Horror in Paradise Frameworks for Understanding the Crises of the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

In the few decades since the 1956 discovery of oil at Oloibiri in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, the NDR, and the entire state of Nigeria, have been dramatically transformed.  Oil exploration in the NDR has led to the construction of hastily built oil infrastructures that have, perhaps forever, altered the livelihoods of millions as well as the patterns of Nigerian politics.  Whereas Nigeria’s agricultural and other exports had been diverse, Nigeria’s economy is now completely dependent on oil revenues.  In many ways, the global demand for oil should have translated to great developmental success in Nigeria.  But the growing level of per capita GDP is deceiving; at least 80% of the Nigerian population works in the informal economy and lives below the poverty line.  To date, survey textbooks on African politics or development studies have skirted the details surrounding this profoundly traumatized region.  Horror in Paradise is an attempt to fill that critical gap.  The contributors to this book include scholars from leading Nigerian universities, Africanist scholars from the U.S. and the U.K., and development practitioners with experience in Nigeria (USAID, UNDP).  Together, they offer a range of frameworks for thinking about the ongoing crises of the NDR, organized as: Part I: Culture, Gender, and the Environment; Part II: Governance; Part III: Development; and Part IV: Security. The book aims to facilitate scholarly and policy-oriented discussions of the region’s sometimes complex inter-related challenges and, in turn, increase both national and global attention to the plight of the NDR.

This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin.