Phenomenology of Youth Cultures and Globalization by Stuart R. Poyntz Jacqueline Kennelly

Author:Stuart R. Poyntz, Jacqueline Kennelly [Stuart R. Poyntz, Jacqueline Kennelly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138484917
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2018-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Timinimi Kiagbodor

Timinimi (aged 34) hails from Ukporoza kingdom in Gbaramatu Local Government area in Delta State and came to the Amnesty camp under the auspices of General Tompolo, the infamous ground commander of MEND in the Niger Delta during the insurgency years. She completed her high school education years back in the late 1990s but could not proceed further with her studies due to lack of funds. Timi told me there are thousands of young people like her in her community in Gbaramatu, both men and women, who share the same story: young people whose lives have been messed up by a nonchalant Nigerian state and “greedy” oil companies that don’t care about the future of the immediate communities where they generate stupendous wealth. For Timi and others in her cohort, they joined the Niger Delta struggle “out of frustration.” Below she talks about this life of “frustration” and uncertainty for people in her generation and the particular methodologies of resistance employed by women in her community to resist global corporate forces in the form of multinational oil companies:

When I say we joined the Delta struggle out of frustration, I mean a series of things that happened to us even within our own local communities, things done by our own leaders that have left a lot of people sad, bitter and angry. Now, you know this whole crisis started with the ethnic crisis in Delta State, particularly between the Itsekiri and the Ijaw people. There is a long history of oppression between these two ethnic groups. The Itsekiri have always oppressed us the Ijaw nation because they have people in high places; ‘big men’ at the top that speak for them and protect their collective interests. We the Ijaw have often been treated like people who do not know anything. So the ethnic crisis was the main trigger for the larger crisis, particularly when they forcefully took away the headquarters of the newly created local government of the Ijaw from Ogbijor to Ogidigbe in 1996. Since then, we’ve been ‘setting our blows’ and waiting for action. It was from that ethnic crisis that things exploded and expanded to embrace the Nigerian army and other issues in the Delta.

You have just noted that the reason for your interest in us young Niger Delta women is because it is only men that scholars have written about when it comes to the Niger Delta struggle. But I must note however that as far as I know, no woman has been directly involved in ‘carrying guns’ [fighting]. They know nothing about it really; I haven’t even heard about it in our communities. But crisis generally affect us as women, even as we walk around pursuing our everyday life. When insurgents and the army begin to burn and destroy things, it does affect us too. Even if you go to the Delta yourself to see how people live in that area it will affect you. So for most women, even just their prayers, prayers that

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