‘Proceed to your death’: Lakuwa, environmental disaster management, and the culture of oil politics in Nigeria

Abstract

Since the 1990s, in the riverine areas of Nigeria, the ecological menace of water hyacinth has been turned into an object of politics by various administrations. Among the Ilajes, an oil-rich community in the southwestern part of Nigeria, water hyacinth is considered to be poisonous and an impediment to people’s livelihoods. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the authors explore how an invasive species, known locally as lakuwa – translated as ‘proceed to your death’ – gets inserted into the politics of oil distribution. They argue that, just like oil, water hyacinth presents certain features that enable its conversion from poisonous species to money, and the article particularly explores how the conversion of water hyacinth, an ecological ‘plague’, fits into popular narratives of environmental degradation in Nigeria. The authors argue that the invasive nature of water hyacinth warrants a form of state response that deepens already existing forms of prebendal political interactions between the environment, local political leaders, and their numerous followers.