Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941 - 1995)

Fri Oct 10, 1941

Image

Ken Saro-Wiwa, born on this day in 1941, was a Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist who fought polluting petroleum interests. After being arrested on false charges, he was executed by the state in 1995.

Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.

Initially as spokesperson for (later as president of) the “Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People” (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and water of Ogoniland by the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company.

In 1994, Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other leaders of MOSOP (together known as the Ogoni Nine), were arrested on false charges and sentenced to death. At least two witnesses who testified against Saro-Wiwa later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony in the presence of Shell’s lawyer.

On November 10th, 1995, the Ogoni nine were hanged by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. Saro-Wiwa’s execution provoked international outrage, and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.

“I’ll tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die.”

- Ken Saro-Wiwa