Curse of the Black Gold, with pictures by Ed Kashi and text chosen by Michael Watts is now online at: http://www.powerhousebooks.com/blackgold.pdf
It is essential reading, showing clearly the price that some people pay for others to live glamorous cosmopolitan lives in New York and London. Ed Kashi’s introduction is below.
Ed Kashi
Shadows and Light in the Niger Delta
Iraq led me to the Niger Delta. Actually, it was my work in Iraq that brought me to the attention of Michael Watts, a Berkeley-based scholar. For over thirty years, Michael has studied issues of oil and conflict, especially in regards to the Niger Delta. With Michael’s guidance, on my first trip to Nigeria in July 2004, my eyes and heart were opened and my anger and disgust were ignited. To tell this difficult, but profoundly important, geopolitical story in a visual way became an obsession.
