Book Review: Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail’s 8th annual selection of the 100 best and most influential books of 2005

CURRENT AFFAIRS & POLITICS

The Politics of Bones: Dr. Owens Wiwa and the Struggle for Nigeria's Oil
By J. Timothy Hunt
McClelland & Stewart, 389 pages, $36.99

This is a skillfully written book with many strands: the politics of development in an oil-rich nation; the local practices of large multinational companies; the colourful but often violent recent history of Africa's most populous nation; and a story of personal tragedy, flight and survival. The book focuses on Owens Wiwa and his wife, Diana. Wiwa was the brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa, charismatic leader of the Ogoni people, hanged by Sani Abacha's regime in 1995 on murky charges of political murder. — David M. Malone.