| Review of: | Poisoned wells: the dirty politics of African oil by Nicholas Shaxson |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Elizabeth Donnelly |
| Reviewed in: | International Affairs |
| Date accepted online: | 10/04/2008 |
| Published in print: | Volume 83, Issue 06, Pages 1193-1234 |
Book Reviews: Sub-Saharan Africa
Nicholas Shaxson's entertaining and informative book gives an accessible account of the impact of oil on African states and the wider world. Drawing on more than ten years of experience as a journalist in Africa's oil-producing states, Shaxson takes the reader up and down the Gulf of Guinea and beyond to illustrate the corrupting power of oil. Each chapter is based around a well-known figure that comes from or is heavily involved in the African states he writes about, and throughout the book Shaxson crafts a series of clear analogies (oil is likened to heroin, oil revenue in global financial networks to the ectoplasm of
While readability is essential, this is no superficial gloss on the complexities of the international oil trade. The book's analysis deepens as the author looks beyond the simplistic, isolated arguments of the culpability of irresponsible oil companies and corrupt African governments. Cleverly, he uses each chapter's character (from Fela Kuti to Eva Joly) to demonstrate how the oil industry permeates throughout society, affecting every individual in oil-producing societies. Shaxson likens this effect of oil wealth on society to a queue: pushing in at the front destroys faith in the queue's function, and everyone-from international oil companies to ethnic groups-scrambles to get their share. This scramble is particularly clear in the divided society of Nigeria-a country where in 1970, Shaxson notes, 19 million Nigerians lived below the poverty line, and now, some $400 billion in oil revenue later, the number living below the poverty line is estimated to be 90 million.
It is this 'paradox of plenty', where oil-rich countries experience slower growth and higher poverty levels, that threatens society and democracy. While the author's passion for his subject is clear, he is careful not to allow emotion to influence his writing. So although oil is described as 'among the fiercest anticapitalist, antidemocratic forces in Africa', Shaxson does not point fingers. It is clear that the system is at fault here, and while individuals are corrupted by the oil industry's superprofits, there is a sad inevitability to proceedings. If we are to understand and address the problems oil causes, Shaxson suggests, we need to understand corruption. In his chapter on Omar Bongo of Gabon, we are presented with a picture of a fairly amiable, reasonable, though clearly undemocratic president, who maintains the fabric of his society by allocating oil money himself. Although this looks like corruption from the outside, Shaxson suggests this is actually a justified form of resource allocation (although he also notes that the president and his family are fabulously wealthy). Likewise, in a chapter on Arcadi Gaydamak and his role in Angola, the author points out that corruption is partly about greed but is also about staying in power and getting things done in an environment where everyone is scrambling for their share. While it is made clear that this is no excuse for the behaviour of corrupt leaders, the author attempts to help the analyst think beyond corrupt African governments as the cause of all their countries' woes.
For Shaxson, the real problem is the global financial architecture and the gaps (or 'interstices') between countries where the real money lies. A chapter devoted to Eva Joly and her investigation into French industrialist Maurice Bidermann, which led her into the world of Omar Bongo's Gabon and the role played by Elf Gabon, illustrates how far the corrupting influence of oil money reaches, and how easy it is to take advantage of the lawless nature of the global financial networks and tax havens. 'For international criminals', Joly says, 'impunity is assured'. Shaxson does not stop with the usual suspects of Jersey, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands as the homes of ill-gotten gains, but shows that New York and London are as bad or worse.
Indeed, it is this final point that really gives the book its edge. Although it is commonly accepted that western influences are to blame for many of the problems faced by oil-rich, Third World nations, Shaxson is careful to give precise suggestions as to how western governments can help, often in collaboration with their African partners.
The first is by reducing energy consumption, perhaps by raising fuel taxes. The second is to close down the spaces between states where oil profits are allowed to flow out of the reach of the citizens themselves. Shaxson proposes new legislation and reform of major international bodies-WTO, IMF and UN alike-to make it more difficult for dirty money to find a home. The third solution the book offers is the direct distribution of revenues, as practised in Alaska, to remove the oil money from the politicians' grasp, to take away the need for a scramble and try to mend the social fabric.
These suggestions naturally make a good deal of sense and, if implemented, would go a long way to improving the lives of many of Africa's poorest. However, the political will that Shaxson identifies as necessary to implement these is still lacking, although thanks to climate change reduced energy consumption is becoming more of a reality. Dealing with the global financial system is a bigger challenge and it is questionable whether there will ever be the will and unity to tackle the problem. In its spirit of problem solving rather than finger-pointing, the conclusion of
'In their lust for quick profits', Shaxson quotes one academic who wrote of rubber-tapping under the reign of King Leopold, 'civilized men turn savage'. Shaxson points out that the academic could just as easily have been writing about oil. The achievement of this book is that Shaxson manages to write on this complex and often disturbing subject in an entertaining and dispassionate way which offers detail and analysis that allows the reader to react and reflect as they choose. Those in search of a more academic and technical read should perhaps look elsewhere. In