Ken Saro-Wiwa
Writer, Author
1941 – 1995
Who was Ken Saro-Wiwa?
Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping. Initially as spokesperson, and then as president, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.
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- Born
- Oct 10, 1941
Bori, Rivers - Also known as
- Саро-Вива, Кен
- 卡山偉華
- Parents
- Siblings
- Children
- Ethnicity
- Ogoni people
- Nationality
- Nigeria
- Profession
- Education
- University of Ibadan
- Died
- Nov 10, 1995
Port Harcourt
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
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"Ken Saro-Wiwa." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/ken_saro-wiwa>.
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