Oil giant should respect East Africans' culture

A section of the Oil metering system at the Changamwe pumping station in Mombasa. [Denis Kibuchi, Standard]

In recent years, protests targeting the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) have largely focused on the displacement of people and compensation.

The protests, some met with police brutality, have also highlighted the risk of increasing Uganda and Tanzania's combined carbon footprints by up to 25 times a year, as the pipeline is expected to be heated throughout the 1,443km stretch between the two countries to enable transportation of the otherwise waxy crude oil to Tanga Port.

A report dubbed "As if Nothing is Sacred" released on Thursday however dug out more grave matters. The report condemns TotalEnergies, the major stakeholder in EACOP and Tilenga projects, for disturbing and disrespecting more than 2,000 graves in Uganda and Tanzania. But it is not this discovery that disturbs; if anything, TotalEnergies itself preempted that and wrote on its website. Matters grave are personal. Different people have varied spiritual and cultural beliefs. In some cases, the exhumation of a corpse, if it must happen, comes with rituals.

According to the report, some families were denied time to adequately plan the exhumations to rebury their loved ones with dignity, even as they paved the way for the oil projects. A man reportedly told a community gathering in Tanzania how his father's body had to be broken and forced to fit into a small coffin they had been given for the remains to be relocated. There was no option or time for a bigger coffin. Watching a man in his 70s recount such happenings with tears rolling down his wrinkled cheeks can be disturbing.

Apart from a few who opt for cemeteries, an average East African buries their dead in the same compound they live in. Many are nonpermanent and unmarked, not even with a wooden cross. These choices are influenced by religion or cultural preferences. Whatever the case, family members can always tell exactly where such graves are and whose remains they bear. It is therefore disgusting for a stranger to claim nonexistence of some grave sites, simply because they are unmarked.

The EACOP and Tilenga stakeholders should have done proper due diligence, and used advanced survey techniques and left no grave out of the identification and relocation plans. The inadequate compensation efforts, insufficient financial assistance for reburial, and substandard reconstruction of graves at new sites were uncalled for. Others received their compensation long after valuation.

No corporate firm should prioritise profit over the well-being of the same people they claim their projects will benefit. With adequate involvement of the community, meetings with elders, religious, and traditional leaders would have reduced these incidences, even if the nations' legislations did not protect their citizens much. Humans have spiritual and emotional ties with sacred sites. Even the very religious and rich visit cemeteries to reconnect with their long-departed kin. The poor people in rural Tanzania and Uganda deserved better.

The multi-faith organisation GreenFaith, which sanctioned the research, and several other NGOs have persistently urged the abandonment of EACOP. This report and ensuing testimonies are evidence of inadequate procedures and unresolved grievances that may cause animosity between the affected and the project. This alone erodes the project's credibility.

TotalEnergies should rectify financial losses incurred by local communities, bridge the gap between its detestable acts and international best practices. It must ensure proper relocation and reconstruction of graves that risk disrespect and never disregard justice, religious and cultural preservation of the East Africans in its pursuit of profits.

This damage control and mitigation of adverse impacts of the environmentally harzadous EACOP project should come yesterday.

The writer advocates for climate justice. [email protected]