Friday, March 29, 2024

OUR ROOTS: Remembering Ken Saro Wiwa

OUR ROOTS - Saro Wiwa - EURWEB

*It has been 25 years since Nigeria’s Ken Saro-Wiwa and his nine brothers in the struggle against environmental degradation due to oil exploration and exploitation, were murdered by General Sani Abacha, by hanging.

There was a swift reaction by leaders around the world bringing condemnation against despot Abacha. I had the opportunity to meet Ken Saro Wiwa a few times whenever he was in London as he visited West Africa magazine where I worked as resident cartoonist for over 10 years on Coldharbour lane in Camberwell, Southeast London.

You could not miss his black distinct smoking tobacco pipe. It was always on him if he was not using it. When he was arrested by Abacha, the worst president Nigeria has ever had (to borrow Joe Biden’s phrase which he said to Trump about Trump’s presidency during their first debate), his late son Ken Saro Wiwa Jr. would often come to West Africa, Daily Times House building to give an update of his father’s incarceration.

I still can picture his visits. How time flies. Gone but still remembered.

TAYO Fatunla
TAYO Fatunla

TAYO Fatunla is an award-winning Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer and Illustrator. He is one of the participants of the CARTAN Virtual cartoon exhibition marking 60 years of Nigeria. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US. and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated in the UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France and took part in the Afropolitan Comics virtual comics exhibition arranged by the French Institute in South Africa coinciding with its annual National Arts Festival –www.tayofatunla.com/[email protected]

 

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