a Hell Bus for the Niger Delta

A HELL BUS FOR THE NIGER DELTA

I’ve been back in London for the last week during a gap in the Hell Bus tour, (see below for more on that) but rather than sleeping for a month, time and circumstance has thrown me right into the next project: a Niger Delta Hell Bus!

After my visit to the Niger Delta earlier this year, local Ogoni climate activists asked me to come back and create a version of the Hell Bus for use in their campaigns and for a backdrop for the annual Ogoni protest outside the Shell HQ in Port Harcourt on the 10th November. This annual march commemorates the execution of the Ogoni Nine, community activists who had campaigned against Shell’s destruction of the Niger Delta and who, at the behest of Shell, were framed by the former military dictatorship and executed in 1995. Shell also offered ‘witnesses’ in the case jobs with Shell if they gave false testimony against the Ogoni Nine.

It’s one of Shell’s more shocking crimes in living memory and I’m proud to be involved in commemorating the Ogoni heroes, who won a significant victory in preventing oil extraction in Ogoniland, although Shell’s oil infrastructure still leaks oil into their waterways, crops and communities, as I documented in this short documentary from my last visit:

The Niger Delta Hell Bus project is going to involve purchasing a minibus which will be owned and operated by Lekeh Development Foundation as an activist campaign vehicle, allowing Ogoni people to take part in climate demonstrations and actions towards a fossil free Niger Delta. It will also be used to help support affected communities.

I’m also planning to rent some billboard space (a first for everything!) to put up anti-Shell adverts in the run up to the protest, and locally print hundreds of Hell t-shirts to give out to protesters during the march.

I have secured some funding for this project but it’s a bit short of the total needed (turns out buses are more expensive out there than I thought!). As time is short and I’ve been too busy with the Hell Bus tour to apply for funding elsewhere I’m going to cover the additional costs myself, but anything anyone can chip in towards this would be greatly appreciated.

You can donate here.

HELL BUS TOUR

Back in the UK, the Hell Bus tour has gone brilliantly, and I’m absolutely delighted at the response it got around the country.

Massive thanks to Ad Free Cities and Switchit.Green for sorting all the logistics and to all the volunteers and venues who helped make this happen. I give a more comprehensive thanks in my recent blog post, which contains a few more photos.

There is still one more date: Bristol – 30th Oct-1st Nov at UWE, Frenchay Campus (outside the Student Union)

And an additional bonus date in Leeds 4th-5th November for Big Up Fest outside Tetley, although I’ll be in the Niger Delta by then, local AdBlock Leeds volunteers will be holding the fort!

An added benefit of working with AdFree Cities and Switchit.Green for this tour was that it gave people tangible actions they could take after coming through the bus, whether that’s changing their bank account or getting involved/starting up a local AdBlock group.

In Birmingham me and Robbie from Ad Free Cities did an event about advertising and by the end there was a new Ad Block Brum group set up and trainees signed up for subvertising training! That’s the good stuff.

I’m really looking forward to the bus being useful in activism like this going forward. Also looking forward to a 2024 tour, if you can host the bus please get in touch!

PALESTINE

It’s been absolutely heartbreaking watching the news come out of Palestine the last few weeks, thousands dead and genocidal rhetoric being broadcast and normalised daily. I haven’t had a chance to make any work during this current crisis, but I’ll link and post to a few older pieces here, including the above which I made during Israel’s invasion of Gaza in 2014, prints and postcards available here, 100% of profits go to Interpal.

The below images link to more details and hi-res images.

ZINE FOR PATREON BACKERS

I’m introducing a new reward for backers of my Patreon, an annual zine featuring all the work I’ve made over the last year. I’ll be printing and posting this in January so you just need to back me on Patreon before then to receive your copy.

I’m quite excited about this project as it’s a great way to collect a year’s work in something tangible and it means that in my least productive month of the year I’m able to make at least one solid thing.

Also I’ll be printing it on newsprint which I always find pleasing for some reason.

Back me on Patreon here!

MERSEYSIDE

I’m coming back to Merseyside in November for an exhibition of my work at Future Walls in Birkenhead. I’ll also be doing a talk and screening there on Monday 20th November. Free entry! Come look at art and listen to me blab!