Who Controls Warri? How Ethnicity Became Volatile in the Western Niger Delta (1928-52)

Who Controls Warri? How Ethnicity Became Volatile in the Western Niger Delta (1928-52)

Author: 
Okoh, Oghenetoja
Publisher: 
Cambridge University Press
Date published: 
2016
Record type: 
Journal Title: 
Journal of African History
Source: 
The Journal of African History, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2016, pp. 209-230
Abstract: 

The battle over who controls Warri has been underway for several generations. The most violent eruption of this struggle occurred between 1997 and 1999. This article traces the history of this struggle to the colonial period, during a time of administrative restructuring called reorganization, which began in 1928. Contrary to the recent popular and scholarly understanding of the Warri crisis as an outcome of crude oil politics, I argue that British colonial state intervention set in motion a deadly, ethnicized struggle over political and material resources, which has only been exacerbated by the zero-sum politics of the crude oil economy.

Language: 

CITATION: Okoh, Oghenetoja. Who Controls Warri? How Ethnicity Became Volatile in the Western Niger Delta (1928-52) . : Cambridge University Press , 2016. The Journal of African History, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2016, pp. 209-230 - Available at: https://library.au.int/who-controls-warri-how-ethnicity-became-volatile-western-niger-delta-1928-52-0