On an unseasonably cold Friday night in east London, a crowd of photographers, journalists and activists gathered at Host Gallery in London for the opening of photographer Ed Kashi’s photo exhibition, Curse of the Black Gold. It features images taken in the Niger Delta since the discovery and extraction of oil in the region began five decades ago. Amidst the cold gloom of London, Kashi’s images burned with the fire of oil flares, with the desire of displaced families and with the brutality of a military seeking to protect the government against its own people.