ABSTRACT
This chapter interrogates the trajectories of women's movements in the context of resource control struggles in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. It contextualises this with regard to the changing identity of Ogoni movements by focusing on women in the region. The chapter examines the various dimensions of the women's protests, including the factors that empower or undermine the success of the women's struggles in the Niger Delta. In the Niger Delta context, the feminist essentialist notion of women as naturally peaceful has been largely invalidated by the growing evidence of women's restiveness and involvement in increasing agitations against perceived injustices. The nature and dynamics of oil exploitation in the Niger Delta have largely shaped the experience of women such that it seems to vacillate between victimhood and agency. Feminist scholars are increasingly challenging the notion of universal victimhood of women in armed conflict which tends to infantilise and deny women their agency.
