The archive of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was donated to the Library at N.U.I. Maynooth in November 2011 by his friend and supporter, Sister Majella McCarron. The event was marked by a reception in the Russell Library
The Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive consists of twenty-eight letters from Saro-Wiwa to Sister Majella, twenty-seven poems, seven video cassettes, and numerous articles and reviews. The significance of the archive is that it captures in rich detail the last two years of Saro-Wiwa’s life, and documents his transition from activist to political prisoner. The letters and poems in particular record themes such as the on-going struggle to protect the Ogoni people, growing instability in
A letter to Sister Majella, dated
‘My condition is not very bad. I have an air-conditioned room to myself, and the electricity has only failed once. I can write and only yesterday succeeded in smuggling my computer into this place. I can cook (though I cannot cook) for myself and from time to time, I can smuggle out letters…The only thing is that family members, lawyers and doctor are not allowed to see me.’
Despite his lack of freedom, Saro-Wiwa continued to write. Many of his letters to Sister Majella contain references to novels, short stories and other written material that he was working on. The collection of poems Saro-Wiwa produced during this period also bears testament to this, with wide-ranging themes including the struggle of the Ogoni people, his prison conditions, love, and the tragic death of his son. He notes the following in a letter, dated
‘I’m keeping myself mentally busy and doing a lot of those things which I may not have done as a free man’.
On the subject of getting access to his writing materials whilst in captivity, Saro-Wiwa states in the same letter:
‘Getting all these things in has meant paying money out to my guards – quite a sum of money, Nigeria being Nigeria…Freedom can be quite expensive or cheap depending on how you look at it. To those who have freedom, it’s cheap, those of us who lack it, pay a lot to get just a bit’
Genocide in Nigeria, The Ogoni Tragedy by Ken Saro-Wiwa
To the fore of Saro-Wiwa’s mind, however, is always the plight of the Ogoni people. Letter after letter, he expresses his concern regarding their welfare. His commitment to his people and their protection is unwavering, even when he himself is faced with death. In a letter dated
‘My moments of depression here had more to do with the political situation in the country, worries over the Ogoni and such-like than the fact of my confinement. I miss my family, of course, but…it is a fitting price to pay for the joy of others’.
These worries are echoed in his undated poem ‘Ogoni Ogoni’ where he refers to the environmental damage caused to the ‘ancestral farmlands’ of Ogoniland.
Throughout his detention, and during some of the darkest chapters in his life, Saro-Wiwa reached out, again and again, to his friend Sister Majella or ‘Sister M’ as he often referred to her in his letters. Aside from exchanging ideas about politics and current affairs, some of his letters refer to matters of a more personal nature, with updates on the health, well-being and whereabouts of various members of his family. A quote from another of his letters, dated
‘I long to see you back in Nigeria, helping among others, to guide the Ogoni people…You don’t know what help you have been to us, and to me personally, intellectually.’
Ken Saro-Wiwa was tried and sentenced to death by a special military tribunal. He was hanged on
Thanks to the generosity of Sister Majella, professional archival work will progress on this important archival collection over the coming months.
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