Esther Stanford-Xosei
The following reading is from Ken Saro-Wiwa’s speech, which he was prevented from reading in court towards the end of his trial by the Military Tribunal, that sentenced him to death by hanging on October 31, 1995. It gives historical context to the justice-focused activism of communities of resistance in Nigeria, like the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), as well as others across Afrika and other parts of the Global South who have in various ways been involved in non-violent ‘rebellion’ in defence of life, land and our Mother Earth.
On the 25th anniversary of the murder of Maangamizi Martyr, Ken Saro Wiwa, it is a fitting tribute that we in the UK do all we can to ensure that the British Government and state-supported corporations stop their criminal complicity in the still ongoing Maangamizi crimes of Genocide and Ecocide; because of its British Empire 2.0 role in maintaining the Coloniality of Power which is reinforcing Neocolonialism in Nigeria and other parts of so-called Anglophone Afrika today. One way this can be done is to support the growing popular demand for the decriminalization and complete exoneration of the martyred Ken-Saro Wiwa and others of the Ogoni 9, as being amplified by the growing coalition of West Afrikan progressive forces that are embarking, with their Operation WAHALANUSE, upon campaigning for a Pan-Afrikan Green Economy Transformation Action Programme (PAGETAP).
– Esther Stanford-Xosei, Stop The Maangamizi Campaign & Extinction Rebellion Internationalist Solidarity Network