Genocide in Nigeria

by Ken Saro-Wiwa

This collection of newspaper columns and articles mostly written in the 1970s and 1980s perhaps provides the best overview of Saro-Wiwa's political and environmental concerns. The articles document his concerns about the fate of the Ogoni people and their mistreatment by multinational oil companies and collaborating Nigerian government. Saro-Wiwa argues that the Ogoni are a minority in Nigeria, exploited by the ruling ethnic majority, and that the Federal Government of Nigeria was threatening the Ogoni with genocide. At the time, this was a key publication in bringing the Ogoni tragedy to the attention of the international community. Nowadays, it is of continual relevance to present day concerns about the actions of the oil companies, indigenous and environmental rights in the Delta region.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nigeria

104 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1992

About the author

Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping. Initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company.
He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.
At the peak of his non-violent campaign, Saro-Wiwa was arrested, hastily tried by a special military tribunal, and hanged in 1995 by the military government of General Sani Abacha, all on charges widely viewed as entirely politically motivated and completely unfounded. His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.

Reviews

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing this book has been one of the most painful experiences of my life. Ordinarily, writing a book is torture, a chore. But when, on every page, following upon every word, every letter, a tragedy leaps up before the eyes of a writer, he or she cannot derive that pleasure, that fulfillment in which the creative process often terminates.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, champion of the Ogoni people’s fight for autonomy, demands attention from the international community in his book Genocide in Nigeria. He claims that ‘Shell/BP’ and ‘Chevron’ have committed crimes on the lands of the Ogoni, which he bases on racism. Likewise, he claims that the (former) Federal Military Government of Nigeria committed atrocities on the Ogoni, which he bases on ethnocentrism. Reprinted letters back and forth between the Ogoni, the oil companies, local governments and the Federal Military Government are provided as evidence to help argue about the negligence of the Ogoni’s suffering.

What is lacking is a comprehensive introduction to the context of the situation. The presentation of these documents is not in itself sufficient evidence especially when Saro-Wiwa generalizes his arguments by providing an over-arching summary of why he is right, with little specific reference to the necessary points in the documents.

For example, he provides us with a document letter (Petition of Complaint on Shell/BP) from the Ogoni Divisional Committee to the Governor of the State, and he provides us with a response from Shell/BP, in which their response is well defended (and they explain their actions relatively well), but this is not adequately looked into by Saro-Wiwa. Shell/BP’s response is presented almost only to prove that he is making a transparent argument showing both angles. However, this is irrational when one angle is favored and analyzed extensively while the other is simply provided for the reader to derive his own interpretations. It is here, in providing the necessary background for the reader and in the lack of specificity of his arguments that Saro-Wiwa fails to convince me.

Saro-Wiwa quotes the United Nations definition of genocide as “the commission of acts with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” and attempts to use the provided documents and personal accounts recorded as cases of attempted genocide by the oil companies and the government. While there are many atrocities committed (if the account of the Ogoni are in fact accurate), the case for genocide on the grounds of ethnic destruction by the government and on the ground of racial destruction by the oil companies is not fully nor exhaustively developed, and I therefore considered it as a fragile argument.

I am supposed to accept the term genocide and its association as given from Saro-Wiwa’s personal and emotionally charged summaries. It is here that I felt the book to be more a plea for help, a shout-out if you will, to draw attention to the situation and the negligence of the international community. Having said this, it is only natural, human and, dare I say, a moral obligation for a person from the mistreated ethnic group whose lands have been plundered, desecrated and ecologically wiped out, to be driven by anger and to wave the hammer of justice. One cannot blame Saro-Wiwa’s lack of impartial tact to make his case. Or perhaps being of the Ogoni people himself and president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), he was simply too involved, too passionate and too moved to do anything but give a shout-out and wave his arms for our attention. On that basis, he definitely succeeded because later, and although not specifically concerning this text, he was arrested and hanged, more on that here under the heading ‘A Silenced Talent’.

Having grown up in Nigeria and lived there until I was 19, it should not come as a surprise that this is a country whose history, culture and literature both fascinates and captivates me. In some ways, it is more of a home to me than any other place because, fundamentally, home is where your deepest memories are formed, at least, for a borderless citizen of the world like myself, this is the closest definition of a home that I can think of.

So despite my apprehensions about Genocide in Nigeria, it is still an important piece of work of the author’s oeuvre and worth reading if you are interested in Nigerian history, politics involving oil companies or their desecration of the environment, or simply an admirer of the writing of Ken Saro-Wiwa.

[Inem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very important book and I empathize with where Ken Saro-Wiwa is coming from. A part of my family is from the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria and we are ethnic minorities though our exploitation within Nigeria is not as severe as that of the Ogonis. With that being said, I think that Ken Saro-Wiwa's analysis falls short of denouncing the capitalist system which leads his grievances to be misplaced. The struggle in Nigeria is not fundamentally and ethnic struggle but rather a class struggle and an anti-imperialist struggle at its core. Saro-Wiwa is convinced that Nigeria's oil wealth should belong primarily or fundamentally to the Ogoni who benefit from it the least. He goes as far as to lament, "The result is that whereas the Ogoni are out of school, in Borno State in the arid north, there is free education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels!" What we see is essentially those who are among the world's poorest people being pitted against one another in a competition for resources in an oil-rich country on the most resource-rich continent on the planet. The enemy of the Ogoni people are certainly not the regular people of Borno State, the "Hausa-Fulani oppressors" (unless of course he understands this as a class position of the ruling elite), or the ultra-poor Northern masses. I understand that the Ogoni are doing exceptionally badly but none of Nigeria's ethnic groups are doing THAT well. We have a shared enemy and that is imperialism and capitalism and if we tackled that shared enemy then we would see that ALL of Africa's wealth CAN belong to ALL of Africa's people in a just and humane way that benefits all Africans. There's another moment when he makes a very interesting statement, "This expropriation of the fundamental economic right of the ethnic groups which make up the Nigerian federation is peculiar to Nigeria. Only the Soviet Union under the Communists ever tried it. But then the Soviets assumed full responsibility for the education housing and medical needs of all citizens. The ethnic majority in Nigeria which passed this ridiculous law under the supervision of the military had no such lofty aim." This is super interesting to me because it suggests that Saro-Wiwa maybe can accept or at least imagine a context in which a state law stipulates that the wealth of one region of the country be used to uplift the majority of the nation including outside of that region. The flaw in Nigeria is therefore within the capitalist-imperialist system. If Nigeria's wealth was nationalized and then used to fund free universal education, hospitals and clinics in every village, necessary infrastructure across the country (or continent) etc. then there would be no issue with the expropriation of profits from the Delta because it would benefit all Nigerians in a just and humane way. Of course from an environmental and public health perspective we will have to take a more critical look at a petroleum-based economy in the long run as well.

[McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important text to read. It really shows how so many countries, organizations, and people refused to acknowledge the environmental and human rights crisis that took place in Nigeria. I am using the past tense because there is some work being done to rehabilitate the land the Ogonis live on. However, I don't know if the Nigerian government has improved or if there is still a huge issue of ethnocentricism still present in the heart of their government.

The only thing I wish Saro-Wiwa had included is references to where he got his information. I believe that most of the information was gained from lived experiences, but a citation or two would have been useful, especially for reading in an academic setting, which is why I am reading this text. Despite the lack of citations for some points, it does seem that Saro-Wiwa was telling the harsh realities of the Ogonis as he was executed under questionable rationale during the height of his fight to gain justice for the Ogonis. He spoke the truth that so many people blatantly ignored in favor of financial gain.

[Chris Hebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone who cares about environmental issues and minority rights.