Since the 1990s, in the riverine areas of Nigeria, the ecological menace of water hyacinth has been turned into an object of politics by various administrations. Among the Ilajes, an oil-rich community in the southwestern part of Nigeria, water hyacinth is considered to be poisonous and an impediment to people’s livelihoods. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the authors explore how an invasive species, known locally as lakuwa – translated as ‘proceed to your death’ – gets inserted into the politics of oil distribution. They argue that, just like oil, water hyacinth presents certain features that enable its conversion from poisonous species to money, and the article particularly explores how the conversion of water hyacinth, an ecological ‘plague’, fits into popular narratives of environmental degradation in Nigeria. The authors argue that the invasive nature of water hyacinth warrants a form of state response that deepens already existing forms of prebendal political interactions between the environment, local political leaders, and their numerous followers.

中文翻译：

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“继续进行下去”：Lakuwa，环境灾难管理以及尼日利亚的石油政治文化

自1990年代以来，在尼日利亚的河流地区，水葫芦的生态威胁已成为各政府部门的政治目标。在尼日利亚西南部一个石油资源丰富的地区伊拉杰斯（Ilajes）中，水葫芦被认为是有毒的，并且阻碍了人们的生活。作者利用人种学的田野工作，探索了如何将一种入侵物种（当地称为lakuwa，翻译为“致死”）插入到石油分配政治中。他们认为，就像风信子一样，水葫芦也具有使其能够从有毒物种转化为金钱的某些特征，并且本文特别探讨了水葫芦的转化是一种生态“瘟疫”，它如何适应尼日利亚流行的环境退化叙事。