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| Ken, his father and his two sons |
I probably first heard of Ken from my father. At that time,
and the majority of my younger life it was just another name, just another
activist, just another nationalist.
Until I got to meet him.
I met Ken Saro-Wiwa and his son a few days ago in Port
Harcourt one rainy evening. He was presented by his son as a dandified man in
Italian suits and refined music taste. It wasn’t to end there, after spending a
few minutes getting to know him, Ken was also a well-read man, a writer, a
politician and a stubborn womanizer.
His character was one of a wry sense of humor, describing himself
as ‘A man who holds up a mirror to society. And society didn’t like what they
see.’ This statement can be directly related to his long list of enemies that
eventually brought forth his demise.
Ken’s son explained to me that his father was never really
transparent about his worth. So, getting it very clear about how rich he was a
problem. Although I did find out that he owned a house near London, some property
in Port Harcourt and Wikipedia described him as ‘a successful businessman’. As
a firm condemner of corruption, he wasn’t as wealthy as the average Nigerian
politician.
Little did I know that Ken’s stubbornness could inspire me.
He created MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People) in an attempt of
activism for our birth kingdoms to stop the exploitation of Shell Oil in the
land. He told me that ‘The flames of Shell are flames of hell.’ Because the
company destroyed the environment of our home flouting many environmental laws
and pouting a toxic lip service to the rest of the world.
So, it surprised me that one man single-handedly decided to
rise and fight a multinational corporate giant, a myriad of private enemies and
a military government in order for him to realize happiness, comfort and beauty
for his people. You might say what you like but MOSOP was and is still Ken
Saro-Wiwa’s entirety brought into being in a single legal movement.
Unfortunately, his son Ken Wiwa, made it clear to me how
much his family suffered because of his father’s cause. The death of his
brother Tedum was and still is speculated by Ken as a political assassination and
not a ‘heart attack’. Despite that paranoid outlook, the most obvious forms of
discomfort came in the psychological tortures of a father being imprisoned by
an insecure tyrant (Sani Abacha) and a family split matrimonially because of
alleged murder.
Ken understood the power of the pen. He told me that he
never saw writing as a means of money-making it has always just been a weapon.
A political weapon designed to fit its users in subtlety or brute strength. His
son told me that “In a lecture he delivered to the Association of Nigerian
Authors in 1993, he declared that ‘The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he
cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its
ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved in shaping its present and
its future.’”
Ken became a martyr, and a legend with his death. I wish I
could say that he achieved more in his death than he could do alive but I feel
that that would be a wrong conclusion. He was a man who was capable of moving
mountains and his death had removed those strong arms.
Even though presently MOSOP tries to live up to Ken’s
legacy. The shoes are too big to fill.
Ultimately, Ken achieved what he wanted. Shell Oil no longer
extracted in Ogoni and no oil company will till all the spills are cleaned up.
That is unless post-Ken MOSOP decides to do something rash and change that.
You can meet Ken and his son too. Read In the Shadow of a
Saint by Ken Wiwa
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