Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941-10 November 1995) was a Nigerian writer and Ogoni rights activist. He became a prominent opposition leader during the 1990s, founding the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to advocate for environmental rights. On 10 November 1995, he was hanged by Sani Abacha's dictatorship.
Biography[]
Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was born in Bori, Nigeria on 10 October 1941, and he became a literature lecturer. He was a lecturer at the time of the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, and he became Civilian Administrator of the Port of Bonny, as well as a supporter of the federalist cause. During the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote about environmentalism and satire, and he became a well-known government critic. In 1990, he founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and became its president, fighting against the environmental degredation of the land and waters of Ogoniland, especially by the Royal Dutch Shell oil company. In 1994, he received the Right Livelihood Award for his work with environmentalism, but many human rights organizations feared for his safety, as he was a sharp critic of Sani Abacha's dictatorship. In 1995, Saro-Wiwa was accused of orchestrating the gruesome murders of four conservative Ogoni chiefs on 21 May 1994, and Saro-Wiwa and eight others were hanged on 10 November 1995. His death provoked international outrage, and Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth for over three years.