The spirit of Ogoni lives on
2003-11-27 13:57
Bane, Nigeria - The Commonwealth leaders who are due to arrive in Abuja next week for a December 5-8 summit seem now to have forgiven Nigeria for the execution of minority rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
But eight years after his hanging caused the association to suspend Nigeria from its councils, the renowned writer is still a hero among his people, the impoverished Ogoni of the oil-rich Niger Delta.
At the entrance to his native village, the sleepy farming community of Bane, a banner greets visitors with the slogan: "Ken Saro-Wiwa, the man of the Millennium. Behold the spirit of Ogoni."
He was our soul and hero
"For us, he was our soul and hero. And he remains so," said 26-year-old Hosannah Bayo as she showed reporters the symbolic gravesite which has served as the executed activist's memorial since 1998.
Then, although the government had not released Saro-Wiwa's remains, the people of Bane held a burial ceremony and erected a sign declaring him "Gbenemene Suanu Pya Ogoni" or "the most knowledgeable among the Ogoni."
Saro-Wiwa and eight of his comrades in the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) were executed in 1995 by the military junta which in those days still ran Africa's most populous country.
They were accused of the murder of four Ogoni chieftains, but many observers believed that their true crime had been to vocally oppose the exploitation of Ogoni lands by foreign oil majors and the Nigerian regime.
The hanging took place on November 10, just as the leaders of the 54-nation Commonwealth were meeting in Auckland, New Zealand.
Nigeria was immediately suspended from the association of mainly former British colonies and other international sanctions followed, including an arms embargo, which lasted until the country's 1999 return to democracy.
Nigeria was readmitted to the Commonwealth and next week will receive the honour of hosting 52 world leaders and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
But in Bane the wounds have yet to heal. Many Ogoni, including Saro-Wiwa's elderly father, want the visiting heads of state to heed his people's plea for justice.
"I want the Commonwealth to release us from the slavery and bondage of the Nigerian government which draws our God-given oil and gives us nothing in return," said Pa Jim Wiwa, a wiry man in his nineties.
Ken was killed for nothing
"Ken was killed for nothing. He was not a violent man. They tortured my son from his arrest until 1995 when he was hanged," he said, sitting in the white-walled home, Bane's only two-storey building, where he lives alone.
"Jehovah, God in heaven, will help Ogoni people if the world does not. Ken has been likened to Jesus Christ who died to save the world. Ken died for the Ogoni people, to bring them out of bondage," he said.