Abstract
Ken Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer. In 1990 he abandoned literature and devoted himself to environmental and social causes. After commercial oil drilling had started in the Niger Delta in 1958, oil spills became everyday events, poisoning drinking water and making agriculture and fishing impossible. Supported by corrupt politicians, oil companies did nothing to reduce the harmful effects. Saro-Wiwa organised the peaceful resistance of the Ogoni people, an ethnic group inhabiting the Niger Delta. The military dictatorship arrested Saro-Wiwa, who was sentenced to death and executed in 1995.
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Notes
- 1.
Quoted in Mahapatra, D. C. (2004): Dalits in Third Millennium. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi, p. 35.
- 2.
Wiwa, K. (2015): Finally it seems as if Ken Saro-Wiwa, my father, may not have died in vain. The Guardian, November the 10th, 2015. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/10/ken-saro-wiwa-father-nigeria-ogoniland-oil-pollution
Worth Reading
Doron, R., & Falola, T. (2016). Ken Saro-Wiwa. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Saro-Wiwa, K. (1992). Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni tragedy. Port Harcourt: Saros International Publishers.
Worth Watching
Delta Force (1995)
Sweet Crude (2009)
Ken Saro-Wiwa: All for my People (2014)
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Erdős, L. (2019). Oil Is Blood – The Fight of Ken Saro-Wiwa. In: Green Heroes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31806-2_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31806-2_35
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