oil to Water? The Deepening Crises of Primitive Accumulation in the Waterscapes of Nigeria's Niger Delta

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Ogbonnaya Okorie
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Pollution ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Accumulation By Dispossession ◽  
Privately Owned ◽  
Peace And Development

Using the case of groundwater pollution in Nigeria's Niger Delta, this paper examines the shifting contours of primitive accumulation in the region. Based on two years of ethnographic research, the paper unravels the losses experienced by individuals and their dependents whose privately owned sources of water were polluted. It argues that the groundwater pollution is a deadly but less discussed form of primitive accumulation that has strong implications for peace and development in the affected communities. The paper concludes that accumulation by dispossession driven by oil exploration in the Niger Delta operates in complex ways and generates multifaceted crises; as such, the prospects for resolving the conflicts lie in addressing various strands of the dispossession, including groundwater pollution in the region.

NIGERIA: DELTA OIL EXPLORATION POLITICS AND THE PORTRAYAL OF BRUTAL IMPACT IN YERIMA’S HARD GROUND

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Uche-Chinemere NWAOZUZU ◽  
Ifeanyichukwu ABADA ◽  
Emeka ANIAGO
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Hidden Agenda ◽  
Fault Lines

This study presents an interdisciplinary approach towards a critical analysis of some impacts of crude-oil exploration in Niger Delta and polemics of viable conϐlict resolution framework. This approach involves analysis of Ahmed Yerima’s creative portrayal in Hard Ground which revolves around the variables activating conϐlicting emotional interests in matters concerning ‘black gold’ in Nigeria, and how these variables resonant in debates and demands for Nigeria’s polity restructuring because of perceived resource mismanagement. More so, our scope includes an analytical attempt at illuminating elaborately our interpretation of the dimensions to the loud and shrewd inclinations subsuming what some see as solution to the lingering conϐlict, and the suppositions explaining why others see the debates and demands on polity restructuring as dark convoluted ploys aimed at hidden agenda. Hence, through select theories of victimhood, this study attempts to elucidate on the variables propelling conϐlicting emotional interestsabout oil exploration in Niger Delta, by looking interpretively hard and deep on the perspectives, views and suppositions deϐining the ideologies and inclinations propelling them. In the end, this study notes that the disenchantments and troubles with Nigeria’s polity framework and structure as it relates to oil exploration in Niger Delta are subsumed in Hard Ground’s creativecontribution as a means of assessing the points to the fault-lines that characterize the subsisting socio-political structure upon which Nigeria stands and wobbles.

The Land Question in India

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony P. D’Costa ◽  
Achin Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Foreseeable Future ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Accumulation By Dispossession ◽  
Land Question

Since the mid-2000s, proliferating “land wars” have exposed a contradiction between the land requirements of neoliberal capitalism and the political weight of farmers in India’s democracy. Whether, how, and for whom this contradiction is resolved constitutes India’s “new” land question. But this chapter argues that Marx’s “primitive accumulation” or Harvey’s “accumulation by dispossession” are inadequate to understand this conjuncture; and it advances the concept of “regimes of dispossession” as an alternative. It argues that from the early 1990s, India shifted from a regime that dispossessed land for state-led projects of material expansion to one that dispossesses land for private and decreasingly productive investments. This new regime, in which states have become mere land brokers for private capital, is arguably less “developmental” than its Nehruvian predecessor. The upshot is that India’s “land wars” are unlikely to dissipate any time soon; and the “land question” may be the largest contradiction for Indian capitalism for the foreseeable future.

scholarly journals Environment pollution: The rise of militarism and terrorism in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Christian Madubuko
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
The People ◽  
Oil Pipelines ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
History Of ◽  
To Receive

Oil was discovered in large quantities in Nigeria in 1956 and exploration began in the same year. Before oil, agriculture and fishing had assured the Niger Delta people of a bright future. Since 1956, oil has been extracted from the Niger Delta with destructive consequences on the environment, bringing about environmental degradation and destruction of the people’s primary means of livelihood. Land and water were badly polluted, and the health of the people affected because of leaks from oil pipelines, gas flaring and acid rains. Several petitions and non-violent protests by Delta communities, women and youth against environmental destruction failed to receive attention. Rather, opposition to peaceful protests earned the people military invasions of their communities, clampdowns and jailings. The rise of militarism and terrorism in the Niger Delta was the result of the Federal Government and Oil Companies’ clampdown on non-violent protests for environmental justice in the Niger Delta. This paper discusses the history of oil exploration in the Niger Delta, oil laws, effects of oil exploration in the region, and the rise of militants and terrorists in the area. The paper uses the term, ‘environmental Justice’ to denote unfair treatment and destruction of the Delta environment resulting from oil exploration, non implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations, and abuse of human rights.The paper suggests solutions for peace in the Niger Delta.

scholarly journals Letters of Gold: Enabling Primitive Accumulation through Neoliberal Conservation

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram Büscher
Keyword(s):  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Local People ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Enabling Environment ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Accumulation By Dispossession ◽  
History Of ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Means Of Production

In Capital I, Marx wrote that the history of the separation of the producers from the means of production “is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire” (Marx, 1976: 875). This ‘so-called primitive accumulation’, or ‘accumulation by dispossession’ in David Harvey's words, continues unabated. Yet, its framing has changed considerably. Increasingly, capitalists have tried to avoid writing primitive accumulation in ‘letters of blood and fire’. Instead, they focus on creating the ‘enabling environment’ for accumulation by positing neoliberal capitalism as the ‘only alternative’. This short essay focuses on nature conservation in Southern Africa to illustrate that this seemingly ‘civilized’ or ‘inevitable’ accumulation is none other than the induced self-marginalisation of local people under the ‘golden letters’ of win-win neoliberal conservation.

scholarly journals Conservancies, Conflict and Dispossession: The Winners and Losers of Oil Exploration in Turkana, Kenya

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-857
Author(s):  
Kennedy Mkutu ◽  
Anna Mdee
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Industrial Economy ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Marginal Areas

AbstractFormerly marginal areas are increasingly the focus of extractive mega-projects, which are framed as necessary for economic growth and a modern industrial economy. Yet there are concerns that such projects are unjustly displacing local populations, facilitated through the alliances of local elites with foreign investors. This article asks, who are the winners and losers from oil exploration in the Turkana region of Kenya? Using longitudinal ethnographic research on the dynamics of local government, oil exploration, and pastoralist livelihoods in Turkana, Mkutu and Mdee highlight how current processes may exacerbate inequality and marginalization, with the potential for increasingly violent consequences.

The Contemporary Significance of Primitive Accumulation∗

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohit Negi ◽  
Marc Auerbach
Keyword(s):  
Social Effects ◽  
The Political ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Agrarian Question ◽  
Accumulation By Dispossession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Agricultural Households ◽  
The Way

The emerging body of literature on accumulation by dispossession (ABD) sharpens the political edge of the critique of contemporary capitalism. While this is welcome, there are also reasons for concern about the way ABD has been taken up. This is so, because the processes at the heart of Marx's enunciations of primitive accumulation are widely considered passé or are subsumed within the broadened conception of ABD. It matters because the separation of agricultural households from land is an ongoing and central reality of our times, and the social effects have been disastrous. Achieving greater clarity around primitive accumulation and the constellation of issues associated with the agrarian question, then, is of more than passing importance. This article argues that radical geographers should return to the land to undertake an open and materialist engagement with contemporary processes of primitive accumulation.

scholarly journals Toxicological Impacts of Gas flaring and Other Petroleum Production Activities in Niger-Delta Environment

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 2297-2304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ujowundu C. O. ◽  
Ajoku C.O ◽  
Nwaogu L. A ◽  
Belonwu D. C. ◽  
Igwe K.O
Keyword(s):  
Ictalurus Punctatus ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Control Fish ◽  
Environmental Toxicants ◽  
Oil Exploration ◽  
Chemical Monitoring ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Exploration And Production ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Channa Argus

In this study, the concentrations of inducers of environmental toxicity such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and biomarkers of environmental toxicants such as oxidative stress enzymes/compounds and liver function enzymes were determined. These parameters were used to assess the pollution status of some Niger-Delta areas; Ebocha/Omoku, Abacheke/Egbema, and Okwuzi/Ohaji, with the aid of two indicator species: cat fish (Ictalurus punctatus) and snakehead fish (Channa argus) from three different water sources; Ebocha/Omoku river, Abacheke river and Okwuzi creek all of which are within the area of oil exploration and production activities in Nigeria. The control fish and water samples were collected from Otamiri River within the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, with no known oil exploration and production activity. The results obtained indicated significant (p < 0.05) differences between the exploited and the unexploited environment and the need to incorporate biochemical markers in environmental impact assessment of aquatic environments to complements the classical chemical monitoring. 

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