Exhibition and Panel: Fifty Years of Oil and Struggle in the Niger Delta

Publish What You Pay partner Revenue Watch Institute is pleased to sponsor an exhibition by photographer Ed Kashi at the HOST Gallery in London. On display from March 8 through April 3, the exhibit Curse of the Black Gold, documents the consequences of a half-century of oil exploration in a region that holds Africa’s largest oil reserves, but offers a stark example of the perils of resource abundance. Kashi’s images capture local leaders, militants, oil workers and villagers living in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Revenue Watch Nigeria Program Coordinator Dauda Garuba will be among several Nigerian experts to join Ed Kashi at the London School of Economics on March 11 for a panel discussion on the complex economic, security and governance challenges in the Niger Delta, examining both the politics of the recent conflicts, and the role of oil companies and local militants.

The photo exhibit will feature information on the Bayelsa Expenditure and Income Transparency Initiative, (BEITI), an innovative partnership between state government, citizens and energy companies in local governance of the extractive sector. RWI advised the government in the design and launch of BEITI and directly supports civil society participation in this initiative. BEITI is part of a wider set of RWI programs, sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which seek to improve natural resource revenue management at the sub-national level.

Relevant Events

• Thursday 11 March – Ed Kashi reviews students’ work at the LCC, 9-11am; Large Symposium at LSE, 6-8pm
• Friday 12 March – Sponsor/Civil Society reception at HOST Gallery with Paul Collier, Ed Kashi, Radhika Sarin and Dauda Garuba, 5-8pm

Location: HOST Gallery, 1 Honduras Street, London, United