ABSTRACT
Locale refers to the formal and informal setting in which everyday social interactions and relations are constituted. In the case at hand, this chapter traces the formal national political space the Ogoni found itself in during the colonial and postcolonial periods. It examines how the Ogoni negotiated their fate within the regional political space in Nigeria, and the institutional contexts of the oil industry and Kagote, the elitist Ogoni cultural group that arrogated to itself power to speak for and on behalf of the Ogoni. The chapter helps us navigate the intense pressures modern and new impulses subjected the Ogoni and how the latter tried to make sense of their fate in the new environments. The idea is to lay bare the contextual factors that shaped Ogoni mobilisation against the State and global extractivism. It is evident that from earliest times, basic trust was absent in the relationship between the Ogoni and Shell.
