Ken Saro-Wiwa

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Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (born October 10, 1941 in Bori , † November 10, 1995 in Port Harcourt ) was a Nigerian civil rights activist , writer and television producer . He founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and has received the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize . On October 31, 1995, he was sentenced to death in a show trial with eight other civil rights activists and executed ten days later.

Life

Saro-Wiwa came from the Ogoni , an indigenous people in the Niger Delta .

After graduating from the University of Ibadan , he was a university lecturer and government official in Lagos and campaigned for environmental protection and human rights in his homeland as a civil rights activist . In 1989 he founded the organization Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP; "Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People"). The goals of MOSOP were among other things the political and cultural autonomy for the Ogoni, the rehabilitation of the areas damaged by the oil production and the participation of the population in the income from the oil production. These goals should be achieved without the use of any violence . To this end, MOSOP launched several demonstrations , some of which were very successful. For example, the oil company Shell temporarily ceased its activities in the Ogoni area after MOSOP called for a demonstration in January 1993, in which more than half of the Ogoni population - around 300,000 people - took part. Due to such actions, however, the Ogoni area was militarily occupied by the government of Sani Abacha in the same year .

Trial and Execution

Saro-Wiwa was arrested several times by the Nigerian military government during his time in MOSOP and was often detained for months without trial. Finally, in May 1994, he and eight other members of MOSOP were arrested again, this time on the grounds that they had committed murder, as a result of which four members of the Ogoni tribal elders were killed. After more than a year in prison, there was a spectacular show trial before a specially convened tribunal . The trial was so staged that almost all defense lawyers resigned their mandate in protest, but this meant that the accused had to defend themselves. During the trial, many witnesses were called by the prosecution who confirmed the defendants' guilt. Many of these alleged witnesses later openly admitted that they were bribed by the Nigerian government to testify in front of the tribunal. The process culminated on October 30, 1995 with the sentencing of Saro-Wiwas and his eight colleagues to death . This judgment has been heavily criticized by human rights organizations. While in detention, Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award (1994) and the Goldman Environmental Prize (1995).

The show trial attracted international attention, and hardly anyone expected that the sentence would actually be carried out in the eyes of the world public. Nevertheless, Saro-Wiwa and the eight other defendants were hanged on November 10, 1995 . He was buried in Port Harcourt Cemetery . The execution of the accused sparked violent international protests. Nigeria was excluded from the Commonwealth of Nations with immediate effect (and reopened in 1999). Several countries considered economic sanctions.

Critics accused the Royal Dutch Shell group, active in Nigeria, of complicit in the death of the writer and Ogoni leader and eight of his colleagues. In addition, the company is accused of devastating the environment in the Niger Delta and of having severely impaired the livelihoods of the people who live there. On June 9, 2009, the company settled out of court with the bereaved relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwas and the other eight executed and paid US $ 15.5 million in order not to be charged with human rights abuses in a US district court.

family

His son Ken Wiwa (1968-2016) lived in Canada . He worked as a journalist and wrote the biography In the Shadow of a Saint . He died of a stroke in London in October 2016 at the age of 47 . His daughter Zina Saro-Wiwa (* 1976) is a TV presenter for the British BBC . The Berlin company portrayed his fate in the play Ken Saro-Wiwa - Blood for Oil (first performance 1998).

plant

Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote short stories , plays , novels and models for television series .

  • Sozaboy (1985). ISBN 3-423-12418-0
  • The stars down there (A forest of flowers, 1986). ISBN 3-423-12334-6
  • The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folk Tales (1991). ISBN 1-870716-15-9
  • Flames of Hell: Nigeria and Shell; the dirty war against the Ogoni (A month and a day, 1995). ISBN 3-499-13970-7
  • Lemonas history (Lemona's tale, 1996). ISBN 3-423-24175-6
  • Second Letter to Ogoni Youth, published by Saros Int. Publishers
  • The Ogoni Nation Today and Tomorrow, 1968, pub by Ogoni Div. union
  • Ogoni Bill of Rights, Dec 1991, Foreword
  • A Forest of Flowers, Saros Int. Pub. 1986
  • A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary, Penguin 1995
  • A Shipload of Rice, Saros Int. Pub. 1990
  • Adaku and other Stories, Saros Int. Pub. 1989
  • Basi and Company: A modern African Folktale, Saros Int. Pub. 1987
  • Basi and Company: Four Television Plays, Saros Int. Pub. 1988
  • Bride for Mr. B., Saros Int and Saros Nigeria 1993
  • Four Farcical Plays, Saros Int. Pub. 1989
  • Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy, Saros Nigeria 1992
  • Mr. B. Saros Int. Pub. 1987
  • Mr. B. again, Saros Int. Pub. 1989
  • Mr. B. goes to Lagos, Saros Int. Pub. 1989
  • Mr. B. is Dead, Saros Int. Pub. 1990
  • Mr. B.'s Mattress, Saros Int. Pub. 1993
  • Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster, Saros Int. Pub. 1991
  • On a Darkling Plain: Account of the Nigerian Civil War, Saros Int. + Pub. 1989
  • Pita Dumbrok's Prison, Saros Int. Pub. 1991
  • Prisoners of Jebs, Saros Int. Pub. 1988
  • Segi finds the radio, Saros Int. Pub. 1991
  • Similia: Essays on Anomic Nigeria, Saros Int. Pub. 1991
  • Songs in a Time of War, Saros Nigeria 1985
  • Sozaboy: A Novel in rotten English, Saros Nigeria 1985, Longman 1994
  • The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folk Tales, Saros Int. Pub. 1990
  • Transistor Radio, Saros Int. Pub. 1989

Awards

literature

  • Manfred Loimeier : For example Ken Saro-Wiwa . Lamuv-Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-88977-453-9 .
  • Willfried F. Feuser: He lost his life and gained eternal fame / Once upon a time there was a man named Ken Saro-wiwa . In: Clams. Annual journal for literature and graphics . No. 37 , 1998, ISSN  0085-3593 , pp. 6-23 .
    • Further extensive collection of media about Saro-Wiwa in the Feuser estate, Viersen district archive, overview of finding aid
  • Ken Wiwa: In the shadow of the martyr: My life as the son of Ken Saro-Wiwa . Claassen, 2002, ISBN 3-546-00179-6 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Time: Shell pays Nigerian bereaved millions