History

The Kenule Saro-Wiwa Foundation (KSWF) was started in memory of the exceptional work of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was born in Bori in Rivers State, Nigeria, on 10 October 1941. He deployed his writings, intellectualism, skills and charisma, resources and towering personae to coordinate his people to:

• Resist environmental injustices through mass but nonviolent actions,
• Assert their identity against ethnic hegemonies by the majority tribes,
• Defend their ecological rights in the face of oil extraction, and
• To rise up against political marginalization

To pursue these aspirations, Ken Saro-Wiwa founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990; to highlight the plights of his people against internal colonialism and conquistador by the Nigerian nation-state.

He successfully mobilized the Ogoni people into a mass movement of nonviolent agitators to resist systemic oppression; fueled by collaboration between state and multinationals – to gain unchecked access to crude oil from a weak and minority ethnic group (the Ogonis).

But due to the potency of his campaign to expose injustices, Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered on 10^th November 1995 by a dictatorial regime in Nigeria. Three decades after, the priceless sacrifices for his people continue to keep Saro-Wiwa in the heart of the world as a martyr for the Ogoni people.  

Ken Saro-Wiwa is forever remembered as an indigenous and ecological rights campaigner, a political rights advocate, and human rights activist. His activism continues to be the beacon of hope, a true symbol and expression of modern Africans’ struggle against military dictatorship, corporate power, and environmental exploitation. He was also involved in education, arts and theatre. He was a writer, television producer, businessman, and civil servant, among many other roles.

Through the KSWF, his legacy lives on with programs that are conceptualized to promote his ideologies as well as the issues he cared about for the Ogoni people, Nigeria, sub-Saharan Africa and the world.

As KSWF, we are the repository of the vision, ideologies and works of Ken Saro-Wiwa. We are positioned to keep his legacy aflame.