Ken Saro Wiwa was born on 10th of October 1941 in Bori, in the Niger Delta into the family of chief Jim Wiwa. 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 which has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.
Ken Saro Wiwa spent his childhood in an Anglican home and eventually proved himself to be an excellent student; he attended secondary school at Government College Umuahia and on completion obtained a scholarship to study English at the University of Ibadan.
Ken Saro Wiwa briefly taught at the University of Lagos before joining federal forces in the civil war of the late 1960s. Afterward he worked as a government administrator until 1973, when he left to concentrate on his literary career. His first novels were Songs in a Time of War and Sozaboy (both 1985); the latter, written in pidgin English, satirized corruption in Nigerian society. He reached his largest audience with Basi and Company, a comedic television series that ran for some 150 episodes in the 1980s. He was also a journalist and wrote poetry and children’s stories.
From about 1991 he devoted himself full-time to the causes of the Ogoni, a minority ethnic group that numbered about 500,000 people. In mid-1992 he broadened the reach of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, an organization he led. In particular, he focused on Britain, where Shell had one of its headquarters. He criticized the destructive impact of the oil industry—the main source of Nigeria’s national revenue—on the Niger delta region and demanded a greater compensatory share of oil profits for the Ogoni. As a result of mounting protest, Shell suspended operations in Ogoni lands in 1993.
Saro-Wiwa was arrested in 1994 after the deaths of four Ogoni chiefs at a political rally. In a trial by special tribunal that was denounced by foreign human rights groups, he was found guilty for alleged complicity in the murders. His execution by hanging, along with those of eight fellow activists, aroused international condemnation and led to calls for economic sanctions against Nigeria, which was suspended from the Commonwealth a day after the executions. Shell later announced its commitment to a natural gas project worth nearly $4 billion, one of the largest foreign investments in Nigerian history. In 2009 Shell paid $15.5 million in an out-of-court settlement intended to resolve a lawsuit brought against it in 1996 on behalf of members of Saro-Wiwa’s family and others. Shell, accused in the lawsuit of being complicit in human rights abuses in Nigeria and in the 1995 executions, denied any wrongdoing.
He fought for the people of Ogoni land against the pollution of their land by oil companies. Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company.
Amsterdam has named a street after Saro-Wiwa, the Ken Saro-Wiwastraat.
The Finnish band Ultra Bra dedicated their song "Ken Saro-Wiwa on kuollut" ("Ken Saro-Wiwa is dead") to the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa.
King Cobb Steelie, an indie rock-jazz fusion band from Guelph, Ontario, Canada, wrote a song called "Rational" for their album Junior Relaxer, inspired by events surrounding Ken Saro-Wiwa's death and the impact it had on those living in peaceful and more privileged communities.
(A Forest of Flowers is a collection of nineteen short sto...)
1997(This is the extraordinary and moving account of Ken Saro-...)
1996(A unique collection of the last writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa...)
2013(This collection of newspaper columns and articles mostly ...)
2000He believed that there is nothing worth more than acheiving the course you were created for. He said, "what shall it profit a man if he gains the world and lose his soul?"
Ken Saro Wiwa was simply a human right activist. In 1990, he began devoting most of his time to human rights and environmental causes, particularly in Ogoniland. He was one of the earliest members of the Movement 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. In particular, MOSOP struggled against the degradation of Ogoni lands by Royal Dutch Shell
Quotations:
“Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
“The men we are dealing with are mindless, Stone Age dictators addicted to blood.”
“In Nigeria, the only wrongdoers are those who do no wrong; to live a day in Nigeria is to die many times.”
“[Nigeria’s rulers] have been responsible for the African nightmare, afraid as they are of ideas and men of ideas. They are daylight robbers who kill for money.”
“Water wey dey boil No hot like dis Nigeria.”
“Forgive me friend, if I laugh at what should make me cry.”
“You cannot destroy an idea like mine…Even if I were to die tomorrow, even if I were to be locked up in prison…You can’t destroy an idea like mine.”
“I want the country to be together. I want one country, but I want a true federation, not this apparition…”
“It is said that a prophet is not without honour save in his country and in his own house. But I have found honour among my beloved Ogoni people who have suffered immensely in the last hundred years.”
“The most important thing for me is that I’ve used my talents as a writer to enable the Ogoni people to confront their tormentors. I was not able to do it as a politician or a businessman. My writing did it. And it sure makes me feel good! I’m mentally prepared for the worst, but hopeful for the best. I think I have the moral victory.”
“Unless you go back to how the country started, we will never be able to find a way out of our dilemma.”
“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.”
“In this country [England], writers write to entertain, they raise questions of individual existence…but for a Nigerian writer in my position you can’t go into that. Literature has to be combative.”
“I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Neither imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.”
“I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief.”
“Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence.”
“Shell and the Nigerian military dictatorship are violent institutions, as the Ogoni planned peace and dialogue, Shell and the Nigerian military plotted death and destruction.”
“I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side. For the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: ‘All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor.’ Come the day.”
“The men who ordain and supervise this show of shame, this tragic charade, are frightened by the word, the power of ideas, the power of the pen.”
“Whether I live or die is immaterial. It is enough to know that there are people who commit time, money and energy to fight this one evil among so many others predominating worldwide. If they do not succeed today, they will succeed tomorrow.”
Ken Saro Wiwa, has never been a man to sit and do nothing, he was committed to the welfare of his people and Nigeria in general . He once said: “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.” He did exactly that.
Quotes from others about the person
John Maxwell: “Leaders become great,not because of their power,but because of their ability to empower other”.
He was married, and had children
