Letters from the Breadbasket: The Detention Correspondence of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Helen Fallon,Deputy Librarian, NUI Maynooth

Helen.b.fallon@nuim.ie

Background

• November 2011 – Donation of 28 letters and 27 poems written by

Ken Saro-Wiwa to the Library at NUI Maynooth• November 2013– Publication of “Silence Would be Treason: Last

Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa” edited by Íde Corley, Helen Fallon & Laurence Cox

– Launch of “Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive” produced by NUI Maynooth Library and Kairos Communications

Ken Saro-Wiwa

• leading Nigerian and African writer - novelist, playwright, non-fiction writer, children’s books and television writer

• Businessman• Major figure in Nigerian

politics; his support for the autonomy of the Ogoni people led to his removal from office in 1973

Founder of MOSOP

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)highlighted the issue of environmental survival in the face of massive oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta and the associated oil leaks, gas flaring and other environmental crises threatening livelihoods

Detention

• MOSOP challenged those who benefitted from the oil: the oil and gas multinationals and the Nigerian military government

• 1993 January - MOSOP mobilised 300,000 Ogoni people (60% of the total population) in a peaceful march

• Ogoni occupied by the Nigerian military; destruction of villages; an estimated 750 people killed and 30,000 left homeless

• 1994 May - Saro-Wiwa and 14 others placed in military detention

Destruction of Ogoni settlement, Port Harcourt

Ogoni Fishermen from Kaa fishing village survey broken canoes .

May 1994 - November 1995

• Detention• 28 letters to Sr. Majella McCarron

Clear and direct, these letters and poems are the last expression of a voice the

regime was determined to silence• Smuggled out in breadbaskets

Letters

• Mostly handwritten• Detention conditions• Family• MOSOP – leadership etc.• Sr. Majella’s work• His writing• Awards• The Trial

Shell Settlement

• 1995, November 10 - Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues executed

• 2009, June -Shell settled out of court for over $15 million with relatives of the “Ogoni Nine”

Spreading the Story

• “Silence Would be Treason: The Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa” - 2013

• Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive • Input to Module on the BA in Local Studies• Exhibitions for University Community, local

schools etc.• Guest lectures, presentations, posters

Deepening Understanding

• Annotated letters• Poems• Contextual essays• Foreword • Archival classification• Bibliography &

Resources list• Trócaire Funding• Bursary

Why?

• “Ogoni Story has to be told”• Has meaning for a wide audience and the

potential to foster greater understanding of complex issues– Researchers– Activists– Undergraduates – formal input to course; International

Human Rights Day Lecture – Public– University of Ibadan Radio, Newstalk 106, Drive Time

Deepening Understanding

• The Undergraduates – BA in Local Studies– Eton, media coverage, Shell, artefacts

• The Prison Warden– Story of events in the past; Audio Archive

• The Reading Group– The missionary and the environment

• The Transition Year Students– Artefacts

Deepening Understanding

• Sister Majella– Copyright

• Dr Owens Wiwa– NUI Maynooth, Special Collections

• The Library– legal issues

• The Family

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P69GEze5PU8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0