After graduating from the University of Ibadan, Saro-Wiwa taught at the government college in Umuahia.
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Ken Wiwa
Ken Wiwa (born 1968, Lagos, Nigeria) is a journalist and author.
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After graduating from the University of Ibadan, Saro-Wiwa taught at the government college in Umuahia, and at Stella Maris Colege in Port Harcourt. He worked also as a teacher at the University of Lagos. Some of Saro-Wiwa’s earlier writings appeared in the student magazine The Horizon, which he edited. During the Biafran civil war he chose the Nigerian side and was the administrator for the oil depot at Bonny Island. He then served in the Rivers State Cabinet as a regional commissioner for education. In 1973 he was dismissed due his opinions on autonomy for the Ogoni people. Oil had been found in the region in the late 1950s, but economic growth and big business also created around it an entangled web of political intrigues, environmental problems and corruption. Through his writings Saro-Wiwa became increasingly involved in activities, which brought national and international attention to the campaign of the Ogoni people. However, he did not imagine that he would become a full-time writer. He once said that “the writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.”
In the 1970s Saro-Wiwa established several retail and real estate ventures. Most of his books were published by his Saros publishing company. As a writer he first achieved fame with the awarded radio play ‘The Transistor Radio’ in 1972. Several of his short stories and journalistic works he wrote for Sam Amuka-Pemu’s newspapers and magazines. In Vanguard he published political columns and from 1989 he wrote the “Similla” column for a local Sunday newspaper. Amuka-Pemu was killed in 1977 after founding The Punch magazine. In 1991 Saro-Wiwa dedicated his collection of essays, Nigeria, The Brink of Disaster, to him.
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An Evening With Ken Wiwa.
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Greed, Betrayal and the Battle for Nigeria's Oil Money | The Ken Saro-Wiwa Story
Faces Of Africa Ken Saro-Wiwa: All For My People
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