September
2003
Standing
Before History: Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Last Words
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Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was the President
of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), an environmental
and indigenous people’s rights group struggling against the destruction
of their land and culture by the oil industry—Shell—in collusion
with the Nigerian military. On November 10, 1995—along with eight
other activists—Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed. The following is an
excerpt of his final statement.
My lord,
We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled
by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed
land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation,
angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious
to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined
to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system
which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid
claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material
resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and
from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated.
I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter
the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may
encounter on our journey. [Neither] imprisonment nor death can stop
our ultimate victory.
I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not
the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial. The company has, indeed,
ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come, for there
is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that [Shell] has waged
in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later, and the crimes
of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company’s dirty
wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who
assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what
the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence
and to freedom from outside influence.
I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression,
arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do
not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers,
academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they
are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants
of urine.
I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by generations
yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the role of villains,
some are tragic victims; some still have a chance to redeem themselves.
Whether the peaceful ways I have favored will prevail depends on what
the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public.
In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter conviction,
I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger Delta, and the
oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly
and peacefully for their rights.
History is on their side. God is on their side. For the Holy Quran says
in Sura 42, verse 41: “All those that fight when oppressed incur
no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor.” Come the day.
