Ken Saro-Wiwa's art and the aesthetics of non-silence
Date
2008-03-03T07:35:25Z
Authors
George, Austin Tamuno-Opubo
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Abstract
Abstract:
This work examines the writings and other discursive practices of Ken Saro-
Wiwa, the Nigerian dissident writer and minority rights activist, who was hanged
by the military authorities in Nigeria in November 1995. Until his death, Saro-
Wiwa had been a tireless campaigner against transnational oil corporations for
devastating the local ecology while prospecting for oil, and against the Nigerian
state for repressing oil-bearing minority communities through its nationalist
bureaucratic practices. After his death, the ideas of this writer contained in over
twenty literary texts and detention diaries continue to frame and inflame
agitational discourses in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and beyond.
The aim of this work is to identify, interpret and critique the vast miscellany of
oppositional modalities employed by Ken Saro-Wiwa and his Ogoni community in
their tussles with nationalist modernity in Nigeria. Using interpretive protocols
derived mainly from minority discourse theory, I attempt to examine and assess
the place and significance of Ken Saro-Wiwa within the corpus of dissident
culturalist discourse in Africa and beyond.
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Keywords
Ken Saro-Wiwa, aesthetics, non-silence, minority discourse