In “A Month and a Day,” Ken Saro-Wiwa discusses how Shell International and other oil companies are depriving the Ogoni people of farmland and causing environmental degradation without and giving a thought or a care about the well-being or cultural effect on the Ogoni people. Ken Saro-Wiwa says, “It is well known that a boil on one’s nose is more painful to the afflicted than an earthquake which happens thousands of miles away killing thousands of people. I am inclined to think that this is why the Ogoni environment must matter more to me than Shell International ensconced in its ornate offices on the banks of the Thomas in London” (111). Before reading this book, I was unaware of the war using environmental degradation as a lethal weapon against the Ogoni people. What other indigenous people (or any people) have suffered (or are suffering) from the environmental degradation and resource use of large corporations? And what can I, as an individual, do to mitigate or stop it?
Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of human qualities (Dictionary). In “A Month and a Day & Letters”, I recorded Ken Saro- Wiwa using the word “dehumanization” seven times and also using phrases like, “… could now live somewhat like human beings. (37)” to describe what was being done to the Ogani people by the oil companies and the government. The word dehumanization stuck out to me because if the oil companies dehumanize not just the Ogani people but other groups also, does that not sound like it would be okay that they don’t have human rights? The oil companies are not affecting humans but uneducated and uncivilized beings. Ken Saro-Wiwa puts the blame for the Ogani peoples situation on the “Nigerian domestic colonialism” that denies rights to the people by keeping them poor, uneducated, and “characterizing them as meek, obscure and foolish. (50)” Due to the oppression of the Ogani people, Ken Saro-Wiwa starts a nonviolent movement that empowers the Ogani people to stand up and speak out. On November 10th 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other people were executed. The fight for the Ogani people was extremely recent and as of 1944, the Ogani people did not recieve the rights they were fighting for. As Saro-Wiwa ends his book, he says, “Notice had been given that on 15 July 132 men, women and children… had been waylaid on the Andoni River by an armed gang and cruelly murdered, leaving but two women to make a report. The genocide of the Ogani had taken on a new dimension. The manner of it I will narrate in my next book, if I live to tell the tale. (171) ” Unfortunately with his execution, we do not get to know what the status of the Ogani popele are. Have the Ogani people and other small groups become extinct? Are they still classified as slaves? Is their language and culture also extinct?
“The fact that the victims of this injustice were too timid or ignorant to cry out against it was painful in the extreme. It was unacceptable. It had to be corrected at no matter what cost. To die fighting to right the wrong would be the greatest gift of life!” (17) Already, we can see the purpose that drives Saro-Wiwa and what he is willing to give up in order to free his Ogoni brethren from their “enslavement” (18). Is their something in your life that you would die for in order to protect or an injustice that you feel so strongly about that you would give up your life in order to correct, and how do you decide the price you are willing to pay?
Why do we as a society sit idly while injustices happen, not just to others, but to ourselves? What will be the breaking point be?
a common theme between the readings is one that discprabes the systematic oppression of people for the profit of the oil companies and how politicans are corrupted and bought out and allow the, mostly forgien companies the ablity to explote and destroy the environment, as well as athe lives of thousands and thousands of people. The Practices have historical bases as forgien, mostly European nations have a long history of exploting African people and the environment for the extraction of its resources, what is happening there now is just a modern form of neocolonialism. One Question would be is why does the world sit silent and give more outrage to single events to the shooting of one lion, then the decimation of an entire species, ecological destruction, exploitation, and violence against African people?
Ken Saro – Wiwa introduces the audience to his narrative by verbally illustrating a personal account of the time he was arrested for a month and a day for actions against the State. All the while Wiwa, being held captive for unjustifiable reasons, was fighting to defend the Ogoni people and their right to regional autonomy. With the guidance of Saro-Wiwa, Ogoni officials composed the Ogoni Bill of Rights to demand justice for their people and the ceasing of the destruction of Ogoni land. What do you think the governmentally overlooked Bill of Rights is missing? What do you think could be changed or reworded to benefit more Ogoni? Why does this Ogoni Bill of Rights differ so much from the one known to stand in America?
In Chapter Four of “A Month and a Day and Letters” (page 42) Ken Saro-Wiwa writes about how his opes about protection of the Ogoni people were “pious”. His reasoning for this was because the Nigerian constitution “left the ethnic minorities totally unprotected in terms of their economic resources and their culture.” He mentions that the ethnic minorities are the ones who are providing the most mineral resources, but they are a minority in parliament.
How does this parallel to situations in the United States and the protections that we put within our constitution. Do you see a similar situation of majority resources but minority in congress taking place? What could potentially be done in order to change this? How have “ethnic people” had to work to have their voices heard, both as outlined by Ken Saro-Wiwa and what we have experienced in the United States?
On page 17, Saro-Wiwa discusses the interstate highway that was built for the transportation of the oil. “The injustice of it cries out to the heavens. The fact that the victims of this injustice were too timid or ignorant to cry out against it was painful in the extreme”(17). The native people of Nigeria were forced off land from the ecological damage of oil wells and interstate highways. On top of that the native people were once to timid to protest against the use of their native land for oil production.
How did we become so caught up in capital gains that we are willing to undermine native lands and take control of it as it was our own? How similar is this in the relationship between the United States Dakota Access pipeline and the people of Standing Rock Sioux reservation?
On pp. 43, Ken Saro-Wiwa writes: “A civil war in a country with as many ethnic groups, religious sects, social classes and conflicts as Nigeria has serious repercussions for individuals, families and communities.” Indeed, Saro-Wiwa ended up paying the ultimate price for speaking out against the injustices committed against the Ogoni. Nigeria has a complex history of conflict. One of the most haunting books I’ve ever read is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ which was a historical fiction account of the Biafra separatist movement and civil war in Nigeria in the late 60’s. The Nigerian civil war was a result of years of ethnic tensions between the Igbo people and the federal government, which was mostly made up of Northern ethnic groups like the Hausa and Yoruba. These ethnic groups (of which there are hundreds), and all of their tensions, were artificially combined into the British protectorate of Nigeria during the second wave of colonialism. For this reason, it seems like Nigeria has been troubled by these tensions from the beginning.
Can we think of any such parallels elsewhere? Should the Nigerian state be dissolved into smaller states that can better represent local interests?
On page 50, the book talks about how colonialism was very unequal, cruel, unfeeling and monstrous and how it viewed the people of Nigeria as meek and foolish. Ken Saro-Wiwa brought up the point that Nigeria was a very orderly society before colonialism and that, had they been treated as equals, they would have been a really great and advanced society. However, the administrative society that was forced upon them in colonialism believed it was a “one size fits all” type of administration. This idea ended up with setting Nigeria society backwards. Where else is this idea happening in the world today and why does this happen? Does this happen because of developers’ are laziness or arrogance?
When Ken Saro-Wiwa is describing the first police station visit of the book he comments that “Injustice stalks the land like a tiger on the prowl. To be at the mercy of buffoons is the ultimate insult. To find the instruments of state power reducing you to dust is the injury” (8). This passage seems to indicate the injustice he feels is being done is evident, not just policy that enslaves the Ogoni, but rather is even evident in the meaningless prance that the officials seem to be doing at the beginning of the book to try and make something stick. It also seems that even then, at the start Saro-Wiwa had already decided he would do something about this tiger, even if that something was dying to protect others from it.
Aurora asked- Is their something in your life that you would die for in order to protect or an injustice that you feel so strongly about that you would give up your life in order to correct, and how do you decide the price you are willing to pay? Why do we as a society sit idly while injustices happen, not just to others, but to ourselves? What will be the breaking point be? I do not have an answer to these questions, one cannot possibly know what they are willing to give up until the choice is half made, until they are already on the path to giving that something up.
I do have a follow up question though, How can we let such injustices occur? That people feel it necessary and appropriate to give up their lives to fight a wrong, and we do nothing? How do we let it get to that point?
Ken Saro-Wiwa writes his book “A Month and a Day” about his persecution for fighting to preserve the Ogani people’s homeland in Nigeria. One major aspect of Nigerian culture is the influence of many tribes and diverse backgrounds. Saro-Wiwa discusses this in Chapter 4 of his book as he writes, “The ethnic nature of Nigerian society is a real one. It cannot be prayed or wished away and those who try to do so, at least in public,only have to turn to the example of the Soviet Union” (Saro-Wiwa 44). This quote evokes the comparison of the various cultures in Nigeria much in the same way the Soviet Union consisted of many differing people and cultures within its far grasping reach. One question that must be considered when interpreting these cutures in Nigeria are their relative populations and the ways they are disproportionately affected by negative aspects of production. This is exemplified by Shell’s exploitation of Ogani lands. They were able to more easily acquire the drilling rights in Ogani land due to the small population making up less than one percent of the overall population of Nigeria. This raises the question: What emphasis should be placed on the governments of these countries to ensure that all cultures are treated equally and environmental justice is maintained? Moreover, why is there a tendency to disproportionately place detrimental equipment and conduct dangerous processes in areas that the minority ethnicity exist, not only within Nigerian society but in American and global societies as well.
As Ken-Saro Wiwa was moved from prison to prison, he experienced a forced, first hand experience of the state’s infrastructure and it’s intentions on maintaining the status quo. He said what bothered him most during the drives between prisons was the state of the road. Not “the state of the road itself, but the fact that in this rich, oil-bearing area, that the roads should be so rickety, while in the north of Nigeria, in that arid part of the county, there were wide expressways constructed at great cost with the petrodollars which the delta belched forth” (17).
This observation by Wiwa shows his fight was not to eliminate extractivism completely. He was the reality of the situation, and that human lives are interdependent upon unfortunate systems such as these. However, Wiwa saw it unacceptable that communities in the areas in which extractivism was taking place received little to no financial retributions for their sacrifices.
This reminded me of Carson’s view that there may be times, in unique circumstances, when chemicals of sorts should be used in agriculture or environmental maintenance, however the use should be extremely regulated. Both of these approaches seem to embody elements of the middle way, which Schumacher discussed in “Small in Beautiful.” My question is, does it seem like Wiwa’s (and Carson’s) argument(s) are stronger because they accept geopolitical and social realities that require the very industries which they are fighting?
Ken Saro-Wiwa points out that the Ogoni people were entitled to 50% of the revenue generated by the sale of oil extracted from Ogoni land. This entitlement comes from the constitution of Nigeria. Ken Saro-Wiwa also says that the Ogoni people received nothing in exchange for their oil besides oppression and destruction of their homeland. The Ogoni people are outraged by this, and rightfully so, they deserve fair payment for what is theirs. However, would it have truly benefited the Ogoni people to make profit from their oil reserves? If they received large sums of money from the oil companies, what would they have done with it? Would they have allowed for more oil wells? Destroyed their homeland even more? Given their new found wealth would they have stayed in Ogoni or moved elsewhere? Would their heritage and cultural traditions have survived? Oppression of anyone is wrong and should never be allowed. However, perhaps this oppression has united the Ogoni people in a way the money cannot. I’m sure their outrage is due more to the disrespect they are shown and the hardships they have endured than to the lack of payment from the oil companies. But perhaps future generations of Ogoni will now be able to look back with pride knowing their ancestors were a strong and united community. That even though the Ogoni have lost many things, they did not lose themselves.
While I found Saro-Wiwa’s description of his arrest and journey from and then back to Port Harcourt especially powerful and fascinating, I kept returning to something he wrote in the preface: “I should add that I have used the term ‘Ogoni’ in preference to ‘Ogoniland’, which is fast becoming current; this is because to the Ogoni, the land and the people are one and are expressed as such in our local languages. It emphasizes, to my mind, the close relationship between the Ogoni people and their environment” (3). In many ways, the story of progress we have been told (and continue to tell ourselves) fundamentally relies on separation of man from nature. This is, of course, vehemently rejected in many cultures. Saro-Wiwa’s clarification seems so vital to his story and the story of the Ogoni people. Can this story also be read as a call to take indigenous ontologies seriously and begin reckon with truths outside the realm of Science? Is the nature/culture dichotomy the sole force behind environmental injustice? In what ways does the “recolonization” by global capital fit into this equation? Can it be understood as a product of this dichotomy as well?
One of the most interesting excerpts by Ken Saro-Wiwa for me actually came before even getting into the formal chapters. In the preface, on page 3, Ken speaks about how he refers to the Ogoni, of which the center of his fight revolves.
“I should add that I have used the term ‘Ogoni’ in preference to ‘Ogoniland,’ which is fast becoming current; this is because to the Ogoni, the land and the people are one and are expressed as such in our local languages. It emphasizes, to my mind, the close relationship between the Ogoni people and their environment.”
This idea really stood out to me because it is, of course, heartening, to hear of such a concept being instinctual to human beings and then recognized throughout society as such. But it further probed me to thinking of the culture through which this narrative is written. If local languages do not discern differently humans from their environment, then that obviously means their futures are one. This is so different from the US, where I don’t know if we have any terms that adequately combine humans to the environment; we are always separating- keeping humans differentiated from “their resources.” I guess that leads to a more anthropological question in: how does language develop differently through different ways of life? Could such a word EVER exist in a land which has never regarded the environment as anything more than something to be used as an end to our consumption?
It then brought me to think of the evil in this narrative. Throughout the first few chapters Ken Saro-Wiwa speaks about the police force as corrupt and of Nigeria as absurdly divided between the rich and the poor. But I can’t stop thinking, where is the greed that drives the devastation to the Ogoni people REALLY coming from? I go back to that quote concerning the Ogoni, and I think, where is this separation between nature and humans most intense- if most of Nigerian local languages have a word for these two systems as one union, then it did not come from inside. So who is really to blame? Who are the ones calling for the oil? Is one more to blame for forcing their society on another through the tools of money and greed, or is one more to blame for abandoning their native way of doing things? Are the police really to blame for being corrupt when the US is putting this money (this money that puts a further separation between “the Ogoni people” and “Ogoniland”) directly into their hands and ordering the undoing of a culture and language that has lived among Nigeria for hundreds of years prior?
On page 12 Ken-Saro Wiwa discusses the background/upbringing of his brother who is a medical doctor. His brother Owens attended University, and even found himself working for the Rivers State Ministry of Health in Nigeria. This example speaks volumes about the nature of oppression of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. His brother seemingly followed the systemic route to becoming a contributing member of society by obtaining higher education and becoming a doctor. However, he and his family were still forced to fight for their right to good health and their right to self determination. Do these continued areas of conflict date all the way back to the way the Berlin conference? If so, how do we step back and recognize where we went wrong? What can we do differently to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard in the future?
On page 28, Ken Saro-Wiwa discusses how eating the most wretched meal feels like a feast, and he states that this is part of the Nigerian security systems “dehumanization process.” Throughout the whole account, it seems like we are following along through a dehumanization process that happens both in small ways (through not being fed much or well) and large ways (the beatings in the guardroom). In what was does dehumanization affect the massive whole of a society? How are these similar to ways of police brutality and experiences in the United States, and how to they differ? Is dehumanization ever okay, or does it dismantle the sustainability of a society?
I notice a lot of parallels between Native Americans in the midwest of the United States and the tribes of Nigeria, especially the Ogoni tribe. Both groups were pushed into one small piece of land and have been oppressed for centuries and now are being abused through environmental damage. Ken Saro-Wiwa writes, “30 states have been created largely for the ethnic majorities who rule the country. Most of the states so created are unviable and depend entirely on Ogoni resources for their survival… The Ogoni have been corralled into a multi-ethnic administrative state in which they remain a minority… In spite of the enormous wealth of their land the Ogoni people continue to live in primitive conditions in the absence of electricity, pipe-borne warter, hospitals, housing and schools” (67). It is interesting to notice the connections between Native Americans in the Dakotas and the Ogoni all fighting for resource autonomy. There is a great contrast between their histories in that Native Americans now live under a white colonist government while most Europeans left Nigeria at the end of the age of Imperialism. Nonetheless, both groups are marginalized under their governments.
The Sioux fighting the Keystone Pipeline and the Ogoni have both been unsuccessful in their fights for environmental justice due to their lack of clout in the federal government. In class we discussed the utilization of words like war and crimes against humanity to make environmental injustices more serious to the rest of the world. What else might it require for marginalized ethnic groups to be recognized and successful in their fights for land autonomy and environmental justice?
In Ken Sari Wiwa’s book A Month and a Day he demonstrates passionate forms of non-violent activism that seems to have been affective on some accounts. He was arrested many times and eventually executed.
In the film we watched today, we see a different approach. We see forms of activism in Nigeria that are quite violent.
Which of these tactics do you believe is more affective in this scenario? What about in general? One could argue that from a utilitarian point of view, violence might be successful (i.e. vigilanties). Potentially it’s more successful. However, it could also create tension, be taken out of control, and have negative environmental impacts. Is violence ever justified? If so, then when, why, and how does it become justified?
In my interpretation, the Ogoni Bill of Rights, in addition to requesting political autonomy, is also asking for basic recognition of their culture, religion, etc. – essentially asking the Nigerian Gov’t to be recognized as their own people. When an indigenous or minority group, such as this, feels as if they must ask a higher authority for basic recognition, is that a reinforcement of colonialist relationship/ideals in a way? Are similar colonial relationships being reproduced between the Ogoni people and the current Nigerian government? Why or why not?
On page 51 of “A Month and a Day and Letters,” Ken Saro-Wiwa describes the loss of Ogoni culture caused by government oppression and environmental degradation. He explains that Ogoni “languages are dying, our culture is disappearing… the fact that we are buying food today is an absolute disgrace… and all this is happening to a people whose home is one of the richest in Africa (51). This last statement is what resonated with me most greatly. Too often is this resource curse the case: that a nation discovers vast natural resources on its land and through unfair development agreements, particularly from previously industrialized nations, the country’s people are duped out of their fair share. Oftentimes, they’re left in even worse conditions, as is the case in Ogoni where “lands, streams and creeks are continually polluted” (66).
My question is would Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni be content had the oil corporations awarded royalties from the beginning, while continuing to pollute? Are there other cases where a poor country discovered natural resources and made fair arrangements with industrialized countries to extract it, which lead to just treatment and compensation to indigenous groups on site? I know this seems opposite of what we learn in most SD classes but I would love to hear of such a case.
A lot of these question have been addressing aspects of Sero-Wiwa where he talks about loss of culture or dehumanization of these peoples. What in turn do you think he would say about those cultures in which their may possibly be aspects of dehumanization? Where does culture fall on the list of priorities of protection?
On page 55 Ken Saro-Wiwa speaks about writers, “Literature must serve society by steeping itself in politics, by intervention, and writers must not merely write to amuse or to take a bemused, critical look at society”. From Ken Saro-Wiwa to Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, it is proven that writers have the power to change their surroundings. Is it a writer’s duty to bring about political issues in ones writing? I think it is if the writer is qualified and understands all aspects of the issue at hand. Ken Saro-Wiwa and Rachel Carson were brave enough to go against their governments in order to bring justice and information to their people.
Ken Saro-Wiwa shares an excerpt from a pamphlet titled “The Ogoni Nationality Today and Tomorrow” which shares his past vision for the future of Ogoni. In regards to the aftermath of the civil war, Saro-Wiwa says, “We must each of us immediately resolve not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We have now been given the opportunity to reassert ourselves side by side with other nationalities in the Nigerian federation” (40). I found the entire passage to be inspiring and encouraging which is why I thought he had included it. However, the passage was followed by, “Looking back on these words now, I realise how pious my hopes were, and how much they failed” (42). This realization of his brought me back to the question of hope. I have heard many different opinions on the idea of hope and if its a good or a bad thing within a movement. Some have said that it is necessary to inspire people to keep trying. However, others have said that they believe it gives people an excuse to rely on something that is unable to be determined and if something little goes wrong early on, people tend to lose hope and inspiration really fast. Do you see hope to be important within a movement? Is hope more related to expectation or faith?
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
In “A Month and a Day,” Ken Saro-Wiwa discusses how Shell International and other oil companies are depriving the Ogoni people of farmland and causing environmental degradation without and giving a thought or a care about the well-being or cultural effect on the Ogoni people. Ken Saro-Wiwa says, “It is well known that a boil on one’s nose is more painful to the afflicted than an earthquake which happens thousands of miles away killing thousands of people. I am inclined to think that this is why the Ogoni environment must matter more to me than Shell International ensconced in its ornate offices on the banks of the Thomas in London” (111). Before reading this book, I was unaware of the war using environmental degradation as a lethal weapon against the Ogoni people. What other indigenous people (or any people) have suffered (or are suffering) from the environmental degradation and resource use of large corporations? And what can I, as an individual, do to mitigate or stop it?
Dehumanization is the process of depriving a person or group of human qualities (Dictionary). In “A Month and a Day & Letters”, I recorded Ken Saro- Wiwa using the word “dehumanization” seven times and also using phrases like, “… could now live somewhat like human beings. (37)” to describe what was being done to the Ogani people by the oil companies and the government. The word dehumanization stuck out to me because if the oil companies dehumanize not just the Ogani people but other groups also, does that not sound like it would be okay that they don’t have human rights? The oil companies are not affecting humans but uneducated and uncivilized beings. Ken Saro-Wiwa puts the blame for the Ogani peoples situation on the “Nigerian domestic colonialism” that denies rights to the people by keeping them poor, uneducated, and “characterizing them as meek, obscure and foolish. (50)” Due to the oppression of the Ogani people, Ken Saro-Wiwa starts a nonviolent movement that empowers the Ogani people to stand up and speak out. On November 10th 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other people were executed. The fight for the Ogani people was extremely recent and as of 1944, the Ogani people did not recieve the rights they were fighting for. As Saro-Wiwa ends his book, he says, “Notice had been given that on 15 July 132 men, women and children… had been waylaid on the Andoni River by an armed gang and cruelly murdered, leaving but two women to make a report. The genocide of the Ogani had taken on a new dimension. The manner of it I will narrate in my next book, if I live to tell the tale. (171) ” Unfortunately with his execution, we do not get to know what the status of the Ogani popele are. Have the Ogani people and other small groups become extinct? Are they still classified as slaves? Is their language and culture also extinct?
“The fact that the victims of this injustice were too timid or ignorant to cry out against it was painful in the extreme. It was unacceptable. It had to be corrected at no matter what cost. To die fighting to right the wrong would be the greatest gift of life!” (17) Already, we can see the purpose that drives Saro-Wiwa and what he is willing to give up in order to free his Ogoni brethren from their “enslavement” (18). Is their something in your life that you would die for in order to protect or an injustice that you feel so strongly about that you would give up your life in order to correct, and how do you decide the price you are willing to pay?
Why do we as a society sit idly while injustices happen, not just to others, but to ourselves? What will be the breaking point be?
a common theme between the readings is one that discprabes the systematic oppression of people for the profit of the oil companies and how politicans are corrupted and bought out and allow the, mostly forgien companies the ablity to explote and destroy the environment, as well as athe lives of thousands and thousands of people. The Practices have historical bases as forgien, mostly European nations have a long history of exploting African people and the environment for the extraction of its resources, what is happening there now is just a modern form of neocolonialism. One Question would be is why does the world sit silent and give more outrage to single events to the shooting of one lion, then the decimation of an entire species, ecological destruction, exploitation, and violence against African people?
Ken Saro – Wiwa introduces the audience to his narrative by verbally illustrating a personal account of the time he was arrested for a month and a day for actions against the State. All the while Wiwa, being held captive for unjustifiable reasons, was fighting to defend the Ogoni people and their right to regional autonomy. With the guidance of Saro-Wiwa, Ogoni officials composed the Ogoni Bill of Rights to demand justice for their people and the ceasing of the destruction of Ogoni land. What do you think the governmentally overlooked Bill of Rights is missing? What do you think could be changed or reworded to benefit more Ogoni? Why does this Ogoni Bill of Rights differ so much from the one known to stand in America?
In Chapter Four of “A Month and a Day and Letters” (page 42) Ken Saro-Wiwa writes about how his opes about protection of the Ogoni people were “pious”. His reasoning for this was because the Nigerian constitution “left the ethnic minorities totally unprotected in terms of their economic resources and their culture.” He mentions that the ethnic minorities are the ones who are providing the most mineral resources, but they are a minority in parliament.
How does this parallel to situations in the United States and the protections that we put within our constitution. Do you see a similar situation of majority resources but minority in congress taking place? What could potentially be done in order to change this? How have “ethnic people” had to work to have their voices heard, both as outlined by Ken Saro-Wiwa and what we have experienced in the United States?
On page 17, Saro-Wiwa discusses the interstate highway that was built for the transportation of the oil. “The injustice of it cries out to the heavens. The fact that the victims of this injustice were too timid or ignorant to cry out against it was painful in the extreme”(17). The native people of Nigeria were forced off land from the ecological damage of oil wells and interstate highways. On top of that the native people were once to timid to protest against the use of their native land for oil production.
How did we become so caught up in capital gains that we are willing to undermine native lands and take control of it as it was our own? How similar is this in the relationship between the United States Dakota Access pipeline and the people of Standing Rock Sioux reservation?
On pp. 43, Ken Saro-Wiwa writes: “A civil war in a country with as many ethnic groups, religious sects, social classes and conflicts as Nigeria has serious repercussions for individuals, families and communities.” Indeed, Saro-Wiwa ended up paying the ultimate price for speaking out against the injustices committed against the Ogoni. Nigeria has a complex history of conflict. One of the most haunting books I’ve ever read is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘Half of a Yellow Sun,’ which was a historical fiction account of the Biafra separatist movement and civil war in Nigeria in the late 60’s. The Nigerian civil war was a result of years of ethnic tensions between the Igbo people and the federal government, which was mostly made up of Northern ethnic groups like the Hausa and Yoruba. These ethnic groups (of which there are hundreds), and all of their tensions, were artificially combined into the British protectorate of Nigeria during the second wave of colonialism. For this reason, it seems like Nigeria has been troubled by these tensions from the beginning.
Can we think of any such parallels elsewhere? Should the Nigerian state be dissolved into smaller states that can better represent local interests?
On page 50, the book talks about how colonialism was very unequal, cruel, unfeeling and monstrous and how it viewed the people of Nigeria as meek and foolish. Ken Saro-Wiwa brought up the point that Nigeria was a very orderly society before colonialism and that, had they been treated as equals, they would have been a really great and advanced society. However, the administrative society that was forced upon them in colonialism believed it was a “one size fits all” type of administration. This idea ended up with setting Nigeria society backwards. Where else is this idea happening in the world today and why does this happen? Does this happen because of developers’ are laziness or arrogance?
When Ken Saro-Wiwa is describing the first police station visit of the book he comments that “Injustice stalks the land like a tiger on the prowl. To be at the mercy of buffoons is the ultimate insult. To find the instruments of state power reducing you to dust is the injury” (8). This passage seems to indicate the injustice he feels is being done is evident, not just policy that enslaves the Ogoni, but rather is even evident in the meaningless prance that the officials seem to be doing at the beginning of the book to try and make something stick. It also seems that even then, at the start Saro-Wiwa had already decided he would do something about this tiger, even if that something was dying to protect others from it.
Aurora asked- Is their something in your life that you would die for in order to protect or an injustice that you feel so strongly about that you would give up your life in order to correct, and how do you decide the price you are willing to pay? Why do we as a society sit idly while injustices happen, not just to others, but to ourselves? What will be the breaking point be? I do not have an answer to these questions, one cannot possibly know what they are willing to give up until the choice is half made, until they are already on the path to giving that something up.
I do have a follow up question though, How can we let such injustices occur? That people feel it necessary and appropriate to give up their lives to fight a wrong, and we do nothing? How do we let it get to that point?
Ken Saro-Wiwa writes his book “A Month and a Day” about his persecution for fighting to preserve the Ogani people’s homeland in Nigeria. One major aspect of Nigerian culture is the influence of many tribes and diverse backgrounds. Saro-Wiwa discusses this in Chapter 4 of his book as he writes, “The ethnic nature of Nigerian society is a real one. It cannot be prayed or wished away and those who try to do so, at least in public,only have to turn to the example of the Soviet Union” (Saro-Wiwa 44). This quote evokes the comparison of the various cultures in Nigeria much in the same way the Soviet Union consisted of many differing people and cultures within its far grasping reach. One question that must be considered when interpreting these cutures in Nigeria are their relative populations and the ways they are disproportionately affected by negative aspects of production. This is exemplified by Shell’s exploitation of Ogani lands. They were able to more easily acquire the drilling rights in Ogani land due to the small population making up less than one percent of the overall population of Nigeria. This raises the question: What emphasis should be placed on the governments of these countries to ensure that all cultures are treated equally and environmental justice is maintained? Moreover, why is there a tendency to disproportionately place detrimental equipment and conduct dangerous processes in areas that the minority ethnicity exist, not only within Nigerian society but in American and global societies as well.
As Ken-Saro Wiwa was moved from prison to prison, he experienced a forced, first hand experience of the state’s infrastructure and it’s intentions on maintaining the status quo. He said what bothered him most during the drives between prisons was the state of the road. Not “the state of the road itself, but the fact that in this rich, oil-bearing area, that the roads should be so rickety, while in the north of Nigeria, in that arid part of the county, there were wide expressways constructed at great cost with the petrodollars which the delta belched forth” (17).
This observation by Wiwa shows his fight was not to eliminate extractivism completely. He was the reality of the situation, and that human lives are interdependent upon unfortunate systems such as these. However, Wiwa saw it unacceptable that communities in the areas in which extractivism was taking place received little to no financial retributions for their sacrifices.
This reminded me of Carson’s view that there may be times, in unique circumstances, when chemicals of sorts should be used in agriculture or environmental maintenance, however the use should be extremely regulated. Both of these approaches seem to embody elements of the middle way, which Schumacher discussed in “Small in Beautiful.” My question is, does it seem like Wiwa’s (and Carson’s) argument(s) are stronger because they accept geopolitical and social realities that require the very industries which they are fighting?
Ken Saro-Wiwa points out that the Ogoni people were entitled to 50% of the revenue generated by the sale of oil extracted from Ogoni land. This entitlement comes from the constitution of Nigeria. Ken Saro-Wiwa also says that the Ogoni people received nothing in exchange for their oil besides oppression and destruction of their homeland. The Ogoni people are outraged by this, and rightfully so, they deserve fair payment for what is theirs. However, would it have truly benefited the Ogoni people to make profit from their oil reserves? If they received large sums of money from the oil companies, what would they have done with it? Would they have allowed for more oil wells? Destroyed their homeland even more? Given their new found wealth would they have stayed in Ogoni or moved elsewhere? Would their heritage and cultural traditions have survived? Oppression of anyone is wrong and should never be allowed. However, perhaps this oppression has united the Ogoni people in a way the money cannot. I’m sure their outrage is due more to the disrespect they are shown and the hardships they have endured than to the lack of payment from the oil companies. But perhaps future generations of Ogoni will now be able to look back with pride knowing their ancestors were a strong and united community. That even though the Ogoni have lost many things, they did not lose themselves.
While I found Saro-Wiwa’s description of his arrest and journey from and then back to Port Harcourt especially powerful and fascinating, I kept returning to something he wrote in the preface: “I should add that I have used the term ‘Ogoni’ in preference to ‘Ogoniland’, which is fast becoming current; this is because to the Ogoni, the land and the people are one and are expressed as such in our local languages. It emphasizes, to my mind, the close relationship between the Ogoni people and their environment” (3). In many ways, the story of progress we have been told (and continue to tell ourselves) fundamentally relies on separation of man from nature. This is, of course, vehemently rejected in many cultures. Saro-Wiwa’s clarification seems so vital to his story and the story of the Ogoni people. Can this story also be read as a call to take indigenous ontologies seriously and begin reckon with truths outside the realm of Science? Is the nature/culture dichotomy the sole force behind environmental injustice? In what ways does the “recolonization” by global capital fit into this equation? Can it be understood as a product of this dichotomy as well?
One of the most interesting excerpts by Ken Saro-Wiwa for me actually came before even getting into the formal chapters. In the preface, on page 3, Ken speaks about how he refers to the Ogoni, of which the center of his fight revolves.
“I should add that I have used the term ‘Ogoni’ in preference to ‘Ogoniland,’ which is fast becoming current; this is because to the Ogoni, the land and the people are one and are expressed as such in our local languages. It emphasizes, to my mind, the close relationship between the Ogoni people and their environment.”
This idea really stood out to me because it is, of course, heartening, to hear of such a concept being instinctual to human beings and then recognized throughout society as such. But it further probed me to thinking of the culture through which this narrative is written. If local languages do not discern differently humans from their environment, then that obviously means their futures are one. This is so different from the US, where I don’t know if we have any terms that adequately combine humans to the environment; we are always separating- keeping humans differentiated from “their resources.” I guess that leads to a more anthropological question in: how does language develop differently through different ways of life? Could such a word EVER exist in a land which has never regarded the environment as anything more than something to be used as an end to our consumption?
It then brought me to think of the evil in this narrative. Throughout the first few chapters Ken Saro-Wiwa speaks about the police force as corrupt and of Nigeria as absurdly divided between the rich and the poor. But I can’t stop thinking, where is the greed that drives the devastation to the Ogoni people REALLY coming from? I go back to that quote concerning the Ogoni, and I think, where is this separation between nature and humans most intense- if most of Nigerian local languages have a word for these two systems as one union, then it did not come from inside. So who is really to blame? Who are the ones calling for the oil? Is one more to blame for forcing their society on another through the tools of money and greed, or is one more to blame for abandoning their native way of doing things? Are the police really to blame for being corrupt when the US is putting this money (this money that puts a further separation between “the Ogoni people” and “Ogoniland”) directly into their hands and ordering the undoing of a culture and language that has lived among Nigeria for hundreds of years prior?
On page 12 Ken-Saro Wiwa discusses the background/upbringing of his brother who is a medical doctor. His brother Owens attended University, and even found himself working for the Rivers State Ministry of Health in Nigeria. This example speaks volumes about the nature of oppression of the Ogoni people in Nigeria. His brother seemingly followed the systemic route to becoming a contributing member of society by obtaining higher education and becoming a doctor. However, he and his family were still forced to fight for their right to good health and their right to self determination. Do these continued areas of conflict date all the way back to the way the Berlin conference? If so, how do we step back and recognize where we went wrong? What can we do differently to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard in the future?
On page 28, Ken Saro-Wiwa discusses how eating the most wretched meal feels like a feast, and he states that this is part of the Nigerian security systems “dehumanization process.” Throughout the whole account, it seems like we are following along through a dehumanization process that happens both in small ways (through not being fed much or well) and large ways (the beatings in the guardroom). In what was does dehumanization affect the massive whole of a society? How are these similar to ways of police brutality and experiences in the United States, and how to they differ? Is dehumanization ever okay, or does it dismantle the sustainability of a society?
I notice a lot of parallels between Native Americans in the midwest of the United States and the tribes of Nigeria, especially the Ogoni tribe. Both groups were pushed into one small piece of land and have been oppressed for centuries and now are being abused through environmental damage. Ken Saro-Wiwa writes, “30 states have been created largely for the ethnic majorities who rule the country. Most of the states so created are unviable and depend entirely on Ogoni resources for their survival… The Ogoni have been corralled into a multi-ethnic administrative state in which they remain a minority… In spite of the enormous wealth of their land the Ogoni people continue to live in primitive conditions in the absence of electricity, pipe-borne warter, hospitals, housing and schools” (67). It is interesting to notice the connections between Native Americans in the Dakotas and the Ogoni all fighting for resource autonomy. There is a great contrast between their histories in that Native Americans now live under a white colonist government while most Europeans left Nigeria at the end of the age of Imperialism. Nonetheless, both groups are marginalized under their governments.
The Sioux fighting the Keystone Pipeline and the Ogoni have both been unsuccessful in their fights for environmental justice due to their lack of clout in the federal government. In class we discussed the utilization of words like war and crimes against humanity to make environmental injustices more serious to the rest of the world. What else might it require for marginalized ethnic groups to be recognized and successful in their fights for land autonomy and environmental justice?
In Ken Sari Wiwa’s book A Month and a Day he demonstrates passionate forms of non-violent activism that seems to have been affective on some accounts. He was arrested many times and eventually executed.
In the film we watched today, we see a different approach. We see forms of activism in Nigeria that are quite violent.
Which of these tactics do you believe is more affective in this scenario? What about in general? One could argue that from a utilitarian point of view, violence might be successful (i.e. vigilanties). Potentially it’s more successful. However, it could also create tension, be taken out of control, and have negative environmental impacts. Is violence ever justified? If so, then when, why, and how does it become justified?
In my interpretation, the Ogoni Bill of Rights, in addition to requesting political autonomy, is also asking for basic recognition of their culture, religion, etc. – essentially asking the Nigerian Gov’t to be recognized as their own people. When an indigenous or minority group, such as this, feels as if they must ask a higher authority for basic recognition, is that a reinforcement of colonialist relationship/ideals in a way? Are similar colonial relationships being reproduced between the Ogoni people and the current Nigerian government? Why or why not?
On page 51 of “A Month and a Day and Letters,” Ken Saro-Wiwa describes the loss of Ogoni culture caused by government oppression and environmental degradation. He explains that Ogoni “languages are dying, our culture is disappearing… the fact that we are buying food today is an absolute disgrace… and all this is happening to a people whose home is one of the richest in Africa (51). This last statement is what resonated with me most greatly. Too often is this resource curse the case: that a nation discovers vast natural resources on its land and through unfair development agreements, particularly from previously industrialized nations, the country’s people are duped out of their fair share. Oftentimes, they’re left in even worse conditions, as is the case in Ogoni where “lands, streams and creeks are continually polluted” (66).
My question is would Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni be content had the oil corporations awarded royalties from the beginning, while continuing to pollute? Are there other cases where a poor country discovered natural resources and made fair arrangements with industrialized countries to extract it, which lead to just treatment and compensation to indigenous groups on site? I know this seems opposite of what we learn in most SD classes but I would love to hear of such a case.
A lot of these question have been addressing aspects of Sero-Wiwa where he talks about loss of culture or dehumanization of these peoples. What in turn do you think he would say about those cultures in which their may possibly be aspects of dehumanization? Where does culture fall on the list of priorities of protection?
On page 55 Ken Saro-Wiwa speaks about writers, “Literature must serve society by steeping itself in politics, by intervention, and writers must not merely write to amuse or to take a bemused, critical look at society”. From Ken Saro-Wiwa to Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, it is proven that writers have the power to change their surroundings. Is it a writer’s duty to bring about political issues in ones writing? I think it is if the writer is qualified and understands all aspects of the issue at hand. Ken Saro-Wiwa and Rachel Carson were brave enough to go against their governments in order to bring justice and information to their people.
Ken Saro-Wiwa shares an excerpt from a pamphlet titled “The Ogoni Nationality Today and Tomorrow” which shares his past vision for the future of Ogoni. In regards to the aftermath of the civil war, Saro-Wiwa says, “We must each of us immediately resolve not to repeat the mistakes of the past. We have now been given the opportunity to reassert ourselves side by side with other nationalities in the Nigerian federation” (40). I found the entire passage to be inspiring and encouraging which is why I thought he had included it. However, the passage was followed by, “Looking back on these words now, I realise how pious my hopes were, and how much they failed” (42). This realization of his brought me back to the question of hope. I have heard many different opinions on the idea of hope and if its a good or a bad thing within a movement. Some have said that it is necessary to inspire people to keep trying. However, others have said that they believe it gives people an excuse to rely on something that is unable to be determined and if something little goes wrong early on, people tend to lose hope and inspiration really fast. Do you see hope to be important within a movement? Is hope more related to expectation or faith?