Imbolo Mbue (2022) How Beautiful We Were

Kosawa is a mythical village in Africa, a kind of utopia were people lived free and easy before oil was discovered. It brings immense wealth. None of it trickles down to the villagers Instead their rivers are polluted and they can no longer fish. Their land is similarly poisoned. Young children, in particular, die. But the villagers were told by the oil company representatives, Pexton, that everything was being done that could be done. Any comparisons with Shell and the Ogoni People in the Niger Delta are coincidental.

Over 40 years from 1980 to 2020, the Kosawa people fight for justice.

Oil is riches. Greed is good.

We all know how that went.

Justice is only for the rich.

The mythical fictional village has all the thumbprints of our world.  

Read on.

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