of this unique and sometimes controversial man.
Two closely related events in Nigerian history catapulted Saro-Wiwa to prominence. In 1967, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, military governor of the Eastern Region, broke away from Nigeria to form the short-lived Republic of Biafra. Thirty months of intense civil war culminated in the return of Biafra to Nigeria and the creation of a federal republic, albeit one still under military rule. Unlike many in the nascent republic, Saro-Wiwa became a vocal supporter of Nigerian unity, actively joining the war effort and becoming the civilian administrator of Bonny (in southeastern Nigeria) before going on to join the newly formed Rivers State assembly. Saro-Wiwa’s bold step in supporting Nigerian nationalism came from the realization that the interests of the ethnic minorities in general, and the Ogoni in particular, would be better served as part of a federal Nigeria, where no single ethnic group could dominate.
When Shell discovered oil in the Niger Delta in January 1956, the Delta’s economic importance forever changed. For the Ogoni, oil was a curse, as the ensuing years brought economic destruction and environmental devastation. For Saro-Wiwa, the destruction of the environment that people depended on, coupled with the siphoning of oil revenues to the larger ethnic groups who controlled the economic patronage system in Nigeria, amounted to genocide. Saro-Wiwa did not believe the fight could be waged within Nigeria alone. After the failure of Biafran secession in 1970, oil became the economic glue that held Nigeria together, and Saro-Wiwa began organizing his people in a nonviolent struggle to regain their economic and political rights and keep their cultural identity, which he felt were imperiled by environmental destruction and the lack of economic opportunity.
It may seem a contradiction that Saro-Wiwa preached for a unified Nigerian society while working to preserve his ethnic group’s identity within the structure of the country, but for him, the ideal Nigeria was one where each ethnic group could be culturally independent and still share equally in the political and economic project that was Nigeria. Thus, the worst injustice was that the Ogoni, his people, who numbered less than half a million, were subsidizing Nigeria with the oil pumped out of their land and in the process destroying their environment to such an extent that the Ogoni way of life could not survive. This book charts the tightrope act performed by a man who saw no contradiction in merging his own cultural ideals into a larger and much more diverse country.
The first chapter explores the colonial Nigeria into which Saro-Wiwa was born. This chapter explores the effects that colonial rule and the transition to independence had on the young Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni, and state-society relations in Nigeria.
The second chapter discusses Saro-Wiwa’s childhood and early career at university, where he dedicated himself to the study of the English language and became a lecturer before the civil war cut short his career in education. Saro-Wiwa’s university experiences played an especially important part in his intellectual development and political awareness. His experiences as a young minority student in a multiethnic country planted in him the seed of the desire to show Nigerians that the country they inherited from the British could be forged into an inclusive society, rather than one that was based on ethnic loyalties.
Following Biafra’s secession in 1967, Saro-Wiwa took a pro-Nigeria approach to the conflict and became the administrator of the newly formed Rivers State. The third chapter explores this tumultuous period in Nigeria’s history and Saro-Wiwa’s placement firmly on the Nigerian side. His actions set the stage for his future involvement in Nigerian politics and his ideals for Nigerian unity, setting him increasingly in conflict with the Nigerian civilian and military elites.
The fourth chapter looks at Saro-Wiwa’s business interests and his writing career. After leaving governmental work, Saro-Wiwa established several real estate, retail, and publishing companies. These businesses served as a base for his writing career, and he published many of his own works through Saros International, his publishing arm. He also used his fame as a writer to create many more business opportunities, culminating in the hit sitcom Basi and Company for the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), to which he added a series of novelizations, including novels for young readers.
The next three chapters look at the issues surrounding Shell Oil’s exploitation of the Niger Delta and the complexities of Saro-Wiwa’s response to the destruction of the ecosystem that the Ogoni have depended on for their livelihood for millennia. It was this response, which included the creation of MOSOP, Saro-Wiwa’s increasing involvement with global human and environmental rights groups, along with his constant criticisms of internal Nigerian politics, that set him on a collision course with the Babangida and Abacha regimes.
The final chapter explains Saro-Wiwa’s multiple legacies and attempts to unify the legacies of Saro-Wiwa the poet, author, businessman, scholar, government official, and human rights and environmental activist into a unified legacy of Saro-Wiwa the man. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a complex person who attracted intense admiration from those who supported his work and fierce hatred from those who felt threatened by the brand of nationalism and unity he represented.
1
Nigeria and Saro-Wiwa’s World to 1960
Kenule Saro-Wiwa’s story is intertwined with the story of the country Lord Lugard created in 1914 when he unified Nigeria into one political entity. Saro-Wiwa’s relationship with Nigeria defined much of his life, and his attempts to reform it led to his death. In fact, his life, work, and literary career were largely shaped by the same forces that created the colonial state of Nigeria and shaped the legacy that independent Nigeria inherited on October 1, 1960.
The Ogoni, one of the smallest ethnic groups within Nigeria, struggled throughout the colonial period to achieve official recognition and the government protection and funding that came with it. The Ogoni, like many minorities in Nigeria, faced a long history of oppression and domination by the three largest ethnic groups: the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Yoruba in the southwest, and the Igbo, who dominated the southeast, where the Ogoni lived.1 Saro-Wiwa viewed his own life as entwined in this struggle and sought to use his position and influence to help achieve an inclusive Nigerian national identity. In many of his works, most notably his Nigerian Civil War memoir On a Darkling Plain and his various activist writings in the early 1990s, he is acutely aware of his predecessors and his place within these struggles.
The Ogoni are one of the smallest ethnic and linguistic groups in Nigeria, residing directly east of Port Harcourt along the eastern edge of the Niger Delta, with a population of roughly half a million. They are made up of several subgroups, each with its own identity, history, and distinct dialect. In fact, like most ethnicities in Nigeria, Ogoni identity has historically been fluid, with groups aligning with and dissociating themselves from the Ogoni, according to constantly shifting political considerations within Nigeria. Traditionally a riverine agrarian people, their economic mainstays are aquatic agricultural production, animal husbandry, and fisheries in the Niger Delta. In fact, the Ogoni live in such close relationship to their land that there is no distinction in the Ogoni language between the name for the people and the name for the land,2 as Saro-Wiwa was fond of pointing out.
Ogoni origins are contested, both with regard to the oral traditions and with regard to linguistic and archaeological evidence. Moreover, the different groups composing the Ogoni have historically acknowledged little mutual identity, despite common linguistic and cultural practices. Some scholars, such as the late linguist Kay Williamson, rely on oral traditions and linguistic analysis to suggest that the Ogoni migrated to their present location from the Kingdom of Ghana over one thousand years ago. Others cite a combination
