The Burning Ground

Oil and Militancy in Nigeria

By: Noo Saro-Wiwa

Narrated by: A'rese Emokpae

They killed her father for speaking out.

For decades, the oil-rich Niger Delta—an important wetland and farming area—has seen its natural environment devastated as a result of oil extraction that has brought little economic benefit to its people. Following a nonviolent campaign for environmental and human rights, Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues were killed by the military dictatorship in 1995. Their murders sparked an armed insurgency that engaged in sabotage and oil theft in a bid for resource control.

Thirty years after Ken Saro-Wiwa’s death, his daughter, Noo, charts the rise of this insurgency, how it became intertwined with politics and, in the law of unintended consequences, further damaged the environment and upturned social hierarchies. In The Burning Ground, she travels around the delta to examine the aftermath of insurgency, speaking to former militants, highlighting the undervalued role of women, and meeting individuals making positive changes towards sustainable development in a region whose future will have global impact.