In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy [1st U.S. ed.] 1586420259, 9781586420253

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in th

adowofasaint a son's

to

journey

understand his

father's legacy

ken wiwa

r

~^

~' :

MEMOIR

s2 6.00

y father. Where does he end and where

Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed

One of

in

do

I

begin?"

November

1995.

Nigeria's best-loved writers, a successful busi-

nessman, and an outspoken

of military

critic

rule,

he

brought the human rights abuses of Shell Oil and the Nigerian government attention. his

in his native

Ogoni

to the world

s

His death was headline news internationally;

name became

potent symbol in the struggle

a

between indigenous peoples and the forces of globalization.

In

accomplished memoir, Saro-Wiwa's

this

eldest son,

Ken Wiwa, recounts

a

saga that has "all

the ingredients of a Shakespearean drama," said the

(London)

Obserwr. "This elegantly written

book

is

a

weave of Nigerian and family history, both turbulent,

both

tragic, neither

without hope.

of being trapped

story

heroes

who

given,

of

find their lives shaped by their parents."

Ken Wiwa was born id.

moreover, a

It is,

in history; the children

Much

is

in

Nigeria and educated in

expected of those

and the father expected

his

son to return

home

up the struggle

for

which so many had

(ought, suffered, and died.

The

son resisted, distanc-

,\nd

take

ing himself, until his father was arrested and sentenced

him nO choice but

to be hanged, leaving his father's plight

With

mu\ take up the

the refusal of

condemned man's

the world's leaders to press the

death Ken

journey to make peace with

understood

I

le

fight to save his life.

cause, the son's efforts

ure. After Ins father's

ended up finding

to publicize

went

.1

Wiwa

man

searching

ended set

he barely

for

his

off on

]

a

knew or

father

himself".

:;.

in fail-

and

intheshadowofasaint

intheshadowofasaint a son's

journey to understand

his father's legacy

ken wiwa

STEERFORTH PRESS SOUTH ROYALTON, VERMONT

First

published in 2000 by Alfred A. Knopf, Canada

Copyright

© 2001

by Ken

Wiwa

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED For information about permission to reproduce

from

selections

this

book, write

Steerforth Press l.c, p.o.

Box

to:

70,

South Royalton, Vermont 05068

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wiwa, Ken, 1968shadow of a

In the

Ken Wiwa.

legacy /

saint

—

a son's journey to

understand

his father's

U.S. ed.

cm.

p.

ISBN 1-58642-025-9 1.

:

1st

(alk.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken, 1941-

paper) 2.

Wiwa, Ken, 1968-

3.

Political

—Nigeria—Biography. Authors, Nigerian—20th —Biography. Military persecution— Nigeria. government—Nigeria. Nigeria— and government— 1960-

activists

4.

century-

5.

Political

6.

Politics

7.

Title.

DT515.83.S25

W582001

966.905'3'o922— dc2i

2001002133

1.

Poems,

Saro-Wiwa Artists,

by

T

excerpts,

94 Harbord

S. Eliot.

Music

letters,

Estate. All rights St,

and

lyrics

by Ken Saro-Wiwa

administered and represented by

Toronto, Ontario,

Reprinted by permission.

Ltd. All rights reserved.

M5S

3.

"One"

Edition

Lyrics

2.

by U2.

Reprinted by permission.

Geoffrey Oryema. Reprinted by permission.

First U.S.

1G6, Canada.

4.

©

The Ken

Westwood

Creative

The Four Quartets

© Blue Mountain

"Solitude" Lyrics by

For Nene

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2012

http://archive.org/details/isbn_9781586420253

contents

Preface i

/

i

Home i

2/ Who's

Afraid of

Ken Saro-Wiwa?

18

3

/

My Father's

House

33

4 /

On a Darkling Plain 45

5

/

Hidden Names, Complex

Fate

56 6 /

The Shadow of a

Saint

65

7 /

Ken Saro-Wiwa House 's

73

8

/

1993 83

9 /

The

Trials

of Ken Saro-Wiwa 97

Rumors of Rain

10 /

108

/

ii

Darkness

at

Noon

127

12 /

The Singing

Anthill

142

3

/

On the Death

of Ken Saro-Wiwa

155

The Shadow of a

14 /

Saint

163

15

/

Unfinished Business 180

16 /

Burma: Running

in the

Family

195

17 /

The Labyrinth of Solitude 216 18

/

Home

.

.

.

225 Postscript

239

Acknowledgments 245

There are at

least

two

stories here.

about forgetting. Very different at once.

Time

is

what

links

One

stories

One

about forgiving.

seeming

to

need

to

be told

them and distinguishes them and

the space of one into the other.

Time and my father.

John Edgar Wideman

blurs

Niger Delta

GULF OF GUINEA

Bonny

islan4

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