Postcolonial Conflict: Colonising and Decolonising Violence in Helon Habila's Oil on Water

: This paper aims at discussing the postcolonial conflicts engendered by the imperialist oil process of Nigeria and the postcolonial reaction of nationalist movements. Despite the official independence of Nigeria since October 1, 1960, it is however observed that her economic riches like oil are still controlled and thieved away by the superpowers of Europe. These superpowers work in tandem with the local government to operate this neo-colonial crime. If, vis-à-vis this neo-colonial conspiracy some Nigerians remain supine in fear of military repressions, others have the nationalist courage to use the same colonising instrument of violence against their colonial tormentors for true decolonisation to take shape. This is what postcolonial Nigerian writer Helon Habila depicts in Oil on Water. In the text, the author portrays the exploitation of the Nigerian oil by western oil multinationals in connivance with the Federal Nigerian government. This neo-colonial exploitation is faced with the decolonising nationalist movements organised in guerrillas in a view to decolonising themselves and repossessing their hijacked oil dividend. The paper predicates on the postcolonial theory to postulate that the natives are bound to make recourse to nationalist violence to wrench their lives free from the shackles of imperialist and colonialist dominationism. The analyses from the text permit us to infer that in Oil on Water, Habila depicts postcolonial conflicts between neo-colonisers and nationalists and encourages the re-colonised post-independent populations to keep their nationalist endeavour on till real freedom is obtained.