Courage to continue the struggle.

Don Enss

I must admit to being humbled and ashamed when I read about what General Sani Abacha and how under his leadership “thousands of Delta residents were tortured and killed and dozens of Ogoni village were razed.” All because they peacefully protested Shell’s extracting large amounts of oil from the Nigerian Delta, making billions of dollars, and giving the people nothing. (I would guess that any money Shell paid went into the pockets of Gen. Abacha and his cohorts).  Abacha's regime lasted from 1993 to 1998, and when I read that he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1998, I was happy for the people and for the families and friends who had been tortured by his regime that he would no longer be able to oversee those actions. One can only hope that his replacement would not continue those brutal and repressive policies.

I was humbled because I admire their conviction and willingness to sacrifice everything including their life for a just cause. I was ashamed because I don’t know if I would have the courage to continue the struggle if peaceful protest were met with the brutally that their protest was.  I don’t know how they were able to fight on especially after the hung Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others because of their protest, but they did and we can learn a lot from them and as I read the rest of the chapter and saw so many other communities struggling against the power of the large oil and gas corporations, I was heartened to believe that there is still a chance that we can win the battle against global climate change.