This document provides background information on Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian writer and activist who was executed in 1995 along with eight others. It discusses Saro-Wiwa's founding of MOSOP to advocate for the Ogoni people facing environmental destruction from oil extraction. While detained from 1994-1995, Saro-Wiwa wrote 28 letters and 27 poems that were smuggled out in breadbaskets to Sr. Majella McCarron. These letters provided first-hand accounts of his detention conditions and challenges facing MOSOP. In 2009, Shell settled out of court for over $15 million regarding Saro-Wiwa's execution. The library acquired Saro-Wiwa's letters and works

1. Letters from the Breadbasket: The Detention
Correspondence of Ken Saro-Wiwa
Helen Fallon,
Deputy Librarian, NUI Maynooth
Helen.b.fallon@nuim.ie

2. 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

6. 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

7. 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

12. 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

13. Destruction of Ogoni settlement,
Port Harcourt

14. Ogoni Fishermen from Kaa
fishing village survey broken
canoes .

15. May 1994 - November 1995
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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

19. Letters
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Mostly handwritten
Detention conditions
Family
MOSOP – leadership etc.
Sr. Majella’s work
His writing
Awards
The Trial

20. 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”

21. 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

22. Deepening Understanding
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Annotated letters
Poems
Contextual essays
Foreword
Archival classification
Bibliography &
Resources list
• Trócaire Funding
• Bursary

26. 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

27. 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

28. Deepening Understanding
• Sister Majella
– Copyright
• Dr Owens Wiwa
– NUI Maynooth, Special Collections
• The Library
– legal issues
• The Family