Life on the Niger Delta
Billions of dollars worth of oil flow out of the Niger Delta, but life for the majority of its inhabitants remains unchanged by this wealth.
Most people in the oil-rich region live in modest iron-roofed shacks, and rely on farming or fishing for their living. Their only interaction with the oil industry is when they step over pipelines in the swamps or when a spill blights the landscape.
The Swali market sits alongside the River Nun.
People dig in the sand on the river bank.
Speedboats are lined up along a jetty.
Residents crowd onto boats.
In the coastal town of Twon Bass, a vendor pushes a cart filled with clothes.
Gas pipelines run through the Okrika community, where a local uses them as a walkway.
The Eleme community uses the pipes to dry clothes.
In a village on the banks of the River Nun, people wash and bathe.
A girl coated in oil sits in a canoe as she sorts out crabs.
A run-down church stands in Kainyabiri village on the banks of the river.
A boy pours water out of a canoe carrying members of a Christian sect, who sing as they celebrate a religious service.
A guide splashes through an oil slick on a speedboat.
People walk through an abattoir in the Swali district market.
Butchers chop up meat.
A man holds a bloodied cow head in his arms.
A man lifts a dead goat over his shoulder as smoke rises through the air.
