[van-announce] Nov. 10: UBC forum in tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa

[Derrick O'Keefe]

*Please forward widely*

A panel forum in tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa:

The fight against criminal corporations today

Thursday, November 10, 12:30 to 2:30p.m.
University of British Columbia
Student Union Building, room TBA

On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered by the Nigerian government, 
after a fraudulent trial. Saro-Wiwa’s real crime had been in standing up for 
the rights of the Ogoni people – to land and self-determination – and 
against the greedy, rapacious actions of the Shell Oil Company. Ten years 
later, corporate power and the related process of empire building continue 
to enforce the structural inequalities of the world, with deadly 
consequences, from Haiti, to Iraq, to Colombia and beyond.

The U.B.C. Social Justice presents a forum that will honour Ken Saro-Wiwa’s 
legacy of struggle by featuring speakers who will explain contemporary cases 
of abusive corporate power. Speakers to include,

*Anthony Fenton, Haiti solidarity activist and author of the new book Canada 
in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, examining the case of Canadian 
companies Gildan and SNC-Lavalin in occupied Haiti and Iraq.
*UBC student activist, on the campaign for fair trade and against Starbucks 
“corporate coffee”.
*speaker on ‘Killer Coke’, looking at the rampant abuses of labour activists 
and the environment by Coca Cola in both India and Colombia.

***

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Last Words
>From Satya Magazine
December 1, 1995
In recognition of Shell’s continued silence over the death of Nigerian 
environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa’s execution on November 10, 1995—along 
with eight other activists from the Ogoni people—Satya is proud to be able 
to print Saro-Wiwa’s final statement before the military tribunal that 
condemned him to death.

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 protesting 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, 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. ...

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 honor 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 favored 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

Ken Saro-Wiwa was the President of Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People 
(MOSOP). He was also executive producer of Basi and Company, a popular West 
African TV series, and state commissioner for Rivers State of Nigeria, 
Ministry of Works, Land, and Transport, and a lecturer at the University of 
Lagos.