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Survival Africa Background Sheet When on 10 November 1995 the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa became headline news, many people in the West heard for the first time of the Ogoni people, and their homeland in the delta of the river Niger in the south of Nigeria. Yet for decades oil from beneath the land and waters of the delta peoples has helped to drive our cars and run our economy. The Peoples The delta region is now divided between eight Nigerian states: Abia, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River; and contains nearly 20 million of Nigeria's 91 million population. It is a land of rich soil, lagoons, mangrove swamps, rivers and forest. The people are farmers, and fishers in the rivers and the sea. The roots of these communities go back for thousands of years. Each local clan has its own identity, and often its own language - there are over twenty languages in the region. Yet they are connected by long established links of trade and migration, and marked by their shared history. They are divided into larger ethnic groupings , of which the major one is the Ijaw (Izon) (8,000,000). The Ogoni (est. 500,000) are one of the smaller ones; among the others are the Ikwerre, Etche, Urhobo, Efik, Ibibio, Kale, Isoko, Isekiri and Akwa-Ibom. This is a society of villages and towns, some of which were once powerful city states. Formerly people honoured many deities of earth, sky and water, under a supreme God. Today nearly all are Christians, though the old beliefs are by no means dead. The region's rich tradition of art and folklore includes festivals where masks, costume, song and dance make a total spectacle. >From this background spring many modern artists, musicians and w! riters, of whom Ken Saro-Wiwa was one. The region was the first in Nigeria to come under British control. Today some Ijaw leaders argue that the agreements that their ancestors made with the then British government have never been abrogated, so that their status within the Nigerian state is not legitimate. After Nigeria became independent in 1960, the minority peoples of the delta were shouldered aside in the struggles for power between Nigeria's three main ethnic blocks; the Yoruba in the West, the Hausa-Fulani in the North, and the Ibo in the East. During the Biafran War (1967-70) when the Ibo attempted to secede from Nigeria, the delta peoples were caught between the opposing sides. The Oil Companies Oil exports from Nigeria began in the 1950s, and now account for about 90% of foreign exchange earnings, and 80% of the Federal Government's revenue. Over 90% of this comes from the delta area. The principal company involved is the Anglo-Dutch Shell, in the form of its local subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Others are the French company Elf; the Italian Agip, and the Nigerian state company NNPC. Mobil and Chevron are the main offshore producers. The oil industry has had devastating effects. A report in 1993 found 'badly maintained and leaking pipe lines, polluted water, fountains of emulsified oil pouring into villagers' fields, blow outs, air pollution....' Farms and fisheries are spoiled, and the mangrove swamps, which provide people with building and other materials and are a vital part of the ecosystem, are disappearing. At the same time the people get small benefit from the immense wealth being generated. While the Federal Government gets 80% of the royalties and mining rents, 20% goes to each State government; but the local people see little even of that. Local Political Movements Political protest in the delta goes back to the 1960s, when Major Boro's '12 day revolution' called for a Niger Delta Republic. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) started in the 1980s, and in 1990 issued the Ogoni Bill of Rights. This calls for political autonomy within the Nigerian Federation, and the right to control a fair proportion of the resources produced on their land for their own development. MOSOP soon became a powerful mass movement, with such effect that in 1993, Shell halted its operations in Ogoniland. (An attempt to resume them in 1997 is being strongly resisted by MOSOP.) However a split within the movement led in 1994 to the killings for which Saro-Wiwa and his associates were later condemned, on the shakiest of evidence, and although Saro-Wiwa himself had denounced violence. This was followed in 1992 by the Ijaw (Izon) National Congress. They have produced the Izon Peoples Charter, which makes similar demands to those of MOSOP. Other organisations with kindred aims are the Movement for the Survival of the Izon (Ijaw) Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), the Movement for Reparation to Ogbia, set up by the Ogbia (Ijaw) Community; the Council for Ikwerre Nationality , and the Southern Minorities Movement, which includes twenty-eight ethnic groups. Protest and Repression The military government of General Sani Abacha, which seized power in November 1993 , is guilty of repression and violations of human rights throughout Nigeria, but particularly in the oil-bearing areas. The oil companies, while denying that they can influence Nigerian politics, have shown themselves ready to call in the security forces when faced with local protests. The first major demonstration against SPDC was that of the Etche people, at Umuechem village, Rivers State in October 1990. The local Shell manager called in the notorious Mobile Police (known as 'Kill and Go' ), who attacked peaceful demonstrators with guns and tear gas. About eighty people were killed and the village destroyed. The Ogoni staged their first mass demonstrations in 1993. A military crackdown followed, which amounted to a war against the Ogoni over the next two years. They have suffered shootings, arbitrary arrests, rapes, and massive looting. People are tortured and imprisoned in degrading conditions; in mid-1997, 17 of Ken Saro-Wiwa's associates were still among them. The extreme violence employed by the Abacha regime against the Ogoni, and the execution of their leaders, is clearly intended to terrorise other peoples out of any attempt at protest or self-determination. Much of the violence has been attributed by the Nigerian authorities to 'ethnic' or 'tribal' rivalries. But there is evidence that these rivalries have been fomented from outside. The fighting between Ijaws, Urhobo and Itshikiris in 1997 is an example. Survival is campaigning for an end to military repression in the Niger delta, and for oil multinationals to cease collusion in repressive measures and hasten cleanup operations. We call for the rights of the delta's peoples to be fully recognised, within a framework of democracy and social justice. Resources Addresses in the UK
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