Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa
(1927-1995)
"We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas .... 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 repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial .... On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them....."Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, an outspoken advocate for the economic and environmental rights of the Ogoni people, was executed by hanging on November 10, 1995, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He stated the following before the Civil Disturbances Tribunal that convicted and condemned him to death on October 31, 1995:
"To Saragua, Rainmaker"
by Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa
We have returned
With empty hands
And hollow minds
From the thunderstorms
Raining blood
Oh mighty one
Whose wink brings rain
We did not pray for war
Wash the stain of strife away
We'll speak no more
Of coups and coronels
And raids at dead of night;
We'll forget the bombs
Build scores of tombs
And bury the dead.
Receive us, mighty one,
With a cleansing shower.
"...We did not pray for war...
We'll speak no more
Of coups and coronels...
Receive us, mighty one,
With a cleansing shower."
