For Anita Roddick, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

For Anita Roddick

Had I a voice

I would sing your song

Had I a tongue

I would speak your praise

Had I the time

I would live for you

But here, gagged and bound

To the ioor and injustice

And waiting for death

I can only wonder

How you have breathed life

Into the thought that we give

Meaning to being

Only when we share and care.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

I lie Alone at Night, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

I Lie Alone at Night 

I lie alone at night

And think all of one year’s gone

Since I held you in my arms

In the bed we know so well.

I lie alone at night

And see the callous bandits

Break into our hallowed bedroom

Cruelly knife our togetherness.

I lie alone at night

And think of you lying lonely

Dreaming of my return

To the home we love so well

I lie alone at night

And think of the thick boots

Which stalk the halls of tyranny

And crush us underfoot.

I lie alone at night

And wonder why you wait

And endure the gripping pain

Which is my lot to bear.

I lie alone at night

And think of the stranger moon

The stars beyond my gaze

Your beauty like moons and stars

I lie alone at night

And pray the day will come

To mend your broken heart

And steel my breaking soul.

I lie alone at night

And dream a great new dawn

Without boots and knives

Broken hearts, breaking souls

Empty dreams and lonely beds

Stranger moons and searing pain

When you and I and all of us

Can hold hands and sing our love

Into a night captured by peace.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

The Celebrants, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

The Celebrants

They are met once again

To beat drums of confusion

Tattooes of mediocrity

They are met once again

The new cow to lead

To the cyclic slaughterhouse

Where the blood of the last

Yet stinks to skies

Awash with the stench

Of decay and corruption.

So they come and go

Bad dreams, phantoms

In the morning mist

Meteors of a dark sky

Offal at the desecrated shrine

Still they come and go

We welcome them from rooftops

Raucous at each approach

And departure, praise-singing now

Cursing loudly later

Impious votaries of an alien sect

At whom damnation shrieks with wild delight.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

Fire, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Fire

There is a fire in me

Burns all night and day

Flares at injustice

Leaps at oppression

Glows warmly in beauty.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

The True Prison, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

The True Prison

It is not the leaking roof

Nor the singing mosquitoes

In the damp, wretched cell

It is not the clank of the key

As the warden locks you in

It is not the measly rations

Unfit for beast or man

Nor yet the emptiness of day

Dipping into the blankness of night

It is not

It is not

It is not

It is the lies that have been drummed

Into your ears for a generation

It is the security agent running amok

Executing callous calamitous orders

In exchange for a wretched meal a day

The magistrate writing into her book

A punishment she knows is undeserved

The moral decrepitude

The mental ineptitude

The meat of dictators

Cowardice masking as obedience

Lurking in our denigrated souls

It is fear damping our trousers

That we dare not wash

It is this

It is this

It is this

Dear friend, turns our free world

Into a dreary prison

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

For Sr. Majella McCarron, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

For Sr. Majella McCarron

Sr. M, my sweet soul Sr.,

What is it, I often ask, unites

County Fermanagh and Ogoni?

Ah, well, it must be the agony,

The hunger for justice and peace

Which married our memories

To a journey of faith.

How many hours have we shared

And what oceans of ink poured

From fearful hearts beating together

For the voiceless of the earth!

Now, separated by the mighty ocean

And strange lands, we pour forth

Prayers, purpose and pride

Laud the integrity of ideals

Hopefully reach out to the grassroots

Of your Ogoni, my Fermanagh.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

Prison Song, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Prison Song

Bedbugs, fleas and insects

The howl of deranged suspects

The dark night bisect

Rudely breaking my nightmare

And now widely awake

I’m reminded of this crude place

Shared with unusual inmates.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

Victory Song, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Victory Song 

You have raped my land

Black brother, silenced my song

Upon my wholesome breath—

Condemned to a gas dungeon

I suffocate, shriek in pain

Into cold, stone-stuffed ears.

Your fingers drip with my blood

Staining your nails black and crude.

Vampire, tyrant, rapist

Black brother of the same womb

But cruel as the flares that burn

Poisonous gases into our skies.

I lie manacled in chain

In caves of your callous care

But the day will come when I will

break your hard bones

With my claws tear your brain

Consume you in wrathful fires

To the wild winds expose you

Paint the cruel marks of your sin

On the walls of history.

Then shall I, triumphant

Return to our hapless mother

With bright bouquets of peace.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

Keep Out of Prison, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Keep Out of Prison

‘Keep out of prison,’ he wrote

‘Don’t get arrested anymore.’

But while the land is ravaged

And our pure air poisoned

When streams choke with pollution

Silence would be treason

Punishable by a term in prison.

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.

Dis Nigeria Sef, a poem by Ken Saro-Wiwa

Dis Nigeria Sef

Your own come pass two hundred:

Sanu, ekaro, deeyira, tank you, doo

kakifo, nonsense, you no go fit take one!

Nigeria, you too like borrow borrow

You borrow money, cloth you dey borrow

You borrow motor, you borrow aeroplane

You borrow chop, you borrow drink

Sotey you borrow anoder man language

Begin confuse am with your confusion

Anytin you borrow you go confuse am to nonsense

Idiot debtor, wetin you go do

When de owners go come take dem tings?

Ken Saro-Wiwa 

Ken Saro-Wiwa (full name: Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa) was a Nigerian writer, television producer and activist, born in October 10th 1941 in Bori near Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Saro-Wiwa spoke against the country's military regime and Royal Dutch/Shell for the destruction of the environment of the Ogoni people, in his hometown of Rivers state. He was executed on November 10th 1995 in Port Harcourt after being tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Ogoni chiefs in a pro-government meeting. Subsequently, he was hanged by the military dictator of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha. This act of injustice aroused international outrage and led to Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for more than three years.