The Curse of Black Gold, 1967

Nigeria gained full independence from the British in 1960. For many years, the British colonisers had exploited its fertile soil; for many years they had occupied Nigeria through the power of their armies, and monopolized its agricultural resources. Back to the Old World they shipped its fruits, cotton, tin, cacao, peanuts and palm oil. Nigeria belonged to the British. The issue had never been who owned the land, but how best to put it to use. But following their independence, the Nigerians discovered black gold in the rivers of the Delta and the Gulf of Guinea. This was a curse greatly desired by the American government. The Americans wished to hold all power over this black gold, and to control all the world’s oil supply. All oil must be bought and sold in dollars, and who would dare oppose the American superpower? They had liberated Europe from the Nazis with unprecedented military aid. They had revived Europe’s ravaged nations with their Marshall Plan. Without oil, their own country could not function. Without oil they could not move forward, and their economy would grind to a halt. For many years now, Nigeria’s resources had ceased to be profitable. The fruits of the land no longer brought great wealth to the British Empire. Managing the colonies had become too cumbersome a task, and the English had decided to return home. Independence was declared.

When the Nigerians discovered black gold, a new dictum came into parlance: “Money is no longer a problem – the problem is what to do with all this money.” It came to the point that that the people were prepared to declare independence for an entire region of Nigeria in the name of its vast resources. The Biafran War broke out following a coup d’état in 1966. American dollars poured in, and powerful men sought to increase their wealth. Black gold was cursed, but the US dollar was blessed. “Do whatever you like with your country. We just want the oil!” The superpower’s economy was running at full tilt, but in Nigeria and Biafra hundreds of thousands fled their homes as the civil war spread and tore the country apart. Everyone wanted a share of the black gold. It was an inter-ethnic civil war that ravaged famine-ridden Biafra. Communities fled their villages and men took their families to places where there was no fighting yet, and where men did not kill each other in the streets. The war in Biafra quickly drew in other powers, including England and France. The Israelis demanded independence for Biafra. Ah, the black gold was a curse for the whole world. No nation could now return to a life of horses and buggies, and now the Americans drove on huge highways in gleaming automobiles fuelled by oil. The ink pot and quill were gone – now they made computers with digital chips, whose casings were made from black gold. A 24-kilo computer with a 17-inch monitor needed 312 litres of oil. The world had grown up and known progress, but in Biafra men killed one another in search of this progress.

“Let them make war, it’s easier that way. As long as they keep supplying us with oil,” the CIA higher-ups mused. They would not delve into America’s own black gold; their reserves were to be kept intact. They would open the taps when they saw fit. For now, petrodollars reigned supreme. With a million barrels imported every year, at 50 dollars a barrel, it amounted to a tidy little sum.

Alan Alfredo Geday