Ken Saro-Wiwa

KEN SARO-WIWA: TEN YEARS AFTER THE HANGING


By UZOR MAXIM UZOATU



Ken Saro-Wiwa was controversial in life, and his death by hanging was even more so. It is therefore understandable that any discussion of the man is almost always fraught with controversy. A book about to be published, Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and Other Essays by Adewale Maja-Pearce, is currently bogged down by controversy bordering on censorship.

Becky Clarke of Ayebia Clarke Literary Agency & Publishing Ltd had all but agreed terms with Adewale Maja-Pearce to have the book released in the first half of the year. Becky and Adewale had been friends since their days in the African Writers Series (AWS) and the publisher suggested there was no overarching need to sign a formal contract. The title essay “Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa” had earlier been sold by Adewale to Lagos-based Glendora magazine published by Kunle Tejuosho. This background is crucial in the light of unfolding events.

Author and publisher were at peace, promoting the forthcoming book in their different ways. Then The Guardian of March 19, 2005, published an interview with Adewale. The rather solicitous reporter who conducted the interview Tajudeen Sowole writes: “For late Ken Saro-Wiwa, it is back to back attack from Maja-Pearce. While The (sic) Mask Dancing (an earlier book by Adewale) has the author faulting the late Ogoni activist’s literary use of English in the latter’s book Soza Boy (sic), Maja-Pearce’s new book Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Essays due to be launched soon has a stronger (sic) view on the late poet. Disclosing some of the issues raised in the book, he narrated how he was forced to re-visit Ken Saro-Wiwa because the Ogoni question cannot be divorced from the complex nature of Ken who was one of the leading character” (sic). The reporter goes on to quote Adewale directly as saying: “Ken was part of the problem.” According to the report, Adewale said Ken had a “long romance with the federal government and military establishments” while insisting that Ken was Abacha’s friend: “They were neighbours in Port Harcourt during the civil war.” The Sowole report continues thus: “Until the tragic death of Ken the children of late General Sanni Abacha and that of the activist were friends, Maja-Pearce said. The veracity of his assertion notwithstanding, this may not be strong enough to post-humously (sic) dock Ken in the court of morality.”

It is obvious that reporter Tajudeen Sowole has more than a soft spot for his beloved Ken Saro-Wiwa! The first inkling I had of the trouble afoot was when I got a call from Dr Ike Okonta, the Caine Prize nominee, asking if I had read Adewale’s interview and if I knew anything about the proposed book. Of course I replied that I had read the essay in typescript and that it posed no dangers whatsoever to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s legacy. I felt that the essay would elicit much-needed intellectual engagement in the Ken Saro-Wiwa enterprise rather than the hagiographies that are the order of the day. I told Okonta to wait for the book to come out instead of coming to judgment based on a poorly presented newspaper article for I believe in the dictum of Thomas Hardy: “Never retract, never explain, get it out and let them howl!”

Ken Saro-Wiwa’s son, Ken Wiwa, author of In the Shadow of a Saint, was however beside himself with rage and fired a riposte to Adewale’s publisher: “I just saw Adewale Maja-Pearce’s interview in the Nigerian Guardian and I’m livid. I cannot believe he is still repeating the same lies he has been peddling for years regarding my father’s financial affairs. Let me be frank about this – Adewale Maja-Pearce is a liar and poor excuse for an objective journalist. He has never substantiated ANY of his claims about my father’s business dealings – he constantly repeats old allegations and rumours that have NEVER been proven by ANYONE. Don’t you think it is time to put an end trying Ken Saro-Wiwa by rumour? Don’t you think it is time responsible people, especially Nigerians, insist on reconstructing our history and our futures on the basis of solid facts instead of recycling rumours and allegations that have been put out to smear the hard earned reputations of honest men? Etc. etc…”

Publisher Clarke who was almost poised to release the book now had to go back to “re-editing” it in order to stay in line with the liberal establishment that had always held Ken Saro-Wiwa up as a saint. Adewale on his part argued that he would only remove a word if a qualified libel lawyer found anything libelous in the essay. Incidentally Adewale stresses that Ken Wiwa helped him with some of his sources for the essay, notably Richard Boele who in his 1995 Report of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) Mission to Investigate the Situation of the Ogonis of Nigeria wrote: “In Nigeria, there is a clear patronage system that usually runs along family, tribal, or friendship lines. Large sums of money are simply given through the granting of government or company contracts for road building, electrification and so on… Many of the Ogoni leaders… benefited from this patronage system – securing either government or oil company contracts… Ken Saro-Wiwa also received such government contracts in the 70s and 80s but ceded this practice in the 1990s so as not to compromise him once he became actively involved in the political struggle…”

The point really is that it diminishes the Ken Saro-Wiwa legend if a book has to be stopped to keep it up. No book or essay can defeat a man whose cause is well situated as Ken and the Ogoni cause. The recourse to blatant censorship is unconscionable. Clarke who was not initially talking of signing a formal contract with Adewale now has this to say: “The way forward is for you to sign a contract. This contract will include the standard right of the publisher to edit your work to make it marketable internationally. Without this undertaking I cannot proceed to publish.” Adewale would rather not publish than change a word. He has since instructed Glendora, the magazine he first sold the essay to, to publish the original essay. He was profoundly surprised when he serendipitously learnt from Lolade Bamidele, the editor of Glendora, that Clarke had sent a re-edited copy of the essay to the magazine in PDF format that cannot be changed.

Author and publisher have clearly fallen apart. My take on the matter is that the book should be published as originally planned. The argument that “the man is dead and unable to defend himself” belittles the fact that Ken Saro-Wiwa left behind an intimidating legacy. In the making of saints, warts and all are explored before the destination is attained.