Oil on Water by Helon Habila Review

Rotted pipelines squirm as moribund giant snakes through the landscape; the bottom – black, tarry sludge – wabert as tough cake; here and there wild flickering huge flaming torches; on the river water butt dazzling streaks areas where off and drift by on corpses and severed body parts; the villages are deserted. Over all, the pungent smell of the oil. Nausea sitting right behind the lips. The author Helon Habila throws us into the midst of this apocalypse. It is the completely destroyed landscape around Port Harcourt, Nigeria, West Africa.

Rufus, 25, graduated, following his father’s advice, first trained as a photographer before he applied as a journalist for a small newspaper and the place was.

A White from the UK, the woman and then became famous even in cooperation with the star reporter Zaq, the sensational with its reports at the time of the dictatorship of a petroleum chemist – now him the chance falls to the story of his life. , has been kidnapped.

She will be in the hands of rebels who demand a big ransom to get it then immediately to invest in weapons. Leave The two journalists Port Harcourt in a fishing boat, an old man and his son by the mangrove swamps in the dark forests controls. Somewhere in the Heart of Darkness the rebel leader who is “Professor” resides calls. The two reporters want to meet him, interview him, take photos of the surviving woman.

But before they fall into the clutches of the military, the pseudo-good that will bring order to the country for the benefit of corporations and the government.

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The Major of the Force is a warlord who abused his prisoners brutally. If they really are rebels or just simple farmers who refused to leave their homes and their land even against much money bother him little. With a watering Major betröpfelt the diffracted heads of kneeling before him men with gasoline and mocked her, “? You do not endure the smell of gasoline But for you to fight but kills So go ahead, it enjoys.”

Rufus, the narrator, has bitter frustrations get over. The once great Zaq is totally run down, barely sane himself are always full broadside until he finally seriously ill with a feverish infection and dies. reveal a very different kind it must Rufus the mission, a kidnapping, alone lead to the end. In the end, he will find on the island Irikefe his personal fortune. Strange seems living here, clad in white robes faith community, which is caught between the war fronts of rebels and soldiers, but their true path continues steadfastly , The island is a haven for mentally and physically maimed and stranded, a white spot on the black map, probably in the middle of nowhere.

Habilas evocative, awareness entzündender novel is full of poetry, creates haunting images that we never longer be forgotten. The sooty air biting our nose, we feel the sticky, greasy dirt on the skin and are both little more going on. Unfortunately, the author shakes us duly confused. reminds the structure of his narrative me of the wild soaring into the air, along with curved towards the ground, cracked pipes of the pipelines. Without introduction or transitions, the author jumps constantly from the here and now back to the past of the narrator. The events that are living through the two reporters Zaq and Rufus will not play in chronological order, but as the narrative flow currently applies. Had to be this way?

This all seems a bit messy, as the country is in chaos. It’s all about oil, and therefore to us. We use the inhabitants of the privileged affluent world and wasting every day products that are based on oil – and this fact and its consequences often not even aware of: plastic bags, yoghurt pots, sheet protectors, textiles, plastic films, shoes … That in the course of oil production mishaps, such as leaks, tanker accidents, explosions happen, we take note when we are informed by the media about it, but forget soon. If no one tells more about seems everything to be back in balance.

The majority of Nigeria’s population lives in abject poverty. Before the oil companies came, their country was pure heaven. But many locals have allowed themselves to be seduced by a snake, “whispered attracted, licked” and finally bit the tempting apple by fell for the offers of money the oil companies . the view of the neighboring villages who had already received the money generated envy and made the decision to emulate them. Did you know that one drop of oil contaminated about 600l water? in 2010, flowed 3,000 barrels oil (which is about 480,000 liters!) from a pipeline leak in the Nigerian soil and has destroyed one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. This book I have on the list to my 20 favorite books”