Word: ogonis
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...export earnings and 40% of its gdp. But the vast majority of the people of the Delta still live in severe and visible poverty. One of the first activists to speak out against this imbalance was businessman, TV writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, from the Ogoni region, east of Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt. Saro-Wiwa preached nonviolence, but Nigeria's then military government charged him with having "counseled and procured" the murder of four Ogoni elders, and in 1995 hanged him, to international condemnation. Despite the return to democracy and government promises to improve the lives...
...Mitee, a human-rights campaigner in Port Harcourt, who describes the Delta's problems as "a crisis of frustration," which he hopes can be solved without violence. "[The militants] are seen as people who can stand up to the oppressors." Mitee heads the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (mosop), the group founded by Saro-Wiwa. In January, he was asked to negotiate the release of the first hostages taken by mend. When Mitee arrived at the camp where the hostages were being held, he was shocked. "I consider myself a person who can speak on these issues...
...Winning hearts and minds could take years, however. "We still do not trust Shell," says Ledum Mitee, who runs the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, which Saro-Wiwa founded before being hanged. Mitee claims his members aren't responsible for the latest attacks. He says Shell must apologize for its practices of the past and begin direct talks with activists. Until then, "this is a situation which is really prone to violence," he says. With global oil supplies still tight, that's a warning that producers and consumers around the world would do well to heed...
During that struggle, Soyinka’s colleague, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who advocated the autonomy of the Ogoni people and fair distribution of the nation’s wealth, was arrested on false charges of treason and murder and hanged with eight of his companions...
Whether Saro-Wiwa was the innocent martyr he is made out to be is a matter of contention. Some argue that Saro-Wiwa invited and incited the Ogoni to unjust civil disobedience; others claim that while he never ordered murders, he is still responsible for fanning the flames of frustration in the hearts of the Ogoni with his words and actions. Undoubtedly, Saro-Wiwa mobilized the Ogoni to counter the gross injustice of their situation. He believed in the accountability of Shell to Ogoni, who's land was being exploited; and he believed they should be compensated for their loss...