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The Sweet Crude characters span many areas of life: personal, family, village, business, government, political, ideological, financial, humanitarian and international and regional relations. Their stories are poetically delivered and as layered as life itself in Nigeria.

• They are mothers and sons, proud and struggling to take back what belongs to them; tremendously articulate; earnest and passionate; they retain an inner joy in the face of enormous struggles.
• They are militants, who are ready right now to face the change: either by going to the table for third-party monitored peace talks or by taking up arms to stop the oil production that hurts their people.
• They are young children, serious helpers to their mothers and joyful little people, truly vulnerable from all sides.
• They are oil executives, who show a complex array of understanding and concern about the human conditions in the Niger Delta; who are quick to downplay the environmental devastation caused by their companies over the last 50 years; who have confidence in their companies’ policies; who call the government to action.
• They are government officials at all levels in the fledgling Nigerian democracy—some advocate, some defend and some condemn government policies.
• They are tribal elders and chiefs, who bring tradition and history in a changing moment suspended between past, present and future; who still hold positions of power over even the most militant youth.
• They are NGOs, there to help the local people and contracted by the oil companies whose practices have done the harm.
• They are national leaders, who advocate change through non-violence in an increasingly restive environment where militancy seems to gain the most international media attention.
• They are Community Development Council members, whose job is to distribute money that the oil companies earmark for community development projects.