ken saro wiwa remembrance

Ebi was 11 when late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha ordered a military crackdown on Ogoni land in 1994. He recalls with nostalgia how the kids would crowd late Ken Saro-Wiwa in those days, continuously pulling at his traditional attire which he was fond of wearing, until he sat them down and told them evening stories. Stories of the rich cultural heritage of his Ogoni people, how blessed their land and how the big corporations, in active connivance with corrupt government officials were ruining the place in a massive oil exploration enterprise. He insists the massacre that happened in Odi, Bayelsa State and in fact all the other “massacres” in Nigeria’s history, were all child’s play compared to what happened in Ogoni. Prior to that time, four elderly Ogoni chiefs known to be opponents of S...