Last message of Ken Saro-Wiwa (Hung in Nigeria) (fwd)

["Bryan A. Alexander" <bnalexan@xxxxxxxxx>]

If this is for real, it's vital; even if it's not, it's excellent.
        And re: aesthetics and Marxism - there must be a M.a.  Partly for
Adorno's reason, that through art we can glimpse utopia.  Partly for the
Gramsci-Williams angle, in that this is part of class struggle, the
attack on the ruling class and its tentacles in particular.  Partly
because as I'm alive, aesthetics - art - means worlds to me, and I refuse
to have them denied.



Bryan Alexander
Department of English
University of Michigan
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 08:34:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Tatiana Falk <tfalk@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Bryan Nemo Alexander <bnalexan@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Last message of Ken Saro-Wiwa (Hung in Nigeria) (fwd)

of interest?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 17:50:24 EST
From: Jsmog <jsmog@xxxxxxx>
To: Multiple recipients of list LIBREF-L <LIBREF-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Last message of Ken Saro-Wiwa (Hung in Nigeria)

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Colleagues:
Though not in the usual vein of this newsgroup, I am posting the last
words of the writer recently hung in Nigeria, which might be of interest
of all of us devoted to the freedom of speech and expression.


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. Nor
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 and it is as well that it is
represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief.  The Company
has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come
and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt
in my mind that the ecological war that the Company 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 proesting 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, judges, 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.  We all stand on trial,
my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our Country and jeapordized
the future of our children. As we subscribe to the sub-normal and accept
double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and
oppression, we empty our classrooms, denigrate our hospitals, fill our
stomachs with hunger and elect to make ourselves the slaves of those who
ascribe to higher standards, pursue the truth, and honour justice,
freedom, and hard work. 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. The choice is for each individual.

I predict that the denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon
come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways I
have favoured 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.

--Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa

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