This Thursday, November 10, Bay Area environmental and human rights activist will join others around the world in celebrating the memory of environmental and indigenous rights hero Ken Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995). Saro-Wiwa, who was also a poet and playwright, co-founded and led a mass nonviolent resistance to Shell and other multinational oil corporations operating in the Ogoni homeland, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. In 1993, protests by MOSOP led Shell to "temporarily" abandon Ogoni territory, but it has not yet succeeded in returning. With weapons and money from Shell, the Nigerian military cracked down hard on Ogoniland, attacking and destroying scores of villages, killing more than 2,000 people and abusing thousands more.

Ten Ogoni leaders were put through a mockery of a trial and executed November 10, 1995. Apart from Ken, they are Dr. Barinem Kiobel, Saturday Dobee, Paul Levula, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate, Daniel Gboko, John Kpuinen, and Baribor Bera. Their arrest, torture and execution led to international condemnation of the Nigerian military regime, which was replaced by a 'civilian' government under western-educated General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1998.

Even at this high cost, the Ogoni resistance transformed the politics of the Niger Delta and galvanized indigenous resistance to oil extraction around the world.

Activists from Amazon Watch and Amnesty International will press Chevron to end its own practices of environmental and human rights abuse in the Niger Delta and else where at a protest at its world headquarters in San Ramon at 11am. Later, a vigil in memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa will be held at San Francisco City Hall at 6pm.

[Wikipedia: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People| Saro-Wiwa & the Ogoni| Other Remembrance Events: 1 2| Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization: Ogoni Background]