ABSTRACT
Although the Niger Delta is a relatively small area of about 75,000 square kilometers in southern Nigeria, its significance transcends the country’s borders, and the news and impact of violent events in this oil-rich region is felt across an oil-dependent world. The history and destiny of the Niger Delta and its relationship with the world appears to be intertwined with two types of oil: palm oil and crude oil. These two commodities among others have played a defining role in the trade, politics and society in the Niger Delta in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. Given the strategic geographical location of the region in the Gulf of Guinea as a natural entrepôt of the transatlantic trade for over 500 years, it is logical that the Niger Delta through contact, commerce, and international relations had been one of the earliest parts of Nigeria to be integrated into the global economic system.
