25 Years After: ANA Unveils plan to celebrate Ken Saro Wiwa

 
25 YEARS AFTER:  ANA UNVEILS PLAN TO CELEBRATE KEN SARO WIWA

The military years in Nigeria were particularly bitter years for the Nigerian Writer. Imprisonment and killings were frequent affairs. Most of the writers who insisted that their voices must be heard were jammed into hovels. For  thepolitical activist,Ken Saro-Wiwa,  the choice to either stopspeaking forhis marginalizedOgoni people or face the guillotinedid not scare him. He chose the latter and the rest now is history.

Ken Saro-Wiwa will long be remembered for some of his works which reflect the socio- political mood of his society as it were. Some of these works include: Tambari; Songs in a Time of War; Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, Mr. B; Basi and Company: A Modern African Folktale. Four Television Plays; Prisoners of Jebs; Adaku& Other Stories; Four Farcical Plays; On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War, Mr B Is Dead; Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy; A Forest of Flowers: Short Stories; A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary;Lemona's Tale.With all these works Saro-Wiwa’s significantplace in Nigerian literaturecannot be overemphasized.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed on the 10th of November 1995 despite interventions from Nigerian writers and the International community. The author whose first book was published in 1973 was also the fourth President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), serving the Association from 1990 to 1993.

Twenty-five years after his death at the hands of Nigeria’s military junta, Saro-Wiwa’s works are still celebrated world- wide as they lament, not just the devastation of the Niger Delta natural environment and the heavy economic subjugation, but also the violent political and economic issues in the region. The fight he fought, and there is no longer and doubt that it was a genuine fight, proved the most difficult one for the people of his Niger-Delta Region till date.

Today, all Nigerians know the value of  KenSaro-Wiwa’s most valuable and heroic service. This is while he is still alive in our memories 25 years after. In a bid to celebrate the 25th year anniversary of the demise of this great author, the  President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Mr. Camillus Uka has perfected  plans to mark the year with some literary activities during the forthcoming 39th international convention of the Association which has been scheduled to take place in Ilorin, the Capital of Kwara State from Thursday, 3rd December, 2020 to 6th December, 2020.

Unveiling his plans for  Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mr. Camillus Ukah commended the deceased children, NooSaro-Wiwa and Dr Owens Wiwa for preserving and promoting the legacy of their late father through many projects, one of which is the latest publication titled “I AM A MAN OF PEACE” published to mark the 25th anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. 

Edited by Helen Fallon, Deputy University Librarian, and published by Daraja Press, the book contains 21 essays and 42 poems by contributors from different parts of the globe. Topics include human rights, environmental protection, climate justice, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and the role of the Library in preserving and promoting the Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Special Collections. 

The volume includes essays by Dr Owens Wiwa, NooSaro-Wiwa and Sister Majella McCarron (OLA) who donated the death-row letters she received from friend and fellow activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, to Maynooth University Library. The book is published by Daraja Press. In keeping with Maynooth University Library’s commitment to open access, it can be downloaded free of charge from http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/13526/1/man_of_peace_online.pdf