Ken Saro-Wiwa

Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was a Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist who led a non-violent campaign against environmental degradation in Ogoniland. Initially as a spokesperson, and then as the 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 waters of Ogoniland by multiple international oil companies, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company. He criticized the Nigerian government for its reluctance to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area. At the peak of his non-violent campaign, he was tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the murder of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting, and was hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His execution triggered international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years. Quotes If we had a proper system, they would find that there is not so much oil money around anyway. Saro-Wiwa told DW in November 1993 Certainly. Shell are environmental terrorists. They have waged an ecological war against the Ogoni people for thirty-five years. They have used double standards; the standards they use in Ogoni are different from those they use in the West - in America or in Europe. So, to that extent, they deserve a boycott. A boycott would do them a lot of good and probably call them to reason. KEN SARO-WIWA: Oil Boom, Oil Doom, Interview by Chantal Zabus, conducted at the Brussels headquarters of the Alliance of Indigenous Peoples on 16 November 1993. Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English (1985) My master used to say that they are all tiefman. All of them. Because not so government tell them to do. And they are all chopping bribe from the small small people. My master say it is very bad at all. So we were all very happy when they talk that it will stop now that there is new government of soza and police. Chapter One, pg 2 All the people were angry with Chief Birabee. They say he took money from all the people make rich man and now common salt have become rich man chop. Not nonsense be that? How Dukana man or woman go manage? If salt cost one shilling, how much cloth go cost? I met Duzia, Bom and Kole one Chapter Three, pg 23 ‘Look, Mene, you are my only son. Even I suffered plenty before I born you. I have born six of you, and you are the only one still alive. I want you to live and bury me when! die. I don’t want to die like chicken, no burial. I have no father, no mother, no brother, no sister. You are my father, my mother, my brother and my sister. Do you hear me? Don’t go and think of foolish thing. Chapter Six, pg 56 But you know I cannot allow myself to show this fear. Even I just drive it from my mind. I said to myself that Sozaboy cannot fear anything. Because I must return to my Agnes and my mama with plenty rope. Oh yes. And I can only get this rope if we go on patrol and I show that I am big Sozaboy. So one early morning they woke myself and Bullet Chapter Fourteen, pg 105 Trial Speech (1995) My lord, we all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas... I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief. The speech Saro-Wiwa wasn’t allowed to read before his execution. I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial... The Company has indeed ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come." We All Stand Before History, By Ken Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995) Letters and Prison Writings I'll tell you this, I may be dead but my ideas will not die. 11 Thought-Provoking Quotes From Ken Saro-Wiwa The proceedings leave no doubt that the judgment has been written in advance. And a sentence of death against which there is no appeal is a certainty... Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues. Ken Saro-Wiwa The writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society's weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future. 11 Thought-Provoking Quotes From Ken Saro-Wiwa External links Category:1941 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Authors from Nigeria Category:Environmentalists from Nigeria Category:Executed people Category:University of Lagos faculty Category:Nonviolence advocates