Bitter end to Ogoni struggle

DEATH IN NIGERIA

ONCE feared for their reputation for cannibalism, the small Ogoni ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria have mounted a David and Goliath struggle against the military government and the most powerful transnational company in the country, the Anglo-Dutch giant Shell.

An estimated 500,000 Ogonis live in 404 square miles of swamps in the Niger River delta. After 30 years of oil production, the land is scarred by oil spills and polluted by the continual flaring of natural gas.

The British landed at Kono in 1901 and declared a protectorate, but full control of Ogoniland was established only in 1914 when Nigeria became a territorial entity. The area was given limited autonomy in 1947 with the creation of the Ogoni Native Authority.

During the 1967-70 Biafra civil war, the Ogonis were occupied by the rebel Igbo forces and then by the federal troops. It was an experience that convinced many Ogonis that without political reform, the big three ethnic groups which dominate Nigeria would exploit minority groups such as the Ogonis.

"We are all black but we are not one people. We worship different gods, our cultures are different," Ken Saro-Wiwa said in a 1993 interview.

A campaign for a clean-up of environmental damage, greater revenues from oil production, and political autonomy began in 1990 with the establishment of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni Peoples (Mosop).

Mosop was initially an umbrella which united traditional chiefs and intellectuals. But it came under severe pressure from the Nigerian military government. Its leaders were harassed and detained. The group published an Ogoni Bill of Rights in 1992 which demanded immediate compensation for ecological damage. Mr Saro-Wiwa was Mosop's publicity secretary.

In 1993, the movement split, with the conservatives accusing Mr Saro- Wiwa of showing dictatorial tendencies. In May last year, four conservative chiefs, including the Mosop vice-president, Chief Edward Kobani, were murdered and their bodies burned by a mob of Mosop supporters. It was for those killings that Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogonis were executed.