ABSTRACT
The Niger Delta region of Nigeria is inhabited by a variety of small ethnic groups that have a deep bond with Nature. At the heart of this bond between indigenous peoples and Nature is the perception that all living and nonliving things, and natural and social worlds, are intrinsically interrelated. Indigenous peoples draw their spirituality from their environment; thus, many aspects of the natural world are sacred to them.1 Humans are seen as one form of life participating in a wider community of living beings.2 Vine Deloria, Jr., has put this relationship between indigenous peoples and Nature into an apt equation: Power + Place = Personality. According to Deloria, power is defined as the ‘living energy that inhabits and/or composes the universe’, while place refers to the ‘relationship of things to each other’.3
