By Suraya Dadoo
South African oil workers Dan Laarman and Robert Berrie have been released after a mercifully short period as hostages in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.
They, and most of the world, were probably unaware of the devastating impact the oil industry has had on Africa.
In 2001 Washington called for a major diversification of US oil supplies away from the politically volatile Persian Gulf to "friendlier" sub-Saharan Africa.
West Africa already supplies about 12 percent of US crude oil imports and the US National Intelligence Council predicts that this will rise to 25 percent by 2015. Nigeria is the largest producer and exporter of oil in west Africa.
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More than $300-billion (about R2,4-trillion) worth of oil has been pumped from the Niger Delta since 1956. Multinational oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Eni and Chevron have been pouring billions of dollars into the region for the exploration and production of crude oil. In return, the Nigerian government has been getting billions.
But Nigerians, particularly those in the Niger Delta, live in abject poverty.
In 2003 US aid agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS) released a damning report entitled Bottom of the Barrel, which chronicled the oil industry's devastating impact on the populations of Africa's oil-rich countries.
The report concluded that petrodollars had not helped developing countries to reduce poverty - in many cases it had exacerbated it.
Nigeria is a case in point. According to the United Nations, 70 percent of Nigeria's population live on less than $1 a day.
The percentage of people living in poverty has more than doubled since 1980, despite the government collecting an estimated $14-billion a year in oil revenue, according to CRS.
Many of the protest actions in the Niger Delta have been led by women and they have had some success in forcing concessions from the oil companies.
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