Oil on Water

Oil on Water is a 2010 novel by Helon Habila, who originally worked as a journalist and poet in Nigeria before becoming a professor of creative writing at George Mason. His writing has earned many accolades, including the Music Society of Nigeria national poetry award, the 2001 Caine Prize, the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize, the 2008 Emily Balch Prize, and the 2015 Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction. Oil on Water is his third novel and foregrounds Habila’s unique ability to weave journalistic endeavors into prose that elicits strong responses from the reader. Habila uses his main characters, Rufus and Zaq to illustrate how the global oil economy wreaks environmental and social havoc on the Niger Delta.

Content Warning: Both the novel and this guide reference alcohol and substance addiction, sexual assault, suicide, imperialism, and wartime violence.

Plot Summary

A young journalist, Rufus, travels into the Niger Delta along with his hero, a famous reporter named Zaq. They are searching for a kidnapped white woman, Isabel Floode, who finds herself made a bargaining chip in the war between the government of Nigeria and its people. This war is being fought over oil, a resource in high demand.