Catherwood LibraryILR School

In an incredible David and Goliath story, 600 unarmed Nigerian women snuck into ChevronTexaco's Escravos oil terminal last Monday, taking hostage 700 workers---many of whom are foreigners, including Americans---and bringing to a halt the vast majority of the company’s Nigerian oil production. The wives, mothers and grandmothers released 200 of the employees yesterday as a sign of good faith, but have threatened to bare themselves in an extremely powerful traditional shaming ritual of the remaining hostages should they try to escape. The women are demanding that ChevronTexaco offer jobs to their male relatives and use some of the enormous profits reaped from Nigerian oil production to help the economically and environmentally devastated villages surrounding the oil terminal.