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WORK TITLE: Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Ann Arbor
STATE: MI
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/people/core-faculty/oadunbi.html * https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/people/core-faculty/oadunbi/_jcr_content/file.res/Adunbi-CV2016.pdf
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Ondo State University, Nigeria, B.A., 1992; Yale University, M.A., 2004, M.Phil, 2006, Ph.D. 2010.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Political anthropologist, educator, writer, and editor. Civil Liberties Organization, Lagos, Nigeria, head of Human Rights Education Department, 1994-2002; Religion and Society, editor, 1996-2002; University of California, Davis, postgraduate research in the Department of African-American and African Studies, 2003-06; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, assistant professor of Afroamerican and and African studies, 2010-2016, faculty associate in the Program in the Environment, 2010–, faculty associate in the Human Rights Program, 2016–, associate professor of Afroamerican and African studies, 2016–.
MEMBER:Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network.
Recipient of grants and fellowships.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Annual Report on the State of Human Rights in Nigeria, edited by Ayo Obe, Civil Liberties Organization, 2002. Contributor to professional journals, including Africa, African Studies Review, Anthropological Quarterly, Humanity, Journal of Information Policy, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, and Religion and Society. Coeditor of spring, 2016 issue of Humanity.
SIDELIGHTS
Omolade Adunbi is a political anthropologist whose research interests include issues related to resource distribution, governance, human and environmental rights, power, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations, and the postcolonial state. In his book titled Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria, Adunbi focuses on the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria in relation to issues concerning oil wealth, multinational corporations, transitional institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and violence. In the process, he shows how these various entities structure the daily lives of people living in the Niger Delta but have done little to improve the peoples’ quality of life. According to Adunbi, the oil wealth in the region has had the opposite effect on lives, increasing poverty and deprivation in the region.
“It’s not just multinational corporations and the Nigerian government that are making Niger Delta communities worse off,” Adunbi noted in an interview with Washington Post Online contributor Iim Yi Dionne, adding: “Purported advocates may also use community grievances for their own purposes.” In the preface to Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria, Adunbi points out that ninety percent of Nigeria’s revenue is derived from oil. The Niger Delta region includes nine of the thirty-six Nigerian states made up of a variety of ethnic groups. Adunbi goes on to show that oil is both divisive and a a unifying factor in the region. “I found that oil creates unity when it comes to making claims of ownership; it is when the discussion turns to who should derive benefits from the oil that the wedge appears,” Adunbi writes in the preface, adding: “In deciding where to begin my study of the Niger Delta, I became interested in where those unifying factors and wedges are most prominent.”
Adunbi begins Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria with an introduction focusing on issues associated with the environment, transnational networks, and resource extraction. He goes to delves in oil politics and its paradoxes, human and environmental rights practices, the politics of making claims to the oil, and various conflicts and the militancy that the region has experienced. Adunbi also examines efforts to construct peace and end violence in the region and then provides a conclusion looking at various issues in the region that go beyond the struggle for oil reserves. In the process, Adunbi makes the case that both oil and the land over it have evolved to represent the promise of ancestral wealth in the region. He points out, however, that there is an ongoing battle on who will reap the benefits of the oil found on the land, involving the Nigerian communities in the region, oil corporations, and the Nigerian government.
Adunbi pays special attention to how NGO workers often began as advocates for the communities in the region but then were often co-opted by the state or the corporations. Adunbi examines two aspects of the NGOs, beginning with how NGOs have advocated for the communities to share in the oil wealth based on the right on ancestral promise. He then discusses how some NGOs have continued to claim they are working for the communities but have actually aligned themselves with the needs and wishes of the oil corporations. Adunbi also looks at struggles over natural resources beyond Nigeria. In the process, he explores how community groups and organizations form ties. Other issues addressed by Adunbi include human and environmental rights strategies, and claims made by insurgency groups on behalf of communities. Throughout, Adunbi places his study within the context of the rhetoric of ancestral belonging and how this rhetoric is integrated into the language of rights and its influence on violence in the region. Pointing out that Adunbi’s book provides a broader look at related issues “beyond oil and insurgency,” J.P. Smaldone, writing for Choice, noted that Adunbi delves into the contradictions involved in the intertwining of “cultural forms and norms, governance, political economy, civil society, [and] conflict.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Adunbi, Omolade, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2015.
PERIODICALS
Choice, April, 2016. J.P. Smaldone, review of Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria, p. 1231.
ONLINE
Humanity Journal Online, http://humanityjournal.org/ (March 13, 2017), author profile.
University of Michigan Department of African American Studies Web site, https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/ (March 13, 2017), author faculty profile.
University of Michigan Energy Institute Web site, http://energy.umich.edu/ (March 13, 2017), author faculty profile.
Washington Post Online, https://www.washingtonpost.com/ (August 19, 2016), Kim Yi Dionne and Omolade Adunbi, “The Niger Delta’s Oil Wealth Has Made Inhabitants’ Lives Worse,” author interview.*
LC control no.: no2015020875
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Adunbi, Omolade
Field of activity: Anthropology Africa
Profession or occupation:
Anthropologists
Found in: Oil wealth and insurgency in Nigeria, 2015: eCIP title page
(Omolade Adunbi) data view (Assistant Professor of
Afroamerican and African Studies and Faculty Associate
for Program in the Environment at the University of
Michigan)
University of Michigan web site, February 13, 2015 (Omolade
Adunbi, political anthropologist and an Assistant
Professor at the Department of Afroamerican and African
Studies (DAAS); he; PhD in anthropology from Yale)
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
Omolade Adunbi
Associate Professor, DAAS
oadunbi@umich.edu
Office Information:
4757 Haven Hall
phone: 734.615.4339
Education/Degree:
Ph.D., Yale University 2010
About
Omolade Adunbi is a political anthropologist and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). His areas of research explore issues related to resource distribution, governance, human and environmental rights, power, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations and the postcolonial state. His latest book, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria (Indiana University Press, 2015) addresses issues related to oil wealth, multinational corporations, transnational institutions, NGOs and violence in oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. His current research focuses on the growing interest of China in Africa's natural resources and its interrelatedness to infrastructural projects. His teaching interest include transnationalism, globalization, power, violence, human and environmental rights, the postcolonial state, social theory, resource distribution and contemporary African society, culture and politics.
Affiliation(s)
Program in the Environment
African Studies Center
Field(s) of Study
Transnationalism and Governance
Human and Environmental Rights
Oil and Natural Resource Politics
CV: https://lsa.umich.edu/daas/people/core-faculty/oadunbi/_jcr_content/file.res/Adunbi-CV2016.pdf
Omolade Adunbi
Omolade
Assistant Professor, Department of AfroAmerican and African Studies
(734) 615-4339
oadunbi@umich.edu (link sends e-mail)
Omolade Adunbi's research page
Disciplines:
Policy and Social Impact
Biography:
Omolade Adunbi is a political anthropologist and an Assistant Professor at the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS). He received his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria, an M.A. in African Studies with concentration in Politics and Political Economy from Yale University and PhD in Anthropology, also from Yale University, in 2010. His areas of research explore issues related to resource distribution, governance, human and environmental rights, power, culture, transnational institutions, multinational corporations and the postcolonial state. His latest book, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria (link is external) (Indiana University Press, 2015) addresses issues related to oil wealth, multinational corporations, transnational institutions, NGOs and violence in oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
Research Interests:
His current research focuses on the growing interest of China in Africa’s natural resources and its interrelatedness to infrastructural projects. His teaching interest include transnationalism, globalization, power, violence, human and environmental rights, the postcolonial state, social theory, resource distribution and contemporary African society, culture and politics.
About Omolade Adunbi
Omolade Adunbi is an assistant professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and faculty associate of the Program in the Environment (PitE) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His first book, Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria (Indiana, 2015), examines the relationship between oil as a mythic commodity and how the wealth it generates results in competing claims over its ownership in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. His current research focuses on China’s interest in oil and other resources in Africa.
The Niger Delta’s oil wealth has made inhabitants’ lives worse
By Kim Yi Dionne and Omolade Adunbi August 19, 2016
In this week’s African Politics Summer Reading Spectacular post, we feature a Q&A with Omolade Adunbi, author of “Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria.” Adunbi’s book shows how non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local community collaborators and especially multinational oil corporations structure people’s daily lives in the oil-rich Niger Delta. He draws on years of experience as an activist followed by years of field research.
Kim Yi Dionne: Your book taught me a lot about how oil exploration in the Niger Delta has harmed the region. It shows not just that oil wealth hasn’t contributed to general well-being, but also that oil wealth “has continually created deprivation, misery, and impoverishment” (p. 50).
In other words, it’s not just that people in the Niger Delta aren’t receiving their fair share — they’ve been made worse off. Can you say more about this?
Omolade Adunbi: You are right. Many people in the Niger Delta were farmers and fishermen before oil was discovered in 1956. Many community members saw this as fulfilling their ancestors’ promise of wealth that could dramatically improve their lives. Communities advocate for a fair share of what they consider to be their wealth.
Many NGOs — including Environmental Rights Action, Social Action and Oil Watch Nigeria — position themselves as community advocates. They echo the campaign slogan of “keep oil in the ground,” used by influential transnational NGOs like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth International, OilWatch International and Earth Rights International. But while those NGOs want to end oil exploration, community members would rather have more benefits from oil extraction.
At the same time, insurgent groups — such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force and more recently, the Niger Delta Avengers and Reformed Niger Delta Avengers — also claim to fight for the communities, combining community grievances with NGO rhetoric about environmental rights.
As my book shows, many insurgents eventually reveal that personal interest — getting oil wealth for themselves — trumps community interest. In short, it’s not just multinational corporations and the Nigerian government that are making Niger Delta communities worse off. Purported advocates may also use community grievances for their own purposes.
adunbi_book
KYD: I found your discussion of ancestral promise and oil myths fascinating. For example, you write that “many people in the Niger Delta believe that the slaves who did not make it through the long and torturous journey to the new world” had died and returned to the Niger Delta “in the form of crude oil, as an ancestral blessing on those who opposed slavery.” (pp. 6-7).
OA: The slave narrative is quite fascinating to me as well. In interview after interview, informants would reiterate that the bodies of the ancestors returned as blessings to the Niger Delta communities.
One narrative that didn’t find its way into the book was about how the ancestors had given “their today for the tomorrow of the next generation” — gave up a good life, suffered and made abundant resources available for the current generation to enjoy. Unfortunately, informants say marauding corporations have made that virtually impossible.
KYD: We recently featured a guest post by Tarila Marclint Ebiede on the resurgence of violence in the Niger Delta. He wrote of two insurgent groups: the Niger Delta Avengers and the Red Scorpions. To your knowledge, are these new groups or reconfigurations of previous insurgent groups?
[Militants are again devastating Nigeria’s oil industry. Here’s the background you won’t find elsewhere]
OA: The militant resurgence can be traced to some of what I highlighted in the closing chapters of my book. When Delta activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was about to be hanged by the Nigerian military in 1995, he said that his death would not end agitation in the Delta; unless ecological destruction and neglected communities were attended to, in Saro-Wiwa’s famous words, “the ashes shall rise again.” These words were reiterated to me by many.
[The complex life and death of Ken Saro-Wiwa]
The ashes rose shortly after his execution, producing many more activists, NGOs and more violence. The violence lasted from 1999 to 2009, when the Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations crafted an amnesty program for former militants who agreed to lay down arms. But rather than address infrastructural deficits, ecological destruction and high unemployment, the Goodluck Jonathan administration basically created a program that paid former militants not to fight. Many insurgent leaders were paid huge sums to keep the peace. Former militant commander Government Tompolo, for example, got a $100 million contract to police the waterways of Nigeria. Foot soldiers were given monthly allowances far exceeding the national monthly minimum wage.
But when international oil prices collapsed, the state could not continue these payments. The result is that we are witnessing old insurgents clad in new names with the same style of agitation.
KYD: Finally, your book features Annkio Briggs, the founder and executive director of Agape Birthrights, a Port Harcourt NGO focusing on Niger Delta women. (pp. 175-179).
I found Annkio really interesting because she lived in the creeks before oil exploration, giving her a perspective unavailable to younger activists. She strikes me as a bridge between elders who can talk about how things were better in the past and the younger generation who have learned from transnational human environmental rights campaigns.
[Women’s rights groups in Niger push forward on gender equality]
But as time passes, these bridging activists will only decline in number.
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OA: I highlighted two forms of “bridging activists” in the book. The first serve as a bridge between the insurgents, the communities and the state. This group helped negotiate an end to several crises between 2005 and 2009 when insurgents took foreign oil workers hostage. Some also helped build relationships between Niger Delta communities and multinational corporations by helping negotiate Global Memorandum of Understanding.
The second category connect the struggle against injustice in the Niger Delta to struggles against injustice in Nigeria more broadly. They believe firmly in Ken Saro-Wiwa’s idea of nonviolent struggle and suggest that the struggle of the Niger Delta people cannot be detached from the larger struggle for a better Nigeria.
Unfortunately, the voices of bridging activists are either getting lost or getting co-opted into the reductionist idea that every struggle starts and ends with the Niger Delta.
Omolade Adunbi is an associate professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and a faculty associate in the Program in the Environment (Pite) and the Human Rights Program (HRP) at the University of Michigan. He is also the author of “Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria.” You can follow him on Twitter at @LadeAdunbi.
Adunbi, Omolade. Oil wealth and insurgency in Nigeria
J.P. Smaldone
53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1231.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Adunbi, Omolade. Oil wealth and insurgency in Nigeria. Indiana, 2015. 296p bibl index afp ISBN 9780253015693 cloth, $85.00; ISBN 9780253015730 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9780253015785 ebook, $34.99
53-3691
HD9577
MARC
The protracted oil-and-conflict dynamics in the Niger delta region have generally been analyzed through the lenses of conventional political science/ international relations. This ambitious book employs an anthropological approach to dissecting and understanding relationships among the Nigerian state, multinational corporations, natural resources, local communities in the Niger Delta region, and NGOs. Adunbi (Univ. of Michigan) argues that land and oil have come to represent "an ancestral promise of wealth" to local communities that suffer adverse social and environmental degradation but reap few of the expected benefits. This paradox is at the root of the violence that continues to afflict the region. Adunbi's analysis goes well beyond oil and insurgency, offering a complicated but comprehensive conceptualization of the contradictory ways in which cultural forms and norms, governance, political economy, civil society, conflict, and more have become intertwined. However, the analysis is not followed by any recommendations to ameliorate the situation he clearly deplores. Recommended for university and larger public library systems, and collections specializing in African studies and international affairs. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--J. P. Smaldone, Georgetown University
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Smaldone, J.P. "Adunbi, Omolade. Oil wealth and insurgency in Nigeria." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1231. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661822&it=r&asid=f9b81f3a011b1e5dc7bde2cc0bb439dd. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661822
I found that oil creates unity when it comes to making claims of ownership; it is when the discussion turns to who should derive benefits from the oil that the wedge appears. In deciding where to begin my study of the Niger Delta, I became interested in where those unifying factors and wedges are most prominent.