Black Tide

text by Robert Goethals, photography by Ed Kashi

2010 Ed Kashi | VII. Oil in Niger Delta Fishermen

The British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico ransacked the conscience of Americans. The horrific environmental disaster exceeded that of the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker that crashed into a reef in Alaskas Prince William Sound in 1989. In the cyber-powered American Media Marathon that ensued, images

of helpless sea birds mired in black lacquer wrung salt from our eyes, fired our anger, and ransacked our faith in corporate humanity. Yet, half a world away, in the mangroves and palm-fringed estuaries of the Niger Delta, dirt-poor fishermen hung their heads in bottomless despair. Far from the Watchtower, these numb and luckless gentlemen have silently endured the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez-sized spill per year for the last five decades. When President Obama righteously proclaimed British Petroleum to be held accountable for the Gulf spill, the cruel irony was not lost on the inhabitants of the Niger Delta. Oil is their sea. Their nets gummy with black crude. In the blackness where crab and shrimp once thrived, all aquatic life is poisoned.

2010 Ed Kashi | VII. Oil in Niger Delta. Oganiland village of Kpean.

The cries of the Niger Deltas fishermen may not merit attention in Washingtons cold corridors of power, nor by the media moguls inhabiting New Yorks glistening towers, but one stone heroic documentary photographer is acutely aware of the fragility and desperation of these villagers lives. Ed Kashis images give the stories of these dispossessed Nigerians dimension and

weight. His project, Curse of the Black Gold, raises a level of awareness about the oil industry that goes far, far beyond our usual funnel-fed platitudes. His stunning photographs implicate not only petrol-giants like Exxon Mobil and Shell but all Americans, too in the unimaginable atrocities they starkly reveal. I take on issues that stir my passions about the state of humanity and our world, writes Kashi. I deeply believe in the power of still images to change peoples minds. Im driven by this fact; that the work of photojournalists and documentary photographers can have a positive impact on the world.

2010 Ed Kashi | VII. Oil in Niger Delta. Abbatoir.

Through Kashis fierce gaze, you see just how the countrys thuggish plutocrats have turned the Niger Delta into a petrolic El Dorado, and at the same time, created a grotesque and lifeless wasteland for its fishermen. The same fishermen who once provided protein for an entire nation now turn to work the Deltas infernal abbatoirs, cooking thousands of slaughtered animals,

over black smoke belching from burning tires. Others take up arms as guerillas to fight the invisible forces of Nigerias imperial petro-capitalism, so overwhelmingly aligned against them. In the Niger Delta, Ed Kashis images both inform and cultivate us. We discover how oil is the true enemy. Both of democracy and the once bountiful sea.

2010 Ed Kashi | VII. Oil in Niger Delta. MEND guerillas.

~ Robert Goethals, November, 2010