Kenule Beeson Tsaro-Wiwa was born in October 1941. He was popularly known as Ken Saro Wiwa, a human rights activist who died in 1995 fighting against the environmental degradation and the survival of the Ogoni people.
Ken was the eldest son of a prominent family in Ogoni. He was an exceptional student and his interest spanned across the arts.
As an author, some of his popular works included the Sozaboy: A Novel In Rotten English; On a Darkling Plain, his documentation on the Civil war and Africa Kills Her Sun, a prediction of his own death. He also produced two of Nigeria’s best television series, Basi & Company as well as Transistor Radio.
On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his comrades (the "Ogoni Nine") were executed by hanging after being found guilty of murder by a specially arranged military tribunal. He was accused of allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of four Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting, and hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. These allegations were spurious at best.
His only 'crime' was devoting most of his time to human rights and environmental causes, particularly in Ogoniland. He was one of the earliest members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which advocated for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In particular, MOSOP struggled against the degradation of Ogoni lands by Royal Dutch Shell.
In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people – more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni urban centres, drawing international attention to their people's plight. The same year the Nigerian government occupied the region militarily.
On 21 May 1994, four Ogoni chiefs were brutally murdered. Saro-Wiwa had been denied entry to Ogoniland on the day of the murders, but he was arrested and accused of incitement to them. He denied the charges but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The same happened to eight other MOSOP leaders who, along with Saro-Wiwa, became known as the Ogoni Nine.
The Ogoni Nine includes author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine.
On 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni Nine were taken from the army base where they were being held to a prison in Port Harcourt and executed by hanging by a team of executioners flown in from Sokoto. They were executed one by one, with Saro-Wiwa being the first. It took five tries to execute Saro-Wiwa.
His last words were "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues."
After his death, the Commonwealth of Nations suspended Nigeria for three years.
