Black Gold - Black Scorpion

by George S Boughton

Overview

The BIAFRAN WAR (1967–1970) remembered half a century later

STERN Magazine –
The Black Scorpion: "we will aim at everything - even if it is not moving"

TV Presenter JULIETTE FOSTER: "an intense, emotional memoir" 

Recounted are the lives of a young oil engineer, his wife and newborn child, during the Biafran War, when they inadvertently lived through one of the worst episodes of African history, experiencing first hand a life to which the international media initially had no access.

Working in an industry that has gone on to pollute massively with oil, theirs is a different story of AFRICA, OIL and AID during a conflict that cost over a million lives.

The author also describes the political elites and those, like Ojukwu and Adekunle, who fought them – having himself been captured and detained, one to one, by the mythically ruthless Black Scorpion; this, the strangest of events, enabling him to observe at close range the disintegration of a powerful personality.

Black Gold - Black Scorpion closes with the overthrow of Nigeria's government, the demise of industry and European interests, and the start of massive oil pollution and corruption.

More especially, the author's and his family's interaction with the people of the area, the people of Igboland, serves to underline how most of Africa continues to be let down by the pillars of the modern world – political elites, capitalists, the media and warring world powers. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780993275616
Publisher:	GB Publishing.org
Publication date:	08/31/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	142
File size:	588 KB
Age Range:	14 - 16 Years

About the Author

Born to English parents in Eritrea, George S Boughton, Chartered Engineer, BSc.MechE(Hons), MIMechE (UK), has had an internation education: Les Petit Oiseau (Rome), Roaring Brook Elementary School (New York), Wellington School (Somerset UK), and Northampton College of Advanced Technology (City University, London). Boughton went on to lead an expatriate life, firstly in oilfield engineering with Shell in Nigeria and the UK and then with Creole Production Services International in Kuwait. He was a partner of Form Arabia Furnishing in Kuwait, a consultant in change management with the Nichols Group in Hong Kong and then in information management services with Azeus Systems in Hong Kong and South Africa. Now based in the UK, this international lifestyle coupled with his deep knowledge of oil exploration and production as well as dire experiences working in remote areas through the Biafran War have served him well in writing Black Gold - Black Scorpion.

Table of Contents

Map of Biafra 

Port Harcourt 

We were startled in our sleep by an explosion 

It was ‘dry’ in that it didn’t rain, much 

Oh, de bomb not be for you 

We were hostages 

We got into wooden canoes and paddled hard 

You leave next week 

Midwest Nigeria 

A gélè, expressed everything 

SHELL ENGINEER YOU GO PASS DIS PLACE YOU GO DIE O 

Dere be people hurt here! 

We sensed no hostility 

One of the Babies flew through 

Port Harcourt 

I have to kill the Ibos 

You bring the girl who is not there 

Lagos 

I read Ojukwu’s book…He was right 

A complex man, in a complex situation 

Tyres smoking on the roadside 

The Author 

Other 2013-14 GBP Publications 

Editorial Reviews

SURREY LIFE: "this intense, emotional memoir is a withering indictment of governing elites and the destructive consequences of their out-of-control behaviour. Around a million people starved to death or were killed in the fighting; yet the news vacuum meant that Boughton and other expat workers were often in the dark about the true extent of what was going on."

From the Publisher