Ken Saro-Wiwa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (1941-10-10)10 October 1941 |
| Died | 10 November 1995(1995-11-10) (aged 54) Port Harcourt,Rivers State, Nigeria |
| Cause of death | Execution byhanging |
| Occupations |
|
| Movement | Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People |
| Children | 5, includingKen Wiwa,Zina andNoo |
| Father | Jim Wiwa |
| Relatives | Owens Wiwa (brother) |
| Awards | |
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was aNigerian writer, teacher, television producer, and social rights activist.[1] Saro-Wiwa was a member of theOgoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland,Ogoniland,[2] in theNiger Delta, has been targeted forcrude oil extraction since the 1950s andhas suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.[3]
Initially as a spokesperson, and then as the president, of theMovement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led anonviolent campaign againstenvironmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multiple international oil companies, especially theRoyal Dutch Shell company.[4] He criticized theNigerian government for its reluctance to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.[5]
At the peak of his non-violent campaign, he was tried by a specialmilitary tribunal[6] for allegedly masterminding the murder of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting, and hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of GeneralSani Abacha.[7] His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from theCommonwealth of Nations for more than three years.[8]
Kenule Saro-Wiwa was born inBori, nearPort-Harcourt, Nigeria, on 10 October 1941.[9][1] He was the son of ChiefJim Wiwa, a forest ranger who held a title in theNigerian chieftaincy system, and his third wife Widu. He officially changed his name to Saro-Wiwa after theNigerian Civil War.[10] He was married to Maria Saro Wiwa.[11]His father's hometown was the village ofBane,Ogoniland, whose residents speak theKhana dialect of theOgoni language. He spent his childhood in an Anglican home and eventually proved himself to be an excellent student. He received primary education at a Native Authority school in Bori, then attended secondary school atGovernment College Umuahia. A distinguished student, he was captain of the table tennis team and amassed school prizes in History and English.[12]
On the completion of his secondary education, he obtained a scholarship to study English at theUniversity of Ibadan. AtIbadan, he plunged into academic and cultural interests, he won departmental prizes in 1963 and 1965 and worked for a drama troupe. The travelling drama troupe performed inKano,Benin,Ilorin andLagos and collaborated with theNottingham Playhouse theater group.[13]
He briefly became a teaching assistant at theUniversity of Lagos and later atUniversity of Nigeria, Nsukka. He was an African literature lecturer inNsukka when the civil war broke out, he supported the Federal Government and had to leave the region for his hometown at Bori. On his journey toPort-Harcourt, he witnessed the multitudes ofrefugees returning to the East, a scene he described as a "sorry sight to see".[14] Three days after his arrival toBonny, it fell to federal troops. He and his family then stayed in Bonny, he travelled back toLagos and took a position at the University of Lagos which did not last long as he was called back to Bonny.[15]
He was called back to become the Civilian Administrator for the port city of Bonny in theNiger Delta. During the Nigerian Civil War he positioned himself as an Ogoni leader dedicated to the Federal cause.[16] He followed his job as an administrator with an appointment as a commissioner in the old Rivers State. His best known novel,Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English (1985), tells the story of a naive village boy recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970, and intimates the political corruption andpatronage in Nigeria's military regime of the time. His war diaries,On a Darkling Plain (1989), document his experience during the war. He was also a successful businessman and television producer. His satirical television series,Basi & Company, was wildly popular, with an estimated audience of 30 million.[17]
In the early 1970s, he served as theRegional Commissioner for Education in theRivers State[18] Cabinet. But was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy.[19] In the late 1970s, he established a number of successful business ventures in retail and real estate, and during the 1980s concentrated primarily on his writing, journalism and television production.[18] In 1977, he became involved in the political arena running as the candidate to represent Ogoni in the Constituent Assembly. He lost the election in a narrow margin.[20] It was during this time he had a fall out with his friend Edwards Kobani.[21]
His intellectual work was interrupted in 1987 when he re-entered the political scene, having been appointed by the newly installed dictatorIbrahim Babangida to aid the country's transition to democracy.[22] But he resigned because he felt Babangida's supposed plans for a return to democracy were disingenuous. His sentiments were proven correct in the coming years, as Babangida failed to relinquish power. In 1993, Babangida annulled Nigeria's general elections that would have transferred power to acivilian government, sparking mass civil unrest and eventually forcing him to step down, at least officially, that same year.[23]
Saro-Wiwa's works include TV, drama and prose writing.[24] His earlier works from 1970s to 1980s were mostly satirical displays that portray a counter-image of Nigerian society.[25]: 269 But his later writings were more inspired by political dimensions such as environmental and social justice than satire.[26]
Transistor Radio, one of his best known plays,[25]: 270 was written for a revue during his university days atIbadan but still resonated well with Nigerian society and was adapted into a television series.[citation needed] Some of his works drew inspiration from the play. In 1972, a radio version of the play was produced and in 1985, he producedBasi and Company, a successful screen adaption of the play. He included the play inFour Farcical Plays andBasi and Company: Four Television Plays.Basi and Company, an adaptation ofTransistor Radio, ran on television from 1985 to 1990. A farcical comedy,[25]: 273 the show chronicles city life and is anchored by the protagonist, Basi, a resourceful and street-wise character looking for ways to achieve his goal of obtaining millions which always ends to become an illusive mission.[citation needed]
In 1985, theBiafran Civil War novelSozaboy was published.[27] The protagonist's language was written in nonstandard English or what He called "Rotten English",[28] a hybrid language ofpidgin English,[9] standard English and broken English.[28][1][29]
In 1990, he began devoting most of his time tohuman rights and environmental causes, particularly in the land settled by theOgoni people.[9] He was one of the earliest members of theMovement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which advocated for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands.[30] In particular, MOSOP struggled against the degradation of Ogoni lands byRoyal Dutch Shell.[31]
In 1992, He was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.[32][33]
He was Vice Chairman of theUnrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) General Assembly from 1993 to 1995.[34] UNPO is an international, nonviolent, and democratic organisation (of which MOSOP is a member).[35] Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and under-recognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.[36]
In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people[32]– more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni urban centres, drawing international attention to their people's plight. The same year theNigerian government occupied the region militarily.[37]
He was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993 but was released after a month.[38]On 21 May 1994, four Ogoni chiefs (all on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy) were brutally murdered.[39]
Saro-Wiwa had been denied entry toOgoniland on the day of the murders, but he was arrested and accused of inciting them. He denied the charges but was imprisoned for more than a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal.[40] The same happened to eight other MOSOP leaders who, along with Saro-Wiwa, became known as theOgoni Nine.[41]
Some of the defendants' lawyers resigned in protest against the alleged rigging of the trial by the Abacha regime. The resignations left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers. Many of these supposed witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders 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.[42]
The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations, and six months later, Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award for his courage, as well as theGoldman Environmental Prize.[43]
On 8 November 1995, a military ruling council upheld the death sentences.[44] The military government then immediately moved to carry them out. The prison inPort Harcourt was selected as the place of execution. Although the government wanted to carry out the sentences immediately, it had to wait two days for a gallows to be built. Within hours of the sentences being upheld, nine coffins were taken to the prison, and the following day a team of executioners was flown in fromSokoto to Port Harcourt.[45]
On 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and the remainder of the Ogoni Nine were taken from the army base where they were being held toPort Harcourt prison.[46] They were told that they were being moved to Port Harcourt because it was feared that the army base they were being held in might be attacked by Ogoni youths. The prison was heavily guarded by riot police and tanks, and hundreds of people lined the streets in anticipation of the executions. After arriving at Port Harcourt prison, Saro-Wiwa and the others were herded into a single room and their wrists and ankles were shackled. They were then led one by one to the gallows and executed by hanging, with Saro-Wiwa being the first. It took five tries to execute him due to faulty equipment.[45] His last words were: "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues." After the executions, the bodies were taken to thePort Harcourt Cemetery under armed guard and buried.[47][48] Anticipating disturbances as a result of the executions, the Nigerian government deployed tens of thousands of troops and riot police to two southern provinces and major oil refineries around the country. The Port Harcourt Cemetery was surrounded by soldiers and tanks.[49][45]
The executions provoked a storm of international outrage. TheUnited Nations General Assembly condemned the executions in a resolution which passed by a vote of 101 in favor to 14 against and 47 abstentions.[50] TheEuropean Union condemned the executions, which it called a "cruel and callous act", and imposed an arms embargo on Nigeria.[51][52] The United States recalled its ambassador from Nigeria, imposed an arms embargo on Nigeria, and imposed travel restrictions on members of the Nigerian military regime and their families.[53] The United Kingdom recalled its high commissioner in Nigeria, and British Prime MinisterJohn Major called the executions "judicial murder".[54]
South Africa took a primary role in leading international criticism, with PresidentNelson Mandela urging Nigeria's suspension from theCommonwealth of Nations. Zimbabwe and Kenya also backed Mandela, with Kenyan PresidentDaniel arap Moi and Zimbabwean PresidentRobert Mugabe backing Mandela's demand to suspend Nigeria's Commonwealth membership, but a number of other African leaders criticized the suggestion. Nigeria's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations was ultimately suspended, and Nigeria was threatened with expulsion if it did not transition to democracy in two years. The US and British governments also discussed the possibility of an oil embargo backed by a naval blockade of Nigeria.[51][55]
The Ken Saro-Wiwa foundation was established in 2017 to work towards improved access to basic resources such as electricity and Internet forentrepreneurs inPort Harcourt.[56] The association founded the Ken Junior Award, named for Saro-Wiwa's sonKen Wiwa, who died in October 2016.[57] The award is presented to innovative start-up technology companies inPort Harcourt.[56]
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Beginning in 1996, theCenter for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Earth Rights International (ERI), Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman and other human rightsattorneys have brought a series of cases to hold Shell accountable for alleged human rights violations in Nigeria,[58] includingsummary execution,crimes against humanity,torture, inhumane treatment andarbitrary arrest and detention. The lawsuits are brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of its Nigerian operation.[59]
The cases were brought under theAlien Tort Statute, a 1789 statute giving non-US citizens the right to file suits in US courts for international human rights violations, and theTorture Victim Protection Act, which allows individuals to seek damages in the US for torture orextrajudicial killing, regardless of where the violations take place.[60]
TheUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York set a trial date of June 2009. On 9 June 2009,Shell agreed to an out-of-court settlement of US$15.5 million to victims' families. However, the company denied any liability for the deaths, stating that the payment was part of a reconciliation process.[61] In a statement given after the settlement, Shell suggested that the money was being provided to the relatives of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other victims, to cover the legal costs of the case and also in recognition of the events that took place in the region.[62] Some of the funding is also expected to be used to set up a development trust for theOgoni people, who inhabit theNiger Delta region of Nigeria.[63] The settlement was made just days before the trial, which had been brought by Saro-Wiwa's son, was due to begin in New York.[62]
His death provoked international outrage and the immediate suspension of Nigeria from theCommonwealth of Nations,[6] as well as the calling back of many foreigndiplomats for consultation. The United States and other countries considered imposingeconomic sanctions.[64][65][66]
The execution of Saro-Wiwa marked the beginning of the international business and human rights (BHR) movement.[67]
Tributes to Saro-Wiwa include:
ABBC World Service radio documentary,Silence Would Be Treason, was broadcast in January 2022, presented by his daughterNoo Saro-Wiwa and voiced by Ben Arogundade.[78][79]
Saro-Wiwa and his wife Maria had five children, who grew up with their mother in theUnited Kingdom while their father remained in Nigeria. They includeKen Wiwa andNoo Saro-Wiwa, both journalists and writers, and Noo's twinZina Saro-Wiwa, a journalist and filmmaker.[80][81] In addition, Saro-Wiwa had two daughters (Singto and Adele) with another woman.[80] He also had another son, Kwame Saro-Wiwa, who was only one year old when his father was executed.[82]
A collection of handwritten letters and poems by Saro-Wiwa and audio recordings of visits and meetings with family and friends after his death were donated toMaynooth University by SisterMajella McCarron.[86] The letters are now in the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI).[87]
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