WIWA, Ken 1968-

PERSONAL: Original name, Kenule Bornale Tsaro-Wiwa; born 1968 in Lagos, Nigeria; two sons. Education: Attended the University of London.

ADDRESSES: Home—Toronto, Canada. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House of Canada Limited, One Toronto St., Unit 300, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5C 2V6.

CAREER: Author, broadcaster, journalist, and human rights activist. Managing Director, Saros International; Toronto Globe and Mail, feature writer; Massey College, University of Toronto, senior resident writer. Guardian (London), reporter.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Newspaper Award nomination, 2002, for feature writing; Saul Rae Fellow, Munk Centre for International Studies.

WRITINGS:

In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, Alfred A. Knopf (Toronto, Canada), 2000.

Contributor to publications such as Observer, Independent Times (London), and Sunday Telegraph. Ken Wiwa's documentaries have appeared on the BBC, Britain's Channel 4, and the CBC and on channels in Sweden, Finland, South Africa, and Australia.

SIDELIGHTS: Ken Wiwa is an international journalist, businessman, broadcaster, and human rights activist. Born Kenule Bornale Tsaro-Wiwa in 1968 in Lagos, Nigeria, his Nigerian name means "in troubled times I am fearless—first son of Wiwa." He is the eldest son of famed Nigerian writer, social critic, and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. Wiwa's relationship with his father, and with his father's legendary image, is the subject of his book, In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy.

When he was nine years old, Wiwa, his mother, and his siblings moved to England. There, Wiwa and his two brothers and two sisters received a high-quality education at some of Britain's most prestigious private schools. However, when his studies were complete, Wiwa's plans and wishes began to diverge from those of his father. "He hoped, he expected, that we would return to Nigeria at the end of our studies and apply our expensively educated minds to the resolution of the problems facing our people," Wiwa wrote in In the Shadow of a Saint, quoted on the Africana Web site. "But if there was one thing I was sure of in March 1992, it was that I didn't want to return to Nigeria. There were all kinds of complicated reasons for this but the only one I could articulate at the time was that it was what my father wanted me to do. I wanted to make my own choices, and I needed to make my own choices."

This decision had profound effects on Wiwa. "How, as an adolescent boy, do you undertake the necessary business of defining yourself against your father, without being racked with guilt that your self-definition betrays his fight against the giant forces that oppose him?" asked Rob Nixon in a review of In the Shadow of a Saint in New York Times Book Review. Saro-Wiwa was a constant opponent of globalization, military oppression, and environmental and human rights abuses by Shell Oil in Nigeria. He was a vigorous advocate for the rights and culture of the Ogoni people, who received little return on the billions of dollars worth of oil pumped out of the Niger delta and who were increasingly sickened by pollution and oil spills connected to exploitation of the region's petroleum resources. "When he wasn't writing novels, polemics and imaginary cultural histories, Saro-Wiwa challenged Shell Nigeria to clean up the environment, to compensate the people for the damage done, and to pay fairly for the land it used," Wrote Miranda Pyne on the Africana Web site. "He became an indigenous symbol of resistance against international corporations and ruthless regimes who cared little about either the fate of the country or its people."

In the face of the larger-than-life image of Saro-Wiwa and the activities of a father so intensely dedicated to a higher cause, Wiwa struggled to reconcile his father's role as a "saint" who risked all for the sake of his country with a father-son relationship so tumultuous that the younger Wiwa ultimately legally changed his name. When Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for his fierce activism by the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha, Wiwa found he could no longer distance himself from his father. He left his journalist job in London "to lead an international struggle to save his father's life," wrote Pyne. "But the wheels of execution were inexorable." Despite the efforts of Wiwa, famed rights crusader Nelson Mandela, and fellow Nigerians, Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged, along with several other Ogoni men, on dubious charges of inciting others to murder. Among the accusations against Saro-Wiwa were "trumped-up charges of murdering four Ogoni chiefs, among them his own wife's brother," Pyne wrote. Mandela, who had supported diplomacy to secure Saro-Wiwa's release, "later bitterly regretted publicly that the International Community had not done quite enough to save Wiwa, who was executed on November 10, 1995," wrote Pyne.

Saro-Wiwa's execution "made him an international martyr and a symbol for the Nigerian opposition," wrote Edward G. McCormack in Library Journal. Wiwa's reaction to his father's death was a mixture of grief, guilt, resentment, and the knowledge that the struggle had to continue, despite what loomed as a "daunting emotional challenge of living up to an almost mythically famous parent," wrote a Publisher's Weekly reviewer. In the Shadow of a Saint further recounts the mature Wiwa's acceptance of his father's cause and his own efforts to continue the struggle for human rights and economic equality in Nigeria. The book's "later chapters possess a meditative depth and journalistic energy that make for a rewarding journey," Nixon wrote. In contrast to his own story, Wiwa includes material on the children of other prominent activists, including Zindzi Mandela, daughter of Nelson Mandela; Nkosinathi Biko, son of Steven Biko, and Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burmese Independence leader Aung San. The shadow the saint, it appears, falls across many.

The Publishers Weekly critic called In the Shadow of a Saint an "impassioned and detailed memoir" and "an excellent behind-the-scenes look at his father." A reviewer in Maclean's commented that the book is "a fascinating account of [Wiwa's] troubled homeland, and a touching portrait of his talented father." Pyne remarked that "In the Shadow of a Saint is a frank and honest portrait of a leader, as well as a sensitive, nuanced memoir."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, winter, 2001, William Boyd, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 357.

Booklist, June 1, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 1834.

Guardian, November 17, 1995, "There's Only One Ken Saro-Wiwa, and It's Not Me," interview with Ken Wiwa, p. T2.

Library Journal, November 1, 2001, Edward G. McCormack, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 104.

London Review of Books, July 25, 2002, Adewale Maja-Pearce, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, pp. 23-25.

Maclean's, December 4, 2000, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 87.

New York Times Book Review, October 21, 2001, Rob Nixon, "The Martyr's Son," review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 27.

Publishers Weekly, July 9, 2001, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 56.

Times Higher Education Supplement, December 22, 2000, Mandy Garner, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. 25.

Wall Street Journal,, November 11, 1996, "Survivors of Two Nigerian Activists Sue Royal Dutch and Shell Transport," p. B9A.

Washington Post,, October 10, 2001, Keith B. Richburg, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy, p. C11.

ONLINE

Africana,,http://www.africana.com (December 12, 2002), Miranda Pyne, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy.

Dispatch Onlinehttp://www.dispatch.co.za (January 27, 2001), review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy.

New York Times Web site,http://www.nytimes.com (October 21, 2001), Rob Nixon, review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy.

Nigeria Arts,http://www.nigeria-arts.net (January 23, 2003), biography of Ken Wiwa.

Steerforth Press Web site,,http://www.steerforth.com (December 12, 2002).

Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation Web site,http://www.unpo.org (October-December 2001), review of In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand His Father's Legacy.*