A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa ****

A Month and a Day is a non-fiction account of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s illegal detention in 1994. He was released, but detained again in 1995 and executed by the Nigerian military dictatorship.

Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer and television producer, but he is best known as the founder of MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People). It was a non-violent social movement created to give a voice to the Ogoni people, whose environment has been completely devastated by the oil companies mining their land, notably Shell and Chevron.

And all this happens to a people whose home is one of the richest in Africa. In his own words:

Over the past thirty-two years Ogoni has offered Nigeria an estimated US thirty billion dollars and received NOTHING in return, except a blighted countryside, an atmosphere full of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons; a land in which wildlife is unknown; a land of polluted streams and creeks, of rivers without fish, a land which is, in every sense of the term, an ecological disaster. High-pressure oil pipelines crisscross the surface of Ogoni farmlands and villages dangerously. This is not acceptable.

Oil pollution is a great menace to the Nigerian environment. I wish to warn that the harm being done to the environment of the Niger River delta must be ameliorated by the oil companies which prospect for oil there; the degradation of the ecosystem must end and the dehumanisation of the inhabitants of the areas must cease and restitution be made for past wrong.

We cannot sit idly by while we are, as a people, dehumanised and slowly exterminated and driven to extinction even as our rich resources are siphoned off to the exclusive comfort and improvement of other Nigerian communities, and the shareholders of multinational oil companies, namely Shell (Dutch/British) and Chevron (American).

Needless to say, the Nigerian military dictatorship under Babangida wanted his head on a plate. Unfortunately, they got it.

So today, I re-dedicate myself to what has always been my primary concern as a man and a writer: the development of a stable, modern Nigeria which embraces civilised values; a Nigeria where no ethnic group or individual is oppressed, a democratic nation where minority rights are protected, education is a right, freedom of speech and association are guaranteed, and where merit and competence are held as beacons. Convinced that most Nigerians share this concern, I will stand for it at all times and in all places.

The book gives an interesting insight into the

creation and development of MOSOP, along with a good understanding of how the Nigerian government was structured at the time. It also mentions names I already know, such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and even the late Festus Iyayi, whose death I announced some weeks ago. Click here. He too was a threat to the system, and they wanted his head as well. Sadly, they ended up getting it by accident.

Iyayi, an award-winning Nigerian novelist, had stayed in the same detention room around 1987 and wrote about it in a Nigerian magazine. The journalist said he was held in custody for a month without being told what crime he had committed. Neither his colleagues nor his employers knew he was being held. He was also involved in labour unions and, more recently, in the campaign for democracy.

I really liked this book. It was enlightening, insightful and truly educational. I highly recommend it, especially if you are interested in social movements, the conflict in the Niger-Delta, and would like to know more about MOSOP. Another novel that tells of the consequences of environmental degradation in the Niger-Delta is Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson.