What are the social effects of the environmental degradation caused by Shell?
Wiwa: The environmental problems we have in Ogoni have so many effects you can’t count them. There is a major effect on the culture of our people. We treasure our land — the land and the people are the same. Many of our cultural sites have been destroyed by the seismic surveys and the blowouts and the spillages. And with that, we can no longer do most of the traditional things we used to do on our land. Because of the gas flares, we do not know when it is night and when it is day; it is just one huge orange glow in the evening. There are quite a lot of cultural things that are done only at the night, without light, including the use of fireworks at festivals. These have already stopped. That phase of our culture is gone. Also, within the culture, we used to use our forest, our trees to make masks, for our dances. Those who used to depend on carving, the carvers, the craftsmen, are no longer passing their skills to their children or to their apprentices, because the trees are no longer
