Born Kenule Tsaro-Wiwa, the son of Jim Wiwa, a forest ranger and his third wife, Widu. He changed his name to Saro-Wiwa after the Nigerian Civil war. He was married to Maria Saro Wiwa . His father's hometown is the village of Bori, Ogoniland whose residents speak the Khana dialect of Ogoni language. Saro-Wiwa spent his childhood in an Anglican home and eventually proved himself to be an excellent student; he received primary education at a Native Authority school in Bori,then attended secondary school at Government College Umuahia. A distinguished student, Saro-Wiwa was captain of the table tennis team and amassed school prizes in history and English. At Umuahia, he was the only student from Ogoni land but fellow students were mandated to speak English which made Saro-Wiwa feel Nigerian; he embraced the language as a useful way to communicate to a larger audience at home and abroad. On completion of secondary education, he obtained a scholarship to study English at the University of Ibadan. At Ibadan, he plunged into academic and cultural interests, he won departmental prizes in 1963 and 1965 and worked for a drama troupe.
The travelling drama troupe performed in Kano, Benin Ilorin and Lagos and collaborated with the Nottingham Playhouse theatre group that included a young Judi Dench. He briefly became a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos and later at University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Saro-Wiwa was an African literature lecturer in Nsukka when the Civil war broke out, he supported the Federal Government and had to leave the region for his hometown of Bori. On his journey to Port-Harcourt, he witnessed the multitudes of refugees returning to the East, a scene he described as a "sorry sight to see". Three days after his arrival, nearby Bonny was liberated by federal troops. He and his family then stayed in Bonny, he travelled back to Lagos and took a position at the University of Lagos which did not last long as he was called back to Bonny.
He was called back to become the Civilian Administrator for the port city of Bonny in the Niger Delta and during the Nigerian Civil War positioned himself as an Ogoni leader dedicated to the Federal cause. He followed his job as an administrator with an appointment as a commissioner in the old Rivers State. His best known novel, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, tells the story of a naive village boy recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970, and intimates the political corruption and patronage in Nigeria's military regime of the time. Saro-Wiwa's war diaries, On a Darkling Plain, document his experience during the war. He was also a successful businessman and television producer. His satirical television series, Basi & Company, was wildly popular, with an estimated audience of 30 million.
In the early 1970s, Saro-Wiwa served as the Regional Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State Cabinet, but was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy. In the late 1970s, he established a number of successful business ventures in retail and real estate, and during the 1980s concentrated primarily on his writing, journalism and television production. In 1977, he became involved in the political arena running as the candidate to represent Ogoni in the Constituent Assembly. Saro-Wiwa lost the election in a narrow margin. It was during this time he had a fall out with his friend Edwards Kobani.
Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993 but was released after a month. On 21 May 1994 four Ogoni chiefs (all on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy) 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.
Some of the defendants' lawyers resigned in protest against the alleged rigging of the trial by the Abacha regime. The resignations left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers. Many of these supposed witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony, in the presence of Shell's lawyer.
The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations and, half a year later, Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award for his courage, as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize.
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 the executions, the bodies were taken to the Port Harcourt Cemetery under armed guard and buried.

Massive Respect!

Those were the days when we had selfless patriots and genuine, passionate freedom fighters.

Now a days, most activists just want to get themselves to the corridors of power and have a taste of the National Cake

His last words are so touching.
R.I.P Sir


By the way, check my siggy for everything Musical Instruments

Op your topic is very misleading, what do you mean by 'used to fight his people'. Ken is the one of the greatest(uncelebrated) activists he died for what he belived, he was uncompromisable.

referandum:
Op your topic is very misleading, what do you mean by 'used to fight his people'. Ken is the one of the greatest(uncelebrated) activists he died for what he belived, he was uncompromisable.

saro-wiwa was used against biafrans during the civil war. He supported the genocide against biafrans and was later hanged by those that used him. Ken saro-wiwa is a sell out!

referandum:
Op your topic is very misleading, what do you mean by 'used to fight his people'. Ken is the one of the greatest(uncelebrated) activists he died for what he belived, he was uncompromisable.

He was the arrow head of the abandoned property in rivers ...
Same north and west ganged to kill him
It was same Igbo's that fought and tried to free him

These ppl never learn.Same story with Isaac Adaka Boro.
Was an SUG president in UNN but later chose to join forces with the vandals during d civil war,only to be killed in suspicious circumstances by the same vandals he was fighting his brothers for.

frankdoz:
saro-wiwa was used against biafrans during the civil war. He supported the genocide against biafrans and was later hanged by those that used him. Ken saro-wiwa is a sell kout!

So he should have supported them to subjugate his people further? Believe it or not, the Biafran soldiers were barbarian savages that engaged in forced conscription of Rivers natives. Unwarranted mass relocations were carried out on the natives by the Biafran soldiers among other barbarisms. This is a fact. (The Nigerian troops were no saints of course).

Why should he (or any non Igbo) have supported Biafra when things like these were happening?

So many things happened from the end of the Biafran war to the time of his death. The specifics don't correlate as much as you'd like. People moved on. Emotions more important than misplaced grudges were at the forefront of people's minds.

HarryDuce:
So he should have supported them to subjugate his people further? Believe it or not, the Biafran soldiers were barbarian savages that engaged in forced conscription of Rivers natives. Unwarranted mass relocations were carried out on the natives by the Biafran soldiers among other barbarisms. This is a fact. (The Nigerian troops were no saints of course).

Why should he (or any non Igbo) have supported Biafra when things like these were happening?

So many things happened (positives included) from the end of the Biafran war to the time of his death. The specifics don't correlate as much as you'd like. People moved on. Emotions more important than misplaced grudges were at the forefront of people's minds.

why should he have supported Biafra? Well those he ran to and gave so much support and dedication had him framed up and killed. Even Ojukwu warned him such would happen to him

cupidFlint:
why should he have supported Biafra? Well those he ran to and gave so much support and dedication had him framed up and killed. Even Ojukwu warned him such would happen to him

Who are the "those"? I know only of Abacha. I never knew Ken was an Abacha supporter.

Abacha was not instrumental in the Biafran war by the way.

Ojukwu's opinion on the matter would for ever be pointless. He didn't have the foresight during the war, I doubt he did many years after.

HarryDuce:
Who are the "those"? I know only of Abacha. I never knew he was an Abacha supporter.

Abacha was not instrumental in the Biafran war by the way.

Ojukwu's opinion on the matter would for ever be pointless. He didn't have the foresight during the war, I doubt he did many years later.

he didnt have the foresight during the war? You sound like a misguided new generation youth.. make your research further

referandum:
Op your topic is very misleading, what do you mean by 'used to fight his people'. Ken is the one of the greatest(uncelebrated) activists he died for what he belived, he was uncompromisable.

Ken didn't support Biafra back in those days. So you should understand better. He didn't receive enough support, he stood by his people. His own people he was fighting for was eventually used against him. I believe if he was to be from a majority tribe, he wouldn't have died just like that. Even M.K.O that they all believed to be killed by northerners wasn't so. Mistreating people from majority tribe in Nigeria isn't as easy as doing to minority tribes. I wish a majority had really cared about Ken. It would have been so difficult for Abacha to just kill him like that.

Continue to rest Ken, your legacy lives on.

cupidFlint:
why should he have supported Biafra? Well those he ran to and gave so much support and dedication had him framed up and killed. Even Ojukwu warned him such would happen to him

gedifok. Stop wishing people 'd be doomed because they don't support your ideas. Ken fought for his people. It's just sad how Abacha almost ruined the nation then.

How I wish SS people could be smart enough to see the motives behind this thread.

Walk ouuta thread

Kapeter:
Ken didn't support Biafra back in those days. So you should understand better. I believe if he was to be from a majority tribe, he wouldn't have died just like that.

Continue to rest Ken, your legacy lives on.

Ken was not a Biafrian. He was a hardcore Ogoni man, he opened the eyes of most Ogoni people to their plight. Till date no oil company has lifted even a drop of oil from Ogoni.

frankdoz:
saro-wiwa was used against biafrans during the civil war. He supported the genocide against biafrans and was later hanged by those that used him. Ken saro-wiwa is a sell out!

Prove?

dokyOloye:
These ppl never learn.Same story with Isaac Adaka Boro.
Was an SUG president in UNN but later chose to join forces with the vandals during d civil war,only to be killed in suspicious circumstances by the same vandals he was fighting his brothers for.

Dont dare bring the name of Adaka Boro into your Biafran bruhaha.

HarryDuce:
So he should have supported them to subjugate his people further? Believe it or not, the Biafran soldiers were barbarian savages that engaged in forced conscription of Rivers natives. Unwarranted mass relocations were carried out on the natives by the Biafran soldiers among other barbarisms. This is a fact. (The Nigerian troops were no saints of course).

Why should he (or any non Igbo) have supported Biafra when things like these were happening?

So many things happened from the end of the Biafran war to the time of his death. The specifics don't correlate as much as you'd like. People moved on. Emotions more important than misplaced grudges were at the forefront of people's minds.

Dont mind them. They dont ever reason why South-south wants no part in their struggle. Always like forcing themselves on people.

mrvitalis:

He was the arrow head of the abandoned property in rivers ...
Same north and west ganged to kill him
It was same Igbo's that fought and tried to free him

How did the west gang up with the north to kill him?

Can you mention the names of the same Igbos that fought for him.

helinues:
How I wish SS people could be smart enough to see the motives behind this thread.

Walk ouuta thread

Afonja

How is SS matter ur business?