Ken Saro-Wiwa

Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was born 10 October 1941, a member of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, where crude oil extraction had been underway since the 1950s and left the land and waters wrecked by indiscriminate petroleum waste. A writer, teacher, and television producer, he became spokesperson and then president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, pressing international oil companies - especially Royal Dutch Shell - and a Nigerian government unwilling to enforce environmental regulations. At the peak of the nonviolent campaign, a special military tribunal tried him for allegedly masterminding the murder of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting. General Sani Abacha's dictatorship hanged him on 10 November 1995. The international outrage was immediate, and Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth for more than three years.