THIS IS THE NIGER DELTA

Went subvertising for the first time in Nigeria yesterday evening, along with Friday Nbani of Lekeh Development Foundation and with the help of some local lads we got two billboards up on disused billboard spaces in Ogoniland

We actually got caught by a government official halfway through, who turned up with a squad of tough guys on motorbikes, and it got quite heated, but after a discussion in which a sum of money was mentioned, he allowed his tough guys to assist us in finishing our work.

Thank you so much to everyone who chipped in to the crowdfunder to get these and the other materials printed and distributed.

In the background to this photo you can see the light of a gas flaring oil refinery, burning gas 24 hours a day for the last 70 years, poisoning the people and creating acid rain so severe that the first rains of December will burn and severely irritate people's skin. It also erodes metal at a far higher rate than normal rainwater, making holes in the metal roofs of homes.

In such a poverty-stricken country, a former colony and modern neo-colony, it is quite common for a westerner to be asked by local people for help, a small amount of money for food or water. But one thing that has stood out to me on this trip is how many people have asked me for money towards a rain jacket. In a country where the rain will eat through your roof and burn your skin, it hits me right now as such a heartbreakingly bleak request I can barely finish writing this. Every time I come here my hatred for Shell multiplies ten fold.

This board is a commemoration of the Ogoni Nine and Ken Saro-Wiwa, non-violent indigenous environmental activists who were framed and executed by the Nigerian Abacha regime in 1995 on the orders of Shell.

Although one police officer did tell me that he didn't think my painting was a good likeness of Ken Saro-Wiwa, I rejected his opinion on the basis of him being a cop.

I'm satisfied that comrade Celestine AkpoBari, a much respected leader in the Ogoni struggle who campaigned alongside Ken, said that he loved the painting, and that I couldn't know what it meant to him to see it on the bumper stickers of a similar design I brought out here, which honestly made my year.

When I get back to the UK I'll post an update about the protest march in Bori which I designed placards and banners for. It was such a great day, even though I almost passed out from the heat and exhaustion. It was worth it.