Lecturer, Administrator, Novelist/Poet, Politician, Entrepreneur, Activist
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was a renowned novelist and television producer during the late 1970s to the 1990s. He was martyred due to his human rights and environmental activism.
Synopsis
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995), widely known as Ken Saro-Wiwa, hailed from Bori town in Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State. From the late 1960s to the 1980s, he had a varied career as a poet, administrator, novelist, and television producer (notably for Basi and Company). In the 1990s, he became an ardent activist for the rights of the Ogoni people and an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government’s oil policies, particularly its relationship with Royal Dutch Shell. At the peak of his non-violent campaign, Saro-Wiwa was arrested, tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of several Ogoni elites at a pro-government meeting, and was subsequently found guilty and executed at the age of 54.
His Early Life and Education
Ken Saro-Wiwa was born in Bori town, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, Niger Delta, on 10 October 1941, to Chief Jim Wiwa and Mrs. Widu. His father was a forest guard and a polygamist, while his mother, the third wife of Jim Wiwa, was a farmer and trader. Ken Saro-Wiwa was raised in the Anglican faith. In the mid-1940s, he began his primary education at Native Authority School in Bori town, Southern Nigeria. He later attended Government College, Umuahia, for his secondary education in the 1950s. Ken Saro-Wiwa was considered an intelligent and exceptional student. In 1961, he received a scholarship to study English at the prestigious University of Ibadan and graduated in 1965 with a B.A. in English.
His Wife and Children
In 1967, Ken Saro-Wiwa married Nene Saro-Wiwa, and they had five children together: Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. (born 1968), a journalist in the United Kingdom and former presidential aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, who sadly passed away on 18 October 2016 at the age of 47; Gian, Tedum, Noo, and Nina, who all live in the United Kingdom with their mother. It was also reported that Ken Saro-Wiwa had three other children (two girls and a boy) with another woman before his death.
His Career Life
After graduating in 1965, Ken Saro-Wiwa briefly lectured at the University of Lagos. He later became a lecturer in African literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, until the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967. Ken Saro-Wiwa supported the Federal Government of Nigeria against the Biafran state, and in return, Major-General Yakubu Gowon, then Head of State, appointed him Administrator of Bonny (an oil-rich island in the Niger Delta). When Navy Lieutenant Commander Diete Spiff’s government was established in Rivers State, Saro-Wiwa was appointed Commissioner for Education from 1970 to 1973. From the late 1970s until his death, he became a successful business mogul, with elegant properties in Port Harcourt and beyond, and he opened stores and trading posts. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a man of means throughout his lifetime.
Basi and Company
From 1986 to 1990, Ken Saro-Wiwa ventured into television production. He created the hilarious Basi and Company (widely known as Mr. B), which was broadcast on all NTA stations nationwide and gained him widespread fame. The sitcom featured Albert Egbe (1985-1987) and Zulu Adigwe (1988-1990) as Mr. B, Aso Ikpo-Douglas as Madam, Tekena Harry-McDonald as Alali, Lasa Amoro as Dandy, Emmanuel Okutuate as Josco, and Timi Zuofa, Affiong Usani, Ethel Ekpe, and Mildred Iweka as Segi. The show was watched by over 20 million viewers at its peak.
His Novels and Poems
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a prolific novelist and poet from 1973 to 1996. His literary works gained him national and international acclaim. Some of his published books include Tambari, Songs in a Time of War, Sozaboy, Mr. B Port Harcourt, Basi and Company, Prisoner of Jebs, Adaku and Other Stories, Four Farcical Plays, On a Darkling Plain, Mr. B is Dead, Genocide in Nigeria, The Forest of Flowers, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary, and Lemona’s Tale.
Politics and Activism
Ken Saro-Wiwa entered politics and contested the Constituent Assembly in 1978 to represent Ogoni but narrowly lost to his friend Edward Kobani. From 1987 to 1995, he was an active member of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a non-violent political group advocating for the rights of the Ogoni people. MOSOP demanded a fair share of the proceeds from oil and gas extraction and opposed the degradation of Ogoni land and environment by Royal Dutch Shell. During this period, MOSOP, and Ken Saro-Wiwa’s efforts, caught the attention of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), which made him Vice Chair. MOSOP’s activism angered the Nigerian military junta.
His Arrest and Trial
Ken Saro-Wiwa was arrested multiple times before his death. He was first arrested and imprisoned without trial in 1992, but was later released. He was arrested again in June 1993 and detained for a month. On 21 May 1994, he was arrested along with eight of his associates for the alleged murder of four prominent Ogoni Chiefs. The military government under General Sani Abacha set up a military tribunal to try Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues. The trial, headed by Justice Auta and led by prosecuting lawyer Joseph Dauda (SAN), lasted for seventeen months. On 31 October 1995, they were sentenced to death.
Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Death
On Thursday, 9 November 1995, special executioners from Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria, were flown to Port Harcourt to execute the Ogoni Nine. On Friday, 10 November 1995, at around 5 a.m., Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues were taken from Bori Camp to Port Harcourt Prison. The execution began, and Ken Saro-Wiwa was the first to be hanged. However, the execution failed, and several attempts were made before the hangmen gave up and executed the other eight. Ken Saro-Wiwa, witnessing his colleagues’ deaths, uttered his last words: “Lord, take my soul, but the struggle continues.” He then succumbed to the will of the executioners. Heavy rain fell across Port Harcourt shortly thereafter, and the bodies of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues were escorted under armed guard to the Port Harcourt cemetery for burial.
Saro-Wiwa Quotes
- “I am a man of ideas in and out of prison – my ideas will live.”
- “Lord, take my soul, but the struggle continues.”
- “The men we are dealing with are mindless, Stone Age dictators addicted to blood.”
- “In Nigeria, the only wrongdoers are those who do no wrong; to live a day in Nigeria is to die many times.”
- “Shell and the Nigerian military dictatorship are violent institutions, as the Ogoni planned peace and dialogue, Shell and the Nigerian military plotted death and destruction.”
Posthumous
On 8 June 1998, General Sani Abacha died mysteriously in Aso Rock, Abuja. In June 2009, Shell agreed to pay $15.5 million to the relatives of the Ogoni Nine. The Governor of Rivers State also honored Ken Saro-Wiwa by renaming the Rivers State Polytechnic in Bori as Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic.
Ken Saro-Wiwa remains one of the most prominent activists the Niger Delta has ever produced. He was martyred for his ideas and courage. To learn more about him, read posts on www.timelessperson.com or ask those familiar with his life.
