Remember Saro-Wiwa
By Andy Rowell
15 March 2005
The dissident Czech novelist Milan Kundera once wrote that “the struggle of humanity against power is the struggle of
memory against forgetting”. The powerful stay in power whilst those who seek to confront it rise and fall. Someone who
makes the news today quickly becomes yesterday’s forgotten hero, nothing more than a footnote in a history book
It will not be so for one remarkable man that I knew, worked with and who died for his struggle. A man who died for his
people. On the 10th November 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa, the author and Nigerian rights activist was murdered by the Nigerian
military after a trial condemned as “judicial murder”. He was murdered because of his campaign against the oil giant
Shell and to ask for a greater share of the oil wealth that had been drilled from under his homeland.
This year sees the tenth Anniversary of his death. Now a group of individuals, writers, human rights and environmental
organisations are coming together to remember Saro-Wiwa and his life. To make sure that his struggle will not be
forgotten. On the 22 of March, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingston will launch a living memorial dedicated to Saro-Wiwa.
It is a project designed to prevent the erasure of memory.
Why, you might ask, do you bother remembering someone who died ten years ago? The world, you might say, is a radically
different place. Better to move on than remember. Much has happened in those ten years. Millions have died, millions
been born. We are in a new century that has already had its own horrors that will haunt new generations for years to
come. We have witnessed the tragedy of September 11th. We have watched in horror at the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and
the wider war on terror. We wonder which country a rampant and dangerous American President Bush with his ever-eager
poodle Blair, will attack next.
But whilst the world moves on, something s stay the same. Many of the issues that Saro-Wiwa fought for are as relevant
today as they were when he died. The communities of the Niger Delta remain locked into a cycle of extreme poverty,
widespread unemployment, environmental pollution, social injustice and rampant corruption that has increasingly
manifested itself in violent conflict. Wider problems related to oil such as climate change have worsened over the last
ten years, as well.
Nigeria is not alone. An academic report commissioned by Oxfam America has found that developing countries that rely heavily on oil suffer higher rates of poverty, child mortality, child
malnutrition that countries without oil. They also have low spending on health; low enrollment rates in schools; low
rates of adult literacy and suffer high rates of corruption and military spending.
The report, written by Michael Ross, Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles found that “
most oil-dependent states are in the Middle East and Africa. An initial inspection of these countries suggests they are
not performing well: the World Bank classifies six of the world’s 25 most oil-dependent states, as “highly-indebted poor
countries” the most troubled category of states”.
Nigeria is, of course, in that list. The oil comes from the vast Niger Delta, one of the most endangered delta’s in the
world and home for 6 million people. In the middle is Ogoniland, a small region of 400 square miles. It is where Shell
first produced oil in 1958. It was also Saro-Wiwa’s home.
Saro-Wiwa was primarily an author, and the creator of Nigeria’s best TV soap opera, but also a businessman. But as Shell
grew rich from the profits of oil pumped from under Ogoni, the people lived in poverty. Over the years over $30 billion
worth of oil was drilled from under their land. But the Ogoni still lacked clean water, sanitation; schools;
electricity, roads. They suffered from routine pollution spilling from the oil-pipelines that criss-crossed their land
and that corroded rapidly in the tropical heat and humidity.
The oil polluted their drinking water. Shell flared gas close to their villages. According to Professor Claude Ake who
was a former UN advisor in Nigeria: “Flaring of gas is constant. There are flares all over the place. It is night and
day pollution. It is unthinkable that such a thing would happen in Britain”.
By 1993 the Ogoni had had enough. On 4th January 300,000 Ogoni – over half the population demonstrated against Shell.
That day remains the largest-ever peaceful demonstration against the oil industry ever. It has become known as Ogoni day
and is celebrated ever since. That year Saro-Wiwa became the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(MOSOP).
Saro-Wiwa personified hope for his people. As the protests against Shell drew strength so the backlash wrought on them
intensified. As more and more people heard about the Ogoni campaign internationally the more the risks to Saro-Wiwa’s
personal safety increased. Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders were routinely arrested that year, on one occasion being
charged with unlawful assembly, and “seditious intention”. He had a heart attack in prison, having been subject, in his
words, to “psychological torture”.
As Saro-Wiwa’s health deteriorated, so did the situation in Ogoniland as rival tribes attacked their land in vigilante
attacks that were being coordinated by the military. Reports of extra-judicial killings and detentions surfaced.
In May 1994 a leaked memo from the brutal military commander in the region noted that “ Shell operations still
impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence”. To counter
this, the commander recommended: “Wasting operations during MOSOP and other gatherings making constant military presence
justifiable”.
Saro-Wiwa, commenting on the military memos said simply: “This is it -- they are going to arrest us all and execute us.
All for Shell”. His chilling prediction would later come true.
In the next few months the military set out to “sanitize Ogoni”, where soldiers systematically shot, looted, tortured
and raped their way through the region. Women and children as young as fourteen were raped. People arrested were subject
to “life-threatening” dehumanising conditions,
Then Saro-Wiwa was arrested for a crime he did not commit. He was again tortured and put in leg irons. Whilst in prison
Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP were awarded the Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize. The
award was given for Saro-Wiwa’s “exemplary and selfless courage and in striving non-violently for the civil, economic
and environmental rights of his people.”
Before Saro-Wiwa’s trial began, Saro-Wiwa's brother, Owens Wiwa, secretly met with Brian Anderson, the head of Shell
Nigeria to explore ways of securing his release. Anderson told Owens that “He would be able to help us get Ken freed if
we stopped the protest campaign abroad”. But the protests continued.
During his sham trial Saro-Wiwa wrote: “I am like Ogoni, battered, bruised, brutalised, bloodied and almost buried.
There is no doubt the authorities want me to die, I have caused them too much trouble in my struggle for the Ogoni
people”. The two chief prosecution witnesses signed affidavits to say that they had been bribed by Shell and the others
to testify against Saro-Wiwa. Shell, of course, denies these allegations strongly.
Life does move on, but we also have to recognise that in remembering the past we can shape the future. In the ten years
since Saro-Wiwa’s death, I have often thought of my friend in times of need. I have read his poetry looking for
inspiration. In the dark days before his death I used to wonder how anyone could take on the might of a corrupt military
regime and the might of the oil industry and win. But Ken was never frightened. Or if he was he did not show it. The
struggle cost Ken his life. He stood tall and proud to the end. His last words before being executed were: “Lord, take
my soul, but the struggle continues”.
Ten years on we still have to make sure Ken did not die in vain. His struggle reminds us that we have to stand up and
fight against injustice. We have to fight corrupted politicians and powerful corporations whose vested interests are not
those of the people. It reminds us to look behind the veil of “corporate social responsibility” and see that the oil
industry has not changed, even though it says it has. It reminds us about the plight of the people of the Niger Delta,
where innocent blood is again being spilled by the military. It reminds us about how, as a society, we have to rid
ourselves of the poisoned chalice that is our oil addiction.
It reminds us to stand up and fight for a better world. Saro-Wiwa once said that “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”. How true he was.
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Andy Rowell is a renowned freelance journalist, who has been researching and writing on the PR industry for over a
decade. You can read some of this work on Andy's website.
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