Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away
Page 34
And so I settle back into the plastic chair and let the sights and noise of the airport fade to nothing. I hold my daughter and put my mouth to her little ear. And I begin again:
“Father was a loud man …”
AFTERWORD
The Niger Delta, known as “the Big Heart,” is home to proud people, with good reason. It is a beautiful land, with extraordinary wildlife, an amazing landscape, bustling cosmopolitan towns, and peaceful villages. Port Harcourt and Warri are fast becoming centers of cultural importance, with thriving arts and literature scenes, an abundance of restaurants, and independent theater groups. The Niger Delta is a place of laughter, music, and diversity.
But the majority of people who live in the Niger Delta survive on less than one dollar a day. They enjoy none of the enormous wealth generated by the oil-rich land. Many people of the Delta have no access to schools, health care, or clean water. They live with the effects of the environmental devastation caused by the continued gas flaring and frequent ecological accidents, which have amounted to more than one and a half million tons of spilled oil: starvation, asthma, chest infections, cancers, and birth deformities. They live with the threat of violence, rape, and death. The mobile police are known locally as Kill and Go. Meanwhile, groups of militants are bunkering oil, sabotaging pipelines, and kidnapping oil workers, distracting from the voice of the majority of true freedom fighters protesting peacefully.
There is strength and beauty in the Niger Delta, in the resilience, humor, and hope of its people. Real freedom fighters are working peacefully to ensure basic human rights for all people of the Delta and are becoming a force that the oil companies and government can no longer ignore. Different ethnic and religious groups are coming together. Their united voice is becoming louder, stronger than the guns of the militants. They were there a long time before oil companies, government, or militia groups. And they will remain.
To find out more about the political situation in the Niger Delta, I recommend the following books:
A Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil Frontier by Michael Peel (Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2010).
Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil in the Niger Delta by Ike Okonta and Oronto Douglas (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 2001).
The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria by Andy Rowell, James Marriott, and Lorne Stockman (London: Constable, 2005)
And the following Web sites:
saharareporters.com
platformlondon.org
remembersarowiwa.com
wiwavshell.org
• • •
The practice of female circumcision, or cutting, also known as female genital mutilation, varies widely in the Niger Delta and is mercifully reducing thanks to the efforts of local and international activists such as Juliana Okoh and Comfort Momoh. Young women from towns and cities describe female circumcision as dying out and hardly ever talked about. However, it is estimated that between 20 and 50 percent of girls in Nigeria still undergo the procedure, and this figure is up to 80 percent in some rural areas.
Female genital mutilation is a violation of human rights. It needs to be talked about. An estimated 10 percent of girls die following the procedure due to short-term complications, and a further 25 percent die in the long term, mainly as a result of complications during labor. In the United States, up to ten thousand girls are thought to be at risk of female genital mutilation every year.
For further information, I recommend Female Genital Mutilation, edited by Comfort Momoh (Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing, 2005).
To get involved, please contact Forward (forwarduk.org.uk). Their Web site provides links to organizations in the United States and elsewhere that, like them, are dedicated to the health of African girls wherever they live.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The short story that features some of the characters from the novel Basketball Player was first published by Wasafiri, Everything to Declare: 25th Anniversary Issue, vol. 24, no. 3, September 2009.
Grandma’s proverbs and stories have come from Motherland Nigeria (motherlandnigeria.com) and the Bayelsa Council for Arts and Culture (bayelsaartsng.com).
Some of the Ijaw words, food, and culture are listed in the Ijaw Dictionary Project (ijawdictionary.com) and ijawland.com.
The birds of Nigeria are from birdlist.org/nigeria and africanbirdclub.org.
Thanks go to the following:
For the real work: the remarkable Christine Green, Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Jane Wood, and the team at Quercus (UK), and Judith Gurewich, Katie Henderson, and the team at Other Press (US), and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and the team at Cassava Republic Press (Nigeria).
For kindness, support, and encouragement: Ike Anya, Helon Habila, and Lola Shoneyin.
For reading and checking drafts, and convincing me that I could tell this story: Mrs. Oyintarela Diffa-Umeri, Mr. Are Emein, Mrs. Doubraebi Emein.
For information about the culture, food, and politics of the Niger Delta: Nene Alokwe, Felix Amoruwa, Ori Ayonmike, Steve Chadwick, Senator Chief Emmanuel W. T. Diffa (justice of the peace), Mieske Diri, Mr. Egberipan, Tute Ehinlaiye, Kola Grey, Fogho O. Ikede, Nimi Iti, Timi Komonibo, Dr. Ebi Komonibo, Achuonye Chidiebere Luckyprince, Kayode Ogundamisi, and the Sahara reporters, Ken Ofili, Misan Oti-Adams, Chief Oyibo, Basorge Tariah, Kendra E. Thornbury.
For help with the midwifery: Nicky Fisher, Juliana Okoh, and Comfort Momoh.
The first readers: Labi Egberongbe, Anjali Joseph, Emma Levy, Justine Mann, Malin Ngoie.
The lovely people at the University of East Anglia, specifically my workshop group and tutors: Trezza Azzopardi, Giles Foden, and RLF fellow Stephen Foster.
Most of all, I thank those people local to the Niger Delta who took the time to tell me their stories in order that I better tell Blessing’s. I hope I listened well.