Kenule B. Saro-Wiwa (1941-1995). Nigeria.

The 54 year-old writer, English teacher, businessman and activist leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni Peoples was brutally hanged November 10, 1995 for his opposition to the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. This action, based on false murder charges, has brought Nigeria's military government international condemnation (led by Nelson Mandela) and threatened its membership in the British Commonwealth. The Port Harcourt cemetery in which he was buried under tight security was surrounded by soldiers and tanks to discourage protests.

He wrote a large number of plays and children's books, wrote and produced a popular television comedy series, and was awarded the Goldman Prize, among several other international environmental awards for his campaign opposing pollution related to oil production in his southern Niger Delta home area of Ogoniland. Shell has not produced oil there since 1993 due to civil unrest. He was a civilian Administrator of Bonny during the Civil War of 1967-70, and later was the youngest Nigerian (and first Ogoni) to hold a federal Cabinet position. (DR)

"No Nigerian has wielded a pen (or plied a typewriter) more effectively in recent years than Saro-Wiwa" (Claude Welch. 1995. Protecting Human Rights in Africa, p. 55)

Letter to Ogoni Youth. 1983. Port Harcourt, Nigeria: Saros International Publishers, 1989.
Songs in a Time of War. 1985. Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Ewell, England: Saros.
Sozaboy. 1985. Port Harcourt, Nigeria: Saros International Publishers.
A Forest of Flowers: Short Stories. 1986. Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Ewell, England: Saros.
Prisoners of Jebs. 1988. Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Ewell, England: Saros International.
Four Farcical Plays. 1989. London: Saros.
On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War. 1989.London: Saros International Publishers.
The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folk Tales. 1991. London: Saros.

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