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About the Episode
In photos of the January 4 1993 Ogoni rally, Ken Saro-Wiwa stands out. You can sense his passion, his energy but more curiously his pull. These are very dangerous times to be protesting. Only days before, the Babangida military regime had placed a ban on public gatherings. So what was it about the Ogoni movement that made it (to borrow from the American writer, Toni Cade Bambara ) ‘irresistible’ to Saro-Wiwa?
Saro-Wiwa was pretty well off and could have lived a much more convenient, non-political life. At the same time, Nigeria is a highly unequal society where the wealthy are often out of touch. This was true even back then; so what was it about Saro-Wiwa that made him connect not just materially with Ogoni people but philosophically, almost spiritually; enough to make them risk even death in joining him on this march?
In this episode, Wale Lawal finds some answers.
Read the Episode 2 (part one) transcript.
About the Show
Our second season focuses on the life and legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer and one of nine non-violent Ogoni activists the General Sani Abacha military government brutally executed in 1995.
The Ogoni are an ethnic group situated in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. For years, they have suffered pollution and environmental degradation stemming from crude oil extraction on their land. Saro-Wiwa’s protests against oil companies such as Shell, including his leadership of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), frustrated the Abacha government, which relied heavily on oil exports.
Read our introduction to Season 2.
Host
Wale Lawal is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Republic.
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Notes on Episode 2
In researching Episode 2 of The Republic, we made use of the following sources.
Books
Hunt, Timothy. The Politics of Bones: Dr. Owens Wiwa And The Struggle For Nigeria’s Oil. McClelland & Stewart, 2005 (originally published 2005).
News/Journal Articles
Aliyu, Saeedat. ‘Ken Saro-Wiwa as Symbol of Environmental Activism in Niger Delta Poetry,’ African British Journals, 2022.
Mclntyre, J. A. ‘The Writer as Agitator: Ken Saro-Wiwa,’ Africa Spectrum, vol. 31, no. 3, 1996, pp. 295–311.
Newell, Stephanie. ‘Introduction: Ken Saro-Wiwa as Public Intellectual,’ Research in African Literatures, vol. 48, no. 4, 2017, pp. vii–xvi.
Pegg, Scott. ‘Ken Saro-Wiwa: Assessing the Multiple Legacies of a Literary Interventionist,’ Third World Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 4, 2000, pp. 701–08.
Sara-Wiwa, Ken and Saro-Wiwa, Ken. ‘Nigeria in Crisis: Nigeria, Oil and the Ogoni,’ Review of African Political Economy, vol. 22, no. 64, 1995, pp. 244–46.
Punch Nigeria. ‘Govt Doesn’t Recognize My Dad’s Sacrifices — Isaac Boro’s Daughter,’ 6 November 2016.
Uraizee, Joya. ‘Combating Ecological Terror: Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Genocide in Nigeria,’
Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 44(2):75-91, September 2011.
Media
Andrew Rowell and Stephen Kretzmann. The Ogoni Struggle: A Project Underground Report. All for Shell. 1996.
Report of a Mission by the Non-governmental Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. Nigeria – Stolen By Generals: Abuja After the Harare Commonwealth Declaration. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
1995.
Episode 2 makes use of archival footage from the following sources:
Adaka Boro’s 12-Day Revolution. (courtesy Edmund Obilo/Facebook)
Ken Saro-Wiwa: Remembering Writer, Environmental Activist 25 Years After. (courtesy TVC News)
Ken Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995). (courtesy Port Harcourt Especially/FACEBOOK)
Ken Saro Wiwa: 1995 Goldman Prize winner, Nigeria. (courtesy Goldman Environmental Prize)
Nigeria: General Gowon Begins His First Official Visit to Ibo Areas. (courtesy British Pathe)