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Ken Saro-Wiwa
OHIO SHORT HISTORIES OF AFRICA
This series of Ohio Short Histories of Africa is meant for those who are looking for a brief but lively introduction to a wide range of topics in African history, politics, and biography, written by some of the leading experts in their fields.
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Short-changed? South Africa since Apartheid
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by Shireen Hassim
The Soweto Uprising
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Frantz Fanon: Toward a Revolutionary Humanism
by Christopher J. Lee
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
by Pamela Scully
Ken Saro-Wiwa
by Roy Doron and Toyin Falola
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Roy Doron and Toyin Falola
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2016 by Ohio University Press
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Cover design by Joey Hi-Fi
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Doron, Roy, author. | Falola, Toyin, author.
Title: Ken Saro-Wiwa / Roy Doron and Toyin Falola.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2016. | Series: Ohio short histories of Africa | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016004173| ISBN 9780821422014 (paperback) | ISBN 9780821445501 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Saro-Wiwa, Ken, 1941– | Authors, Nigerian—20th century—Biography. | Political activists—Nigeria—Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Agriculture & Food. | LITERARY COLLECTIONS / African.
Classification: LCC PR9387.9.S27 Z64 2016 | DDC 823/.914 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016004173
Contents
1. Nigeria and Saro-Wiwa’s World to 1960
2. Saro-Wiwa’s Childhood and Education
3. The Nigerian Civil War Years
4. Business, Writing, and Politics
5. Activism and the Politics of Oil, the Environment, and Genocide
6. MOSOP, the Ogoni Bill of Rights, and Saro-Wiwa’s Activism
7. The Trials and Death of Saro-Wiwa
8. The Many Legacies of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Illustrations
Figures
4.1. Ken Saro-Wiwa
5.1. Cars queuing for petrol in Lagos during a strike, 2007
6.1. Saro-Wiwa addressing the crowd at the march and rally on January 2, 1993
7.1. Saro-Wiwa and his codefendants in the courtroom in Port Harcourt, 1995
Maps
3.1. Nigeria’s twelve-state partition in 1967
5.1. Ogoniland within the oil fields and pipelines of the Niger Delta
Preface
Kenule