TORCH Global South Visiting Professor Dr Obari Gomba speaks on 'Colonial Niger Delta and Intra-Regional Conflicts in Selected Nigerian Plays'.
Dr Gomba is a leading literary scholar and writer, whose work explores the impact of oil production on the social, political, and ecological context of the Niger Delta. His 2018 play, Guerrilla Post, won the Association of Nigerian Authors Drama Prize, and he was instrumental in Port Harcourt being awarded the UNESCO Book Capital of the Year in 2014.
During his stay in Oxford, he is focussing on researching the historical representation of this “oil culture” in three plays set in the pre-colonial period. This is part of the collaborative research initiative The Arts of Oil—A Cultural History of Port Harcourt between the University of Port Harcourt and the University of Oxford, which was launched in 2018. This interdisciplinary programme examines the way in which the profits and politics of oil are represented in the popular arts—literature, photography, comedy, and art. Dr Gomba’s research thus facilitates the exchange of knowledge across the humanities, particularly in English, Anthropology and African Studies.
