Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro-Wiwa' (October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer, and environmentalist. Events 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, is decapitated Year 1941 ( MCMXLI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 Nigeria, officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal Constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal He was the son of Chief Jim Wiwa. Jim Beeson Wiwa (1904 &ndash April 1, 2005) was a chief of the Ogoni people of southern Nigeria, and the chairman of the Council of Chiefs of Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority whose homelands in the Niger Delta have been targeted for oil extraction since the 1950s. The Ogoni people are one of the many Indigenous peoples in the Niger Delta region of southeast Nigeria. The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a Initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental damage associated with the operations of multinational oil companies, especially Shell. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP is a campaigning organization representing the Ogoni people in their struggle for ethnic and environmental rights Nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social change that rejects the use of physical Violence. Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational oil company of Dutch and British origins
He was executed by the Nigerian Military in 1995, his death provoking international outrage. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. The Military of Nigeria has active duty personnel in three armed services totalling approximately 85000 troops and 82000 paramilitary personnel
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Life, activism, and execution
Ken was born in Bori, in the Niger Delta. The labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better New Unionism is a term which has been used twice in the history of the labour movement both times involving moves to broaden the union agenda The proletariat (from Latin la ''proles'' "offspring" is a term used to identify a lower Social class; a member of such a class is proletarian Social Movement Unionism is a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism Syndicalism is a type of movement which aims to degrade capitalist societies through action by the Working class on the industrial front Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Timeline of Organized labor history 1790s - 1800s - 1810s - 1820s - 1830s - 1840s - 1850s Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of Legal rights and claimed Human rights having to do with Labor relations between Workers Child labor is the employment of Children at regular and sustained labour The 8-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement (aka the Short-time movement) had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the Safety, Health and welfare of people engaged in Collective bargaining is the process whereby workers organize together to meet converse and compromise upon the work environment with their employers A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming This is a list of Trade unions and Union federations by country This is a list of federations of Trade unions. Those federations listed under each country are also known as National trade union centres and are organisations formed Unions have been compared across countries by growth and decline patterns by violence levels and by kinds of political activity Inaugural Congress The founding and first congress of the ITUC was held November 1 - 3 2006 in Vienna TemplateInfobox Union for usage -->The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU was established in the wake of the Second Template talkInfobox Union for usage --> The International Workers' Association ( IWA) ( Spanish: Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal by Employees to perform work. The following is a list of deliberate absence from work related to specific working conditions ( strikes) or due to general unhappiness with the political order ( General strikes A general strike is a Strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city region or country A sympathy strike is a Strike action that is initiated by workers in one industry and supported by workers in a separate but related industry or profession A sit-down strike is a form of Civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers usually employed at a factory or other centralized location take possession of Work-to-rule is an Industrial action in which Employees do no more than the minimum required by the rules of a workplace and follow safety or other regulations to A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming César Estrada Chávez ( March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) born in Yuma Arizona, was a Mexican-American farm worker Labor Samuel Gompers (January 27 1850 - December 13 1924 was an American labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. James Riddle ("Jimmy" Hoffa ( February 14, 1913 - disappeared July 30, 1975, exact Asa Philip Randolph ( April 15 1889 &ndash May 16 1979) was a prominent twentieth century African-American civil rights leader "Lowell Mill Girls" was the name used for female textile workers in Lowell Massachusetts in the 19th century For his son see James Larkin Jnr, and for the English actor see James Larkin (actor. For other people named "Bob White" or "Robert White" see Bob White (disambiguation and Robert White. Labor history (or labour history) is a broad field of study concerned with the development of the Labor movement and the Working class. The field of industrial relations (also called labor relations) looks at the relationship between Management and workers particularly groups of workers represented Labour law (also known as employment or labor law is the body of Laws administrative rulings and precedents which address the legal rights of and restrictions Bori is a city in Khana Local Government Area, Rivers State, southern Nigeria. The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a [1] He spent childhood in a polygamous household of Anglican faith and eventually proved himself an excellent student, netting him a scholarship to study English at Government College Umuahia. See also Anglicanism The Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches The term English literature refers to Literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by Writers not necessarily from He would complete his studies at the University of Ibadan and briefly became a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos. The University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles (8 kilometres from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria The University of Lagos (also popularly known as Unilag) is a federal government university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba and a college
However, he soon took up a government post as the Civilian Administrator for the port city of Bonny in the Niger Delta and was a strong supporter of the federal cause against the Biafrans during the Nigerian Civil War. Bonny (formerly Ibani or Ubani) is a town in Rivers State in southeast Nigeria, on the Bight of Biafra. The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a The Republic of Biafra was a Secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria. The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967 &ndash 13 January 1970 was a political conflict caused by the attempted Secession His best known novel, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, tells the story of a naive village boy recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970 and intimates the corruption and patronage in Nigeria's military regime of the time. The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967 &ndash 13 January 1970 was a political conflict caused by the attempted Secession His war diaries, On a Darkling Plain, document Saro-Wiwa's experience during the war. Additionally, Saro-Wiwa was also a successful businessman and television producer. His satirical television series, Basi & Co. , is purported to have been the most watched soap opera in Africa.
In the early 1970s Saro-Wiwa served as the Regional Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State Cabinet, but was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy. In the late 1970s, he established a number of successful business ventures in retail and real-estate, and during the 1980s concentrated primarily on his writing, journalism and television production. His intellectual production was interrupted in 1987 when he once again entered the political scene, this time as an appointee of newly-installed dictator Ibrahim Babangida, who enlisted Ken to aid the country's transition to democracy. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (born August 17 1941) popularly known as IBB, was the military ruler of Nigeria from his coup However, Ken resigned shortly thereafter because he felt Babangida's supposed plans for a return to democracy were disingenuous. Ken's sentiments were proven correct in the coming years as Babangida failed to relinquish power. In 1993 he annulled Nigeria's general elections which would transfer power to a civilian government, sparking mass civil unrest and eventually forcing him to step-down, at least officially, in the same year.
In 1990 Saro-Wiwa 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 Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP is a campaigning organization representing the Ogoni people in their struggle for ethnic and environmental rights 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 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.
In January 1993 MOSOP organized peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people – more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni centers, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region, while the Nigerian government occupied the region militarily. Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational oil company of Dutch and British origins
Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal, during which nearly all of the defendants' lawyers resigned in protest to the trial's cynical rigging by the Abacha regime. General Sani Abacha ( Kano, 20 September 1943 &ndash Abuja, 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military leader and politician The resignation of the legal teams left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers, only for many of these supposed witnesses to later admit they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations and half a year later, Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award for his courage as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize
Very few observers were surprised when the tribunal declared a "guilty" verdict, but most were shocked that the penalty would be death by hanging for all nine defendants. The Right Livelihood Award, established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, is an award that is presented annually usually on December 9 to honour those "working on The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize given annually to grassroots environmental activists from six geographic areas Africa, Asia, Europe However, many were skeptical that the executions would actually occur, as the Nigerian government would face international outrage and possible sanctions and other legal action should the penalties be carried out.
But on 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders (the "Ogoni Nine") were executed by hanging at the hands of military personnel. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 The Ogoni Nine were a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, who were executed (by Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death According to most accounts, Ken was the last person to be hanged and thus forced to watch the death of his colleagues. Information on the circumstances of Saro-Wiwa's own death are unclear, but it is generally agreed that multiple attempts were required before the hanging finally brought Saro-Wiwa to his end. Ken's death provoked international outrage and the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations, which was meeting in New Zealand at the time. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The United States and other countries considered imposing economic sanctions on Nigeria because of such actions. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
A memorial to Saro-Wiwa was unveiled in London on 10 November 2006. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Events 1444 - Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. [2] It consists of a sculpture in the form of a bus, and was created by Sokari Douglas Camp, also from Nigeria. Sokari Douglas Camp (born 1958 in Nigeria is an artist who has had exhibitions all over the world and was the receipient of awarded the Henry Moore Bursary award It will tour the UK for a year.
Biographies
A biography, In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understanding His Father's Legacy, was written by his son, journalist Ken Wiwa. Ken Wiwa (born 1968, Lagos) also known as Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr, is a Nigerian journalist and author Published in September 2005, shortly before the tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa's execution, Canadian author J. Timothy Hunt's The Politics of Bones documented the flight of Ken's brother Owens Wiwa, after his brother's execution and his own imminent arrest, to London and then on to Canada, where he is now a citizen and continues his brother's fight on behalf of the Ogoni people. James Timothy Hunt (born April 1, 1959) is an American - Canadian Author and Journalist. The Politics of Bones Dr Owens Wiwa and the Struggle for Nigeria's Oil is a book by Canadian journalist J Monday Owens Wiwa (born October 10, 1957 in Bori Nigeria) is a medical doctor and Human rights Activist. Moreover, it is also the story of Owens' personal battle against the Nigerian government to locate his brother's remains after they were buried in an unmarked mass-grave. Ken Saro-Wiwa's own diary, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary was published in January 1995, 2 months after his execution. A book of essays about Wiwa entitled Before I Am Hanged: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Literature, Politics, and Dissent was published by Africa World Press in December 1999. More information on the struggles of the Ogoni people can be found in the book Ogoni's Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria (ISBN 0-86543-647-9)
See also
- History of Nigeria
- Zina Saro-Wiwa
References
- ^ Hamilton, Janice. See also Nigeria Early history See also Early Nigerian history Recent archaeological research has shown that people were already living in southwestern Nigeria in Pictures. Page 71
- ^ Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa | Arts | guardian.co.uk Arts
External links
- Letter of protest published in the New York Review of Books shortly before his execution
- Ken Saro-Wiwa's son, Ken Wiwa, writes a letter on openDemocracy.net about the campaign to seek justice for his father in a lawsuit against Shell - "America in Africa: plunderer or part"
- The Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation
- Remember Saro-Wiwa campaign
- PEN Centres honour Saro-Wiwa's memory - IFEX
- The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) 1995 Ogoni report
- Right Livelihood Award recipient
- The Politics of Bones, by J. Timothy Hunt
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