'You want to kill us with your oil': Fisherwomen of the Niger Delta battle with Chevron

Jul 26, 20210

Yagazie Emezi • New York Times count

Onitsha Joseph headed out with her fishing nets near Warri, Nigeria, where the water and land have been fouled by decades of oil extraction.

GBARAMATU, Nigeria – When the tide rose under the rickety wooden house-on-stilts of Onitsha Joseph, a fisherwoman who lives above the twisting rivers of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, it brought a slick of crude oil.

Before long, she saw dead fish floating on oil inches thick, and fishing - her livelihood - became impossible. The fumes were so strong at one point that Joseph fainted. She was rushed to the hospital on a speedboat.

At first, she had no idea where it was coming from. Then, out with some other fisherwomen one day in February, she said they spotted something bubbling up to the river's surface. Joseph steered her oil-blackened canoe closer.

https://www.startribune.com/you-want-to-kill-us-with-your-oil/600081143/