They appeared to be helpful, but Martha Agbani, the leader of the women, sensed danger and instructed them to let the women carry instead. This was not the first encounter with these men in Yaataah, a small hill in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and she knew that their offer came with a threat: if she did not pay them, there would be consequences. Agbani's main objective was to provide employment opportunities for the women. Throughout her life, she had witnessed the hardships faced by women from Ogoniland in the oil-rich Niger Delta who had to fight to be heard and make a living. And she was determined to ensure that men would not interfere with her new project: creating a large nursery to cultivate hundreds of thousands of mangrove plants for sale to the Nigerian branch of Royal Dutch Shell, the leading oil company in Ogoniland that had previously destroyed many of them. Agbani, a resilient woman with a cheerful demeanor and a kind yet firm attitude, was attempting to start a business that could empower women financially and help restore their damaged environment. Mangroves have impressive natural abilities, purifying brackish water, preventing coastal erosion, and providing a safe breeding area for aquatic life that sustains humans. The Niger Delta is home to one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world, which humans had coexisted with harmoniously for centuries. However, with the rise of oil production — a key revenue source for the Nigerian government — the mangrove forests suffered. In 2011, the United Nations Environment Program released a detailed report on pollution in Ogoniland, stating that it could take up to 30 years to address. However, the government-run Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, tasked with cleaning up the affected land and water, has been slow to take action. Following devastating oil spills in 2007 and 2008 near the village of Bodo that wiped out thousands of acres of mangrove forests, Shell agreed to compensate the community, clean up the oil, and replant the mangroves. Agbani saw an opportunity in this situation, as the company would require a large number of mangroves to restore the damaged ecosystem and habitat for marine life in the Niger Delta. She began by growing mangroves in her own yard before searching for a location to establish a nursery. This led her to Yaataah, where the once lush mangrove forests had been decimated by past environmental disasters and the invasion of nipa palms introduced by the British. She organized a launch event in late 2019, bringing in over 100 female mangrove planters to celebrate the project. However, during the event, she encountered young men who unexpectedly arrived and demanded money and snacks meant for the women. When she tried to reason with them, highlighting that the women had come to assist in reviving the land for their mothers and sisters to harvest periwinkles again, they assaulted her. "They were pulling me from the back," she recounted. "The situation turned ugly." Disturbed by the incident, Agbani and her team departed from Yaataah and did not come back for several months. She opted to establish the nursery in a different location, with the support of a local leader who offered her land near the contaminated areas in Bodo. However, she still had a strong attachment to Yaataah. It had a good creek where they could practice planting mangroves directly from seeds in the wild, rather than starting them in nursery plastic grow bags in Bodo. In May 2021, the women returned to plant, carrying sacks on their heads and wading barefoot into the creek with their skirts pulled up. The water quickly became murky as they stirred up the sediment with their feet. Agbani, 45, laughed as she felt something tickling her legs and struggled to keep her balance in the muddy creek. "Oh, dear, Martha is an elderly lady." The location was ideal, with minimal oil pollution and a variety of wildlife still present. Despite being overrun by nipa palms like many creeks in the Niger Delta, Agbani had organized for villagers to clear a significant portion of the palms. The women moved swiftly through the mud to the patch where they worked under Agbani's direction, passing podlike "propagules" from hand to hand and planting them in the mud at regular intervals. Jessy Nubani sang a popular call-and-response song as she worked, with the other women joining in harmony. The young men returned with their friends on motorcycles, but stayed on shore after receiving a scolding from Agbani. Agbani's activism was influenced by her mother, who was involved in the Ogoni people's struggle against the Nigerian government and Shell in the 1990s. Like her mother, Agbani dedicated years to working for the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, which was established in 1990 to address the environmental damage caused by multinational oil companies in the region. She drew inspiration from activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ogoniland's esteemed hero, who was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995. Agbani vividly recalls the day Saro-Wiwa was arrested while she was a student in Bori, his hometown, and witnessed the chaos that ensued. She mentioned that there was chaos as people ran in all directions, with soldiers entering communities like Bori and firing shots. This traumatic event, along with Saro-Wiwa's advocacy for the oppressed, inspired her to advocate for her community. She noted that while there were organizations addressing environmental issues caused by oil pollution, few were focusing on the rights of women, who were disproportionately affected by these issues. She expressed that women were constantly in a state of distress and suffering from various hardships. She felt a strong need to empower women in her community. In Ogoniland, men typically engage in deep-sea fishing while women traditionally gather crustaceans near the shore for soups or to sell. Without access to shellfish, women become reliant on men, leading to increased vulnerability and violence. Agbani believed that the Ogoni people were responsible for preserving the environment for future generations. She was bothered by the fact that local young men were hindering and attempting to benefit from the women's work to restore the environment. The young men did not seem to grasp the significance of the restoration efforts, which was disappointing to her. The ringleader jokingly threatened to take her to court, but she found it amusing and ironic, suggesting that she would welcome the opportunity if he actually followed through with a lawsuit. "That will be an excellent choice," she remarked as she left Yaataah on a rough road, bound for the nursery in Bodo. The driver quickly moved aside to make way for a group of motorcycles heading toward the village. These were more young men who had heard about the opportunity for money, but they had arrived too late as Agbani was already on her way out.