Oil spills disaster in Ogoniland : social and cultural perspectives

Abstract

Disasters are human creations, whether they originate from natural or technological hazards. The type of hazard that originates the disaster shapes how a community or group responds to or is affected by it. The time and speed of onset of the hazard also plays a critical role in the disaster that finally ensues. Disasters are complex events from the point of view of their conceptualization. The level of development and the vulnerability of a community is a critical factor in how a disaster eventually plays out. Disasters especially technological ones create a lot of uncertainties in communities that have been impacted by them. They also result in what experts refer to as corrosive communities. Technological disasters occur when a community is exposed to toxic substances in its environment aggravated by other elements. This research set out to investigate the Ogoni oil spill disaster, against these backdrops, to understand the social, cultural, environmental, institutional, policy, economic, and political contexts. How these contextual elements played out and shaped the susceptibility of the Ogoni people, how the Ogoni people were able to cope, and how the duration and the management of the disaster influenced their response. This research explored the historical perspectives, the social, cultural, and political life of the Ogoni people to determine how the livelihood of the community has been affected by slow onset oil spill disaster. From the lived experience of the Ogoni community, the study used a qualitative case study approach to develop an understanding of oil spill disaster in Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. The findings from this study are consistent with existing knowledge on Technological Disaster that have been researched in different environments. Keywords: Oil Spill, Disaster, Natural, Technological, Hazards, Social and Cultural, Environmental, Political, Institutional, Community, Ogoni.