A man washed soot from his face Tuesday in Lagos, Nigeria, after a gas pipeline ruptured by thieves exploded. At least 260 people were killed in the blast, which spewed fire and black smoke. It was the latest oil-industry disaster in Nigeria.
1 2019-03-05T15:37:46-08:00 Dawn Hicks 851fbe6ff47c68a2de1a4f5f7b6db729bc4d659a 10581 2 The New York Times: “Gas Line Explodes in Nigeria, Killing at Least 260” (2006) plain 2019-03-15T21:21:05-07:00 Dawn Hicks 851fbe6ff47c68a2de1a4f5f7b6db729bc4d659aThis page is referenced by:
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2019-03-04T20:20:57-08:00
"Spider the Artist" in Nnedi Okorafor’s Kabu-Kabu
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Pipeline people: the good, the bad, the ugly, and a found poem.
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2019-05-02T00:08:13-07:00
I am not an English major, and so I never heard of the term found poem until, by accident, I created one by listing all my favorite quotes in “Spider the Artist” in the order I found them.
The quotes, from the story’s female narrator, Eme, appealed to me because they were honest declarations with no excuses or blame shifting.
Favorite Statements
“My village was shit” (101)
“But I married a stupid man” (102)
"We are pipeline people" (102)
“Nigeria supplies 25% of U.S. oil and we get nothing in return.
Nothing but death by zombie attack” (105-106)
“I was stuck” (107)
“I needed courage” (107)
“My life is shit” (108)
“I began to hope” (109)
“They were thinking creatures” (113)
“Whoooooooosh” (114)
“So I lived” (115)
The statement that strikes me the most is “We are pipeline people”. What does it mean to be pipeline people? According to a Google search of Nigeria pipeline people, the results show a list of headlines announcing the numbers of people found dead after a pipeline explosion. The images show similar stories of explosions and people’s lives disrupted. The information offers little about how people are living along the pipelines. From this information, people are miraculously alive despite having to cohabitate with pipes carrying flammable fuel.
Interestingly, in “Spider the Artist” the pipeline explosion saves Eme’s life.
“My life is shit”
Eme was a fourth-generation woman living with the pipeline running through her village. Her great grandmother used to lay on the pipe and listen to the fuel, which she called “magical fluids”, sloshing down the pipes (102-103). What was once new and mysterious became a deadly borderland between human survival and the Anansi spider droids, kill on contact protectors of the pipeline. The narrator’s village was made shit by the introduction of the pipelines, her husband was forced into stupid activities, like bunkering, to survive. Her life was stuck and shit because the fuel poisoned her village’s water, that “shriveled women’s wombs,” leaving her childless (101).
“They are thinking creatures”- The “they” are the Anansi Droid 419 spiders.
- “Made to combat pipeline bunkering and terrorism” (104)
- Has wire for silk, three feet tall, liquid blue eyes.
- The pipeline is its web to repair and defend.
- Senses pipe intruder from vibrations.
- Has artificial intelligence.
Udide Okwanka was the name Eme gave to her secret musical spider droid companion. They met each evening in the three-foot easement, the kill zone, between the pipe and her yard. There they communicated with music. Her guitar “wanted to tell you its story because only it could” (102). Udide’s music was like “communing with god” (111). The exchange was courage and hope.
“Whooooooosh”
Udide set the spark so the bunkered fuel and its takers would die, but shielded Eme so she could finally start her life. “So I lived”.
