All for Oil

In the European scramble for Africa towards the end of the 19th century, Britain declared itself for the Oil Rivers Protectorate to gain monopoly of the palm oil trade in what is now part of the land it put together as a country. Later it formed the first Federation of Nigeria with the former Royal Niger Company as its principle commercial operator, and the indigenous people of that area, the Niger Delta, the suppliers of raw materials that Britain needed for its factories. The author is one of Africa's foremost poets. Drawing upon official documents and the oral tradition he presents a powerful panorama of the players in the original drama of the creation of Nigeria.