Ken saro-wiwa
Photograph of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1993
10/10/41 - 11/10/95
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a prominent writer, television producer, and activist in Nigeria who wrote a newspaper column and several books including children's books and two notable novels 'Songs in a Time of War' and 'Sozaboy'. He was a strong supporter of the Ogoni people's struggle against the oil industry in the Delta, particularly the oil company Shell. Saro-Wiwa was a major founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), however when the group split into violent and non-violent factions a MOSOP splinter group (unconnected to Saro-Wiwa) killed four people who were opposed to Saro-Wiwa's viewpoint he was accused,tried, and executed by the regime of General Sani Abacha. Saro-Wiwa's family filed a law suit against the Shell company which they accused of conspiring with the government to stage Saro-Wiwa's arrest and execution as well as to hurt the public image of MOSOP.
Ken Saro-Wiwa interview-
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a prominent writer, television producer, and activist in Nigeria who wrote a newspaper column and several books including children's books and two notable novels 'Songs in a Time of War' and 'Sozaboy'. He was a strong supporter of the Ogoni people's struggle against the oil industry in the Delta, particularly the oil company Shell. Saro-Wiwa was a major founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), however when the group split into violent and non-violent factions a MOSOP splinter group (unconnected to Saro-Wiwa) killed four people who were opposed to Saro-Wiwa's viewpoint he was accused,tried, and executed by the regime of General Sani Abacha. Saro-Wiwa's family filed a law suit against the Shell company which they accused of conspiring with the government to stage Saro-Wiwa's arrest and execution as well as to hurt the public image of MOSOP.
Ken Saro-Wiwa interview-
Quotes
"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.”
― Ken Saro-Wiwa
“In this country [England], writers write to entertain, they raise questions of individual existence...but for a Nigerian writer in my position you can't go into that. Literature has to be combative. You cannot have art for art's sake. This art must do something to transform the lives of a community, of a nation. And for that reason, literature has a different purpose altogether in that sort of society...The stories that I tell must have a different sort of purpose from the artist in the Western world...and art, in that instance, becomes so meaningful both to the artist and to the consumers of that art, because you do not just depend on them to read your books, you even have to live a life that they can emulate.”
― Ken Saro-Wiwa
― Ken Saro-Wiwa
“In this country [England], writers write to entertain, they raise questions of individual existence...but for a Nigerian writer in my position you can't go into that. Literature has to be combative. You cannot have art for art's sake. This art must do something to transform the lives of a community, of a nation. And for that reason, literature has a different purpose altogether in that sort of society...The stories that I tell must have a different sort of purpose from the artist in the Western world...and art, in that instance, becomes so meaningful both to the artist and to the consumers of that art, because you do not just depend on them to read your books, you even have to live a life that they can emulate.”
― Ken Saro-Wiwa