Nigeria's new music star has released a powerful video highlighting the plight of the people in the oil-rich Delta region after more than 40 years of exploitation by Western petroleum giants.Inemo Samiama, who has been dubbed the 'Prince' of Afrobeat, bravely challenges the multinationals and his federal government in the five-minute film, Fire in the Delta, which can view by clicking on the link below.
A native of the troubled region, Samiama exposes the huge environmental devastation caused by the oil companies and their failure to put money into lifting the population of the area out of poverty.
Readers of The-Latest will be familiar with this story through our coverage of the activities of the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who have made headlines in the West when they have taken oil workers hostage and blown up installations at refineries.
But Samiama insists that groups like MEND are freedom fighters and not 'terrorists'. He says that the injustice wreaked on his people by companies like Shell, Texaco, Exxon and Elf has resulted in a fire in the Delta which America, particularly, needs to put out not with 'guns and bombs' but a Marshal Aid plan.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
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