Writing for intercultural empathy and understanding
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Transcript of Writing for intercultural empathy and understanding
Letters from the Breadbasket: The Detention Correspondence of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Helen Fallon,Deputy Librarian, NUI Maynooth
Background
• November 2011 – Donation of 28 letters and 27 poems written by
Ken Saro-Wiwa to the Library at NUI Maynooth• November 2013– Publication of “Silence Would be Treason: Last
Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa” edited by Íde Corley, Helen Fallon & Laurence Cox
– Launch of “Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive” produced by NUI Maynooth Library and Kairos Communications
Ken Saro-Wiwa
• leading Nigerian and African writer - novelist, playwright, non-fiction writer, children’s books and television writer
• Businessman• Major figure in Nigerian
politics; his support for the autonomy of the Ogoni people led to his removal from office in 1973
Founder of MOSOP
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)highlighted the issue of environmental survival in the face of massive oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta and the associated oil leaks, gas flaring and other environmental crises threatening livelihoods
Detention
• MOSOP challenged those who benefitted from the oil: the oil and gas multinationals and the Nigerian military government
• 1993 January - MOSOP mobilised 300,000 Ogoni people (60% of the total population) in a peaceful march
• Ogoni occupied by the Nigerian military; destruction of villages; an estimated 750 people killed and 30,000 left homeless
• 1994 May - Saro-Wiwa and 14 others placed in military detention
Destruction of Ogoni settlement, Port Harcourt
Ogoni Fishermen from Kaa fishing village survey broken canoes .
May 1994 - November 1995
• Detention• 28 letters to Sr. Majella McCarron
Clear and direct, these letters and poems are the last expression of a voice the
regime was determined to silence• Smuggled out in breadbaskets
Letters
• Mostly handwritten• Detention conditions• Family• MOSOP – leadership etc.• Sr. Majella’s work• His writing• Awards• The Trial
Shell Settlement
• 1995, November 10 - Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues executed
• 2009, June -Shell settled out of court for over $15 million with relatives of the “Ogoni Nine”
Spreading the Story
• “Silence Would be Treason: The Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa” - 2013
• Ken Saro-Wiwa Audio Archive • Input to Module on the BA in Local Studies• Exhibitions for University Community, local
schools etc.• Guest lectures, presentations, posters
Deepening Understanding
• Annotated letters• Poems• Contextual essays• Foreword • Archival classification• Bibliography &
Resources list• Trócaire Funding• Bursary
Why?
• “Ogoni Story has to be told”• Has meaning for a wide audience and the
potential to foster greater understanding of complex issues– Researchers– Activists– Undergraduates – formal input to course; International
Human Rights Day Lecture – Public– University of Ibadan Radio, Newstalk 106, Drive Time
Deepening Understanding
• The Undergraduates – BA in Local Studies– Eton, media coverage, Shell, artefacts
• The Prison Warden– Story of events in the past; Audio Archive
• The Reading Group– The missionary and the environment
• The Transition Year Students– Artefacts
Deepening Understanding
• Sister Majella– Copyright
• Dr Owens Wiwa– NUI Maynooth, Special Collections
• The Library– legal issues
• The Family