Journal
CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Volume 38, Issue 2, Pages 38-52Publisher
BERGHAHN JOURNALS
DOI: 10.3167/cja.2020.380204
Keywords
Africa; energy; infrastructure; Nigeria; oil; technology
Categories
Funding
- University of Michigan's Office of Research (UMOR)
- University of Michigan's Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS)
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This ethnographic investigation of the rise of the artisanal oil refining industry in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, shows how oil infrastructures have become contested between the state, multinational oil corporations and local youths in what I call a 'new oil frontier. I argue that artisanal refineries are indicative of the politics of crude oil governance and reveal complex, integrated and innovative forms of extractive practices by youth groups within many Niger Delta communities. Using the example of the Bodo community in Ogoniland, where local youths operate refineries constructed with local materials and technology, I show that such refineries represent an emergent form of energy capture that transforms the creeks of the Niger Delta into islands of carbon sale and challenges state and corporate power.
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