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About the Episode

1973 began with Ken Saro-Wiwa being more publicly critical than ever of the Nigerian government he was a part of. Increasingly, he served two masters: he was a government commissioner and he was also advocating for the autonomy of the Ogoni people over their political and economic affairs. Fresh out of a civil war, Nigeria’s authorities were intolerant of any form of agitation or activism, especially for ethnic autonomy.

But Saro-Wiwa persisted. He wrote petitions against Shell, and published articles like ‘Genocide in Nigeria: the Ogoni Tragedy’. Through these acts, Saro-Wiwa effectively crossed a line and the government responded in kind. In March 1973, a radio bulletin announced that the Rivers State Government had fired Saro-Wiwa. What did Saro-Wiwa do next? Who was Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro why does he loom large in the origins of Saro-Wiwa’s eventual activism?

In this episode, Wale Lawal finds some answers.

Read the Episode 2 (part two) 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)