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On 31 October 1995, Ogoni nationalist and environmentalist leader Kenule Benson Saro-Wiwa was sentenced to death by the Nigerian military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. On 10 November, the sentence was carried out; Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hanged. A broad international outrage ensued; state governments, human rights NGOs, and environmentalist organizations excoriated the Nigerian authorities for what they perceived as an egregiously illegitimate execution, an unjustifiable denial of due process, and a draconian suppression of free political expression for the benefit of multinational oil companies and their shareholders and customers, as well as the Nigerian dictators.
Unfortunately lost in the uproar over the execution was the Ogoni collective demand for "autonomy" or self-determination, perhaps because it was by far the most problematic and controversial of all the claims that the Ogoni, led by Saro-Wiwa, have made over the past five years. Ogoni claims have been heard at meetings of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Peoples (UNWGIP) since the early 1990s, when their case was first addressed by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) as one of its focus issues.1 For the past several years, Ken Saro-Wiwa's name has been mentioned frequently at UNWGIP meetings, due to his recognition as the international spokesperson of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), his courageous will to lead a movement against international oil and the Nigerian dictators, and his consequential imprisonment and execution.
When the Ogoni question has been addressed in the United Nations, it has almost always been with reference to the Ogoni as an "ethnic group." However, within the terms of analysis that are standardized within the UN, the Ogoni are an "indigenous people" and MOSOP is credibly understood as an indigenous people's organization. By appearances, the Ogoni meet the definitional criteria of an indigenous people that is established in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). In 1991, when MOSOP published its "Ogoni Bill of Rights" (the full text of which is reproduced in this Bulletin, starting on page 17), it employed language and content in the document that appears closely related to the language and content of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially in asserting the people's association with a particular homeland and the demand for autonomy from the surrounding state.
It is of major importance to determine whether the Ogoni should be considered an indigenous people or an ethnic group; regularizing the semantics that would clarify this question is crucial for treating the broader question of indigenous politics in Nigeria and in Africa more generally. This article attempts to flush out the political implications of the terminology bound up in the Ogoni case. The article also seeks to root out the dimensions and source of Ogoni demands and to expose the fear that these provoke, not only for the Nigerian state, but also for other African states, as well as for the entire world system of states represented by the United Nations, and also, of course, for the multinational oil companies that have been the most visible threat to the Ogoni nation in current time.
Fourth World Bulletin • Spring/Summer 1996
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
Created by Aigis Communications, Ltd