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Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil Hardcover – January 1, 2007

by Nicholas Shaxson (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 43 ratings
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Each week the oil and gas fields of sub-Saharan Africa produce over a billion dollars worth of oil, yet this rising tide of money is not promoting stability or development but instead is causing violence, poverty and stagnation. 'Poisoned Wells' exposes the root causes of this paradox of poverty from plenty.
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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Palgrave MacMillan
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 2007
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1403971943
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1403971944
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Palgrave MacMillan (January 1, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1403971943
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1403971944
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 43 ratings

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Nicholas Shaxson

Nicholas Shaxson

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
43 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Denno
5.0 out of 5 stars Poisoned Wells: the Dirty Politics of African Oil
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2012
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The book is very well written.It documents the authors expereinces with various African countries in relation to the oil business and provides an insightful analysis of the impacts of the sleazy dealings within the oil industry on the continent. An excellent read!!
One person found this helpful
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Barbara Grant
4.0 out of 5 stars Poisoned Wells
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2007
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Of the current crop of "what is wrong with Africa" books including "The Shackled Continent", "The White Man's Burden" and "The Trouble with Africa", Nicholas Shaxson's analysis and prescriptions for change are the most radical and on-the-money. Shaxson's book should be widely read and discussed. Unfortunately, too much invested in the status quo by all concerned to see much likelihood of change within the next few decades.
9 people found this helpful
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Christopher Simpson
5.0 out of 5 stars Making sense of oil
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2009
Shaxson produces a highly readable and informative blend of anecdotes and analysis to make sense of Africa's oil predicament. Shaxson avoids glib solutions and easy judgements. It is the lesser-known oil producers which he does best on, notably Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea. He has a good and detailed grasp of the subject matter, but has the wit and narrative skills to keep the less-informed reader on board with a series of entertaining almost travelogue-style pieces on indiviual countries visited.
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OHYN
2.0 out of 5 stars Book Fails Credibility Test
Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2009
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Every responsible reader and serious seeker of "enlightenment" usually applies a "credibility check" to new information.
When author Nicholas Shaxson, in the opening chapter of his book, "Poisoned Wells," badly mischaracterized the Biafra-Nigeria War of 1967-1970, I could not read any further.
In trying to support his assertion that Oil is the root cause (or at least, a major cause) of post-colonial Africa's problems, he force-fits that terrible war into "Oil" context. How do I know? Well, I was there: was old enough to live in Nigeria up to the War, live through that War fighting in it on the Biafran side, and live after the war in Nigeria, until decided that I am truly Biafran, not Nigerian.
This book has failed a critical credibility test.
Please send my comments to this author.
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD.
Nwa Biafra
A Biafran Citizen.
6 people found this helpful
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S Wood
4.0 out of 5 stars Oils Not Well
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2012
"Posioned Wells" is the first book by the author of that excellent exposition of Tax Havens -  Treasure Islands . The subject of this book is the experience of West African oil producing countries, with particular focus on the question of why these repositories of vast mineral wealth have not been able to direct their wealth into meaningful and sustained development.

While there is certainly a degree of generalising on these countries experiences, the format the book takes is that of focusing on a particular individual, and relating the story of each country through their experiences. Shaxsons Motley crew are the flamboyant Nigerian musician and somewhat singular opposition figure Fela Kuti, and his fellow Nigerian Dokubo-Asari, a militia leader from the Niger Delta region; Equatorial Guinea's assasinated opposition politician Pedro Motu, and the same countries president Obiang Ngeuma; Angola's Abel Abraao, a journalist trapped for months in Kuito under UNITA seige; Gabons authoritarian dictator Omar Bongo; Andre Malongo, the Congo Republics former reform minded leader; Fradique da Menezes, the president of Sao Tome e Principe who talks the talk of reform, like so many modern politicians in and out of Africa, while walking the familiar path of corruption and wasted opportunities.

The part on the Norwegian born though French based investigating magistrate Eva Jolly brilliantly illustrates the Neo-Colonial dimension with regard to the countries under Shaxsons eye, and is one of the highights of the book, perhaps because I was unfamiliar with the story of France's former African colonies and the powerfull corrupting influence of monies syphoned from them into the French political system; the Russian-Canadian-Israeli-French Arcadi Gaydamak represents the kind of wheeler dealer observers of the international arms trade will be familiar with. From the U.K. there is Global Witness, an NGO that has done much work shedding light on where the oil revenues have gone.

This is not as accomplished a work as  Treasure Islands , but is still of great interest and presumably, being published in 2007, still relevant. The author does occasionally make dubious statements, for instance that politics and economics are seperate in the developed west! The relationship is certainly not the same as that of a primary product exporting nation but still intimately intertwined. Otherwise he makes explicable the apparent paradox of oil riches and lack of development going hand in hand, the role played by Tax Havens (including the U.S and the U.K.) in West African corruption, and the zero-sum game that the fight for access to oil revenues, often between different ethnic groups, descends into. The book ends with Shaxsons one size fits all solution with regard to corruption - paying out the revenues directly to citizens, an idea that he promotes with more zeal than seems wise in an otherwise thoughtful book.

A book that, despite a few reservations, I have no problem recommending to readers interested in the Political Economy of Oil, Africa or the problems that face Post Colonial States. Other books of interest on the subject of oil & politics would include:  The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria  and  Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq .
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LVT06
3.0 out of 5 stars An Expert Falls Short
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2007
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Shaxson's introduction and preliminary chapters immediately prove that he is a bona fide Africa expert. Having extensively lived and worked there, getting closely acquainted with the politicians, industrialists and average joes, he knows his topic better than any ivory tower academic or think tank regional "expert." His anecdotes and insights are accurate, concise and reasonably centrist. His writing is excellent. And yet he failed to earn 5 stars because the book itself delves too far into specific biographies of pivotal politicos and activists. Shaxson is sharp and experienced enough to produce a country-by-country analytical handbook documenting oil's impact on 21st Century Africa but instead he chose to take the conversational, journalistic feature-article format. For professionals and novices seeking accurate and timely information on Africa, this is a good start. Lutz Kleveman's "New Great Game" was equally readable and informal but a far more informative example for Shaxson to follow in his next book.
7 people found this helpful
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Sunday Todili Aremu
4.0 out of 5 stars Well, this is a book that has all the ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2014
Well, this is a book that has all the attributes of a well researched book. It is informative, entertaining but didn't dwell well enough on the historical perspectives that gave rise to Africa's debilitating circumstances. The author's privileged upbringing may not have accorded him the opportunities of seeing things with the eyes of the ordinary dispossessed, repressed and oppressed African whose life is badly structured within the bogus and fraudulent concept of Nation State. A concept that has robbed him of his due place and left him stranded in cyclical malady of frightening dimensions! On the whole, the book is worth reading!!
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Top reviews from other countries

NISAR AHMED
5.0 out of 5 stars Resource curse
Reviewed in India on January 13, 2019
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Worth reading
In-depth insight into the African resource curse
One person found this helpful
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Erik Cleves Kristensen
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect book to understand the filth of oil politics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2009
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Over the last years, as world oil prices increase and the quest for cheap energy is becoming more acute, there has been talk of the so-called "resource curse" or, in Thomas Friedmans' words, "the first law of petropolitics." This entails that with more money, leaders in oil-producing countries have the power to reifnorce themselves, suppress opposition, and disregard pressure for reform.
Mr. Shaxson is probably the most knowledgeable journalist on some of these subjects, and in this book, he gives an excellent insight to the practical causes and consequences of the resource curse in African countries. He writes passionately, and since he is not academic, the language is easily accessible; by his ways of explaining the situation in each country with use of a person (either the nepotist president of an African country, a corrupt oil-dealer, a French magistrate fighting corruption, or a human rights activist), he gives a more human face to the issue of oil that has damaged countries like Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Nigeria, Gabon, São Tomé & Principe, and whose globalised transatlantic tentacles has reached the highest offices in France and the US.
It is a book that shows the hipocrisies of the world when it comes to oil. Nevertheless, Mr. Shaxson has enough experience not to be preaching or naïve about it, and although he advocates for changes to the system that creates so much misery, and in his last lines of the book, he describes this well: "ExxonMobile likes to say that there is no resource curse, just a governance curse. This is like saying of a heroine addict with criminal tendencies that there is no drug problem, just a criminal problem. They are wrong: the heart of the matter is not rulers' corruption or companies' misbehavior but oil and gas itself. By hollowing out these junkie nations, intensifying competition and conflict between Africans, slowing economic growth, and silently corrupting western politics, it is aggravating some of Africa's worst problems, and stealthily spreading poison around our globalised world."
6 people found this helpful
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Shola
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2016
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good read, definitely will buy from this seller again
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Big A
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2013
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I enjoyed this book tremendously not only because I knew so little about west Africa and oil but also because it is so well written. Until I read this book I just had not fully grasped how debilitating the existence of oil can be to a society as a whole. What is so patently true for west Africa can be applied equally well to the Middle East - and that is one of the great things about this book. It is not specific to west Africa. The lessons learned there are applicable elsewhere. Highly recommended.
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mww4219
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2017
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Very good writen story about dirty policys.
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