Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken Saro-Wiwa was born on 10 October 1941 in Bori, near Port Harcourt, in Ogoniland. He became a well-known writer: his novel Sozaboy (1985), written in pidgin English, satirised corruption, and he created the long-running television comedy Basi and Company, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Oil was struck on Ogoni land in 1958, and the Goldman Environmental Prize records contamination of farmland by spills and the loss of fish and wildlife. Saro-Wiwa led the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), founded in 1990, which drafted the Ogoni Bill of Rights that year (Right Livelihood). In January 1993 he helped organise a peaceful march of some 300,000 Ogoni people demanding a share of oil revenues, political autonomy, environmental clean-up and compensation (Goldman Prize).

Oil pollution in the Niger Delta; environmental and civil rights of the Ogoni people

MOSOP and Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award in 1994 'for their exemplary courage in striving non-violently for the civil, economic and environmental rights of their people'. He received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1995. His case brought international attention to oil pollution and human rights in the Niger Delta.

Executed by the state

Saro-Wiwa was not killed in an attack: he was executed by the state. In May 1994 he was seized from his home and detained with other MOSOP leaders after four Ogoni leaders were killed at a political gathering; Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience (Goldman Prize). In October 1995 a special tribunal appointed by the military government convicted him of complicity in the murders. On 10 November 1995 he and eight co-defendants, the 'Ogoni Nine', were hanged in Port Harcourt (Britannica). Governments and civil society groups worldwide condemned the trial; Amnesty International describes it as 'blatantly unfair' and says the men were in effect tried for challenging oil production in Ogoniland. Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth the day after the executions. In 2009 Shell settled a US lawsuit brought by the families for US$15.5 million without admitting liability, maintaining it had no part in the violence. In June 2025 the Nigerian government granted posthumous pardons; Amnesty International continues to call for the convictions to be formally recognised as unjust and the men declared innocent.

We use careful labels for deaths connected with environmental defence. How we classify them.

In 2009 Shell agreed a US$15.5 million out-of-court settlement with the families of the Ogoni Nine in a US lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing; the settlement included a trust for the benefit of the Ogoni people (Inside Climate News). In June 2025 President Bola Tinubu granted the Ogoni Nine posthumous pardons and made Saro-Wiwa a Commander of the Order of the Niger. Amnesty International said the pardon fell short of justice and called for the men to be fully exonerated.

1. 1941Born in Bori, Ogoniland.
2. 1985Publishes the novel Sozaboy.
3. 1990MOSOP founded; Ogoni Bill of Rights drafted.
4. 1993Peaceful march of some 300,000 Ogoni people in January.
5. 1994Detained in May; MOSOP and Saro-Wiwa receive the Right Livelihood Award.
6. 1995Receives the Goldman Environmental Prize; convicted by a military-appointed tribunal in October; hanged with eight others on 10 November.
7. 2009Shell settles US lawsuit by the Ogoni Nine families for US$15.5 million without admitting liability.
8. 2025Posthumous presidential pardon and national honour; Amnesty calls for full exoneration.