africa

With the media searching for new angles on BP's Gulf disaster, stories on the devastation in Nigeria and the "normality" of spills in the Delta are now finally making it back into the papers - see Benoit Faucon's piece in the Wall Street Journal and Adam Nossiter's NYT article.  Read more

A Chatham House event last Thursday launched the new report "Unpaid Debt: The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Sudan, 1997-2003," on the role of oil companies in fuelling war and atrocities in Sudan.  Read more

Taimour Lay envisions the potential for a new government in 2011 to renegotiate and restructure Uganda's oil contracts with Tullow, Total and CNOOC:

"Faced with the mess Museveni has bequeathed, the new president will find that the most important thing he ever does in power is to mobilise support for renegotiation of the oil agreements. Even if he ensures changes are made and the PSAs are significantly improved, oil extraction will bring upheaval, pain and dislocation to Uganda. So the new president’s role in amending the existing deals is to reduce the impacts of the ‘oil curse’, share what benefits are derived and help Ugandans weather the coming changes. This is an opportunity that could still be lost without sustained democratic engagement with the issues and radical institutional reform."

Another investigation by Taimour Lay shows the risks of Tullow & Heritage's oil finds on Lake Albert fueling new fighting between armed forces (armies and militias) in the region.

"Heritage Oil, owned by former mercenary fighter Tony Buckingham, had donated speed boats to the FARDC (Congolese national army) in March 2007 and had also been responsible for the delivery of 30 Land Rover jeeps to Bunia, which were then distributed to local commanders across the region."

Bunia has been the scene of repeated clashes between government forces and militias since then, causing tens of thousands of people to flee.

Rukwanzi Island, on the international border, was the scene of Uganda-DRC clashes in 2007. (c) Taimour Lay  Read more

Dorothea Smartt (African Writers Abroad) joined the C Words closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners live via Skype. She performed her specially commisioned poem, A Sense of Denial, together with several other poems written specifically to the C Words season and inspired by the issues raised.

A Sense of Denial

Denial looks black, panelled, silver-edged
and gleaming. Car-washed in water
enough to quench a dying village’s thirst,  Read more

Two poets from African Writers Abroad were commssioned to respond to the C Words season. To craft the poem below, Simon Murray (Sai MuRai) borrows the title of Dorothea Smartt's poetry workshop "Full Circle" and draws upon some of the many words, phrases and themes that arose throughout the C Words season. The poem was performed live at the closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners on the 28th November.

*warning* contains language that some may find offensive

FULL CIRCLE

(for Jane Trowell, Dorothea Smartt & the C Words Family)

proposition I

enough words!  Read more

Dorothea Smartt, one of the commissioned poets from African Writers Abroad, today releases a beautiful, inspiring poem created out of the 7th November creative writing workshop: Killing T.I.N.A, Embracing T.A.B.O.O (see below).

The ink is still wet but Dorothea's willingness to share this piece is testament to the amazing Creativity, Connections & Co-creations that are springing up with the C Words project.  Read more

To capture the essence of C Words, African Writers Abroad have released a constant stream of poetry online and offline, on physical and virtual walls. A leaflet will also soon be made available in the Arnolfini for visitors to take away which features this poetry together with newly commissioned work, contributions from participants on the creative writing workshops, and from local Bristol writers and poets.

The first poem to be released in the season is below.  Read more

Plans by oil company Eni to develop tar sands and oil palm in the Congo Basin risk irreversible damage to biodiversity, local communities and our climate, and break the company’s own guidelines, according to Congolese human rights organisations and their international partners. In a report published today, Energy Futures? Eni’s Investments in tar sands and palm oil in the Congo Basin, the groups argue that given their potential for local harm and their huge carbon footprint, such investments should be considered too high risk for Eni or any other energy company.  Read more