Ogoni

ETHNONYMS: Khana

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Ogoni live in an area along the eastern edge of the Niger Delta. Ogoniland, as this area is known, is to the northeast of the Imo River, and the city of Port Harcourt in Rivers State lies to the west. The Ogoni homeland covers more than 400 square miles (1,036 square kilometers), borders the Bay of Guinea, and features deep valleys and gentle slopes. The region once was covered by a thick rain forest but has suffered from deforestation and pollution after decades of aggressive oil exploration.

Ogoni oral history provides a vivid story of the group's origins in the Niger Delta. The version accepted widely by the Ogoni tells of their migration from Ghana during a brutal civil war. Although the dates are not specified in Ogoni narratives, scholars believe that archaeological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Ogoni arrived in the Niger Delta around 15 b.c.e. Ogoni history speaks of an Ogoni woman named Gbenekwaanwaa leading a group composed primarily of warriors, spirit mediums, and medicine men by canoe to the settlement of Nama. Some people believe that this is why the Ogoni describe themselves to others as Khana.

Demography. In 2001 there were an estimated 500,000 Ogoni living in Nigeria, a country with more than 100 million people.

Linguistic Affiliation. In addition to English, three distinct languages are spoken in Ogoniland: Khana, Gokana, and Eleme. Linguists trace these linguistic clusters to the Cross River group of languages in the large Niger-Congo language family.

History and Cultural Relations

Radiocarbon dating in and around Ogoniland suggests that the Ogoni are among the oldest settlers in the Niger Delta. Archaeologists and linguists trace the Ogoni presence in that area to 15 b.c.e. These estimates are supported by references in Ogoni oral history to a "silent trade" that many scholars trace back to the fifth century b.c.e.

Ogoniland did not necessarily play a prominent role in the transatlantic slave trade, and there is little evidence to suggest that Ogoni were enslaved.

When the British entered Nigeria and imposed colonial rule in 1885, they left the Ogoni in relative isolation. Despite indigenous resistance, colonial rule was imposed on the Ogoni in 1914. The Ogoni were not held in great esteem by British colonial officials and were neglected within the ethnically based colonial social structure.

In the late 1940s the Ogoni successfully fought colonial efforts to separate them into groups and incorporate them into the existing territorial divisions of Opobo, Degema, and Ahoada. They also persuaded colonial officials to grant them their own Native Authority, a distinction that had been achieved by many of Nigeria's larger ethnic groups years earlier. However, efforts to preserve the traditional communal system were stymied in 1956, when the Ogoni were divided into three separate county councils: Khana, Gokana, and Eleme.

Their relationship with neighboring ethnic groups was further strained a year later when the Ogoni provided the swing votes for two members of an opposition Nigerian political party, the Action Group. That vote forced the removal of two members of the Igbo-supported ruling party in eastern Nigeria, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. However, conflicts over oil and money have come to define the status of the Ogoni in Nigeria.

Ogoniland was forever altered when oil was discovered by Royal Dutch Shell in 1958. An estimated 900 million barreis of oil worth roughly $30 billion has been exported from the area since 1958. The discovery of oil placed the Ogoni people on a collision course with forces interested in looting the resources of their homeland. The World Council of Churches estimates that since 1993 nearly two thousand Ogoni have been killed and more than thirty thousand displaced as a result of conflict with Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian government over oil exploration in their homeland.

Economy

Subsistence. The Ogoni economy is based largely on fishing and subsistence agricultural production of foods such as yams and cassava. Yams occupy a central place in the economy. They not only are an important source of physical nourishment but also have tremendous spiritual importance in the culture. The annual yam harvest is a time when the Ogoni pay respect to the land on which they live. However, oil reserves dispersed throughout Ogoniland remain a primary source of income for the Nigerian government.

Commercial Activities. Oil exploration and exportation is one of the chief commercial activities in Ogoniland, but many of the most impoverished residents of the area do not receive the benefits derived from oil revenues.

Trade. The Ogoni played a major role in commerce involving agricultural products on the rivers and streams of the Niger Delta. Although the origin of those commercial activities is not known, scholars believe that as early as the thirteenth century Ogoni traders were using large canoes to carry yams, plantains, palm oil, pots, and lumber to sites along the delta. Ogoni traders ventured into the hinterland and returned with salt cones, medicines, copper rods, and iron bars used to make daggers and knives.

Land Tenure. In precolonial times land was used primarily to cultivate crops such as yams, plantains, and cassava. When an individual needed additional income to survive, the culture allowed him to pledge (bere) his land to someone else in exchange for hard currency. The land was never sold outright but instead was used as collateral until the loan was repaid. While awaiting repayment, the pledgee could use the land to earn an additional income by cultivating crops to sell at markets throughout the delta.

Sociopolitical Organization

Political Organization. Ogoniland is organized around six major territorial kingdoms: Babbe, Eleme, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo-Khana, and Tai.

Conflict. The discovery of oil in the Niger Delta and throughout Ogoniland brought with it an intense struggle over money, power, and the right to self-determination. The Shell Oil Company began exploring for oil in Ogoniland in 1958. Since that time more than two-thirds of Nigeria's oil has come from this region, and oil exports from the Niger Delta constitute more than 90 percent of Nigeria's export income. As Shell and the Nigerian government stepped up their efforts to export oil, they came into direct conflict with Ogoni customs and traditions. Ogoni leaders accused Shell and the Nigerian government, led by General Sani Abacha, of exploiting the Ogoni people and their natural resources with little concern for the social and economic impact. Deforestation, environmental pollution, unemployment, and destitution strained an already tense situation. In 1990 Ogoni leaders responded by forming a resistance organization called the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). Doctor Garrick Leton was elected as the group's first president, Chief Kobani as its vice president, and Ken Saro-Wiwa as its publicity secretary.

The poet and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa emerged as one of MOSOP's most vocal and visible leaders. He and other Ogoni leaders crafted an Ogoni Bill of Rights that articulated an alternative environmental, economic, and political arrangement for the exploration and exportation of oil in Ogoniland. MOSOP urged Shell and the Nigerian government to adopt more environmentally responsible methods of exploration and share the immense wealth generated from that exploration with the Ogoni people. MOSOP is a selfdescribed nonviolent movement, and its public protests against the construction of additional pipelines were met at times by fierce and violent government opposition. Ogoni leaders accused Shell of allowing its pipelines to fall into disrepair, leaking oil and contaminating the environment. Shell in turn accused the Ogoni of deliberately sabotaging the pipelines.

On 4 January 1993, MOSOP mobilized 300,000 people, more than two-thirds of the Ogoni population, for a peaceful protest against Shell in the town of Bori. Ogoni Day, as it was called, caught the attention of environmental and political activists worldwide. After consistent and intense pressure from MOSOP and other nongovernmental organizations around the world, Shell halted its operations in Ogoniland in 1993. However, the company returned a year later with support from the Rivers State Internal Security Task Force (ISTF), a special Nigerian military unit formed specifically to suppress the activities of MOSOP. Shell's return and the presence of ISTF sparked another round of fierce protests and public confrontations.

The conflict often turned Ogoni against Ogoni. After an international tour designed to raise global awareness of the plight of the Ogoni, Ken Saro-Wiwa returned to Nigeria in late 1992 with the intention of mobilizing an Ogoni-led boycott of the country's national elections in June 1993. Saro-Wiwa's intentions placed him in direct conflict with some of the more conservative Ogoni elders, who considered the boycott counterproductive. The bitter struggle between the two factions culminated on 21 May 1994, with the brutal murder of four conservative Ogoni leaders in Gokana Kingdom. Although international observers argue that the crimes probably were committed by a group of disaffected youth, the Nigerian government accused Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders of committing the crime. While under arrest, the Ogoni 9" were prohibited from seeing family members and were denied access to lawyers and basic medical care. Despite appeals from international groups, Saro-Wiwa and his fellow detainees were executed on 10 November 1995.

Conditions changed with the death in 1998 of Nigeria's military dictator, General Abacha, and the installment of a democratically elected civilian-led government a year later. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government, working with Shell, has initiated development projects in Ogoniland designed to clean up the environment and bring money and jobs to the Ogoni. In 2001 MOSOP actively participated in hearings held by the Oputa Human Rights Investigation Panel. They submitted the so-called Ogoni 13 petition, urging the Nigerian government to acknowledge the past and accept responsibility for repression by past regimes.

The following is an excerpt from the Ogoni 4 petition presented by Joseph Kobani, a lawyer and the brother of the late Chief Edward Kobani. "The Ogoni crisis .. . started with the gross injustice meted out to the Ogoni people dating back to the period before independence. With the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in Ogoni, the mindless exploitation of this resource brought with it myriads of problems including underdevelopment and environmental degradation. Regrettably no benefit accrued to the Ogoni themselves from this resource. Rather, the proceeds thereof were being used to develop other parts of Nigeria. Ogoni sons and daughters could not find jobs in the oil companies exploiting this resource. Our children could not even go to school where such existed because we could not afford to educate them. It was worse at the federal government level. The sum total of this state of affairs was that the Ogoni people became an endangered species—in danger of extinction."

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Christianity is widely practiced in Ogoniland, but a number of indigenous elements of Ogoni culture are still present. The traditional culture places a great deal of importance on the land, including the abundant streams and rivers that run throughout the region. Those streams and rivers provide food and a source of spiritual nourishment for the Ogoni. They are afforded a good deal of prominence in Ogoni culture and are worshiped by some as a god. The Ogoni also believe that the human spirit or soul can manifest itself in animals.

Arts. In the late 1940s the scholar M. D. W. Jeffreys spent a considerable amount of time investigating the Ogoni pottery industry. According to Jeffreys's account (1947), the women in the Ogoni community handled the production and distribution of pottery. Jeffreys described the pottery as being crafted on a foot-operated turntable called the ladum, a tool shaped like a saucer that stood on a pedestal "about three inches in diameter and two inches high." Upon completion, each item was given a unique brand by the potter, distinguishing the handiwork from that of others in the community. Jeffreys recorded more than forty-five different markings during a visit to a pottery market in Ogoniland. Although Ogoni pottery making was quite common in the late 1940s, Jeffreys indicates in his notes that the craft was rapidly being displaced by the presence and availability of large gasoline and kerosene tins that were proving to be more adaptable to Ogoni needs.

For other cultures in Nigeria, see List of Cultures by Country in Volume 10 and under specific culture names in Volume 9, Africa and the Middle East.

Bibliography

Cayford, S. (1996). uThe Ogoni Uprising: Oil, Human Rights, and a Democratic Alternative in Nigeria," Africa Today 43: 183-197.

Crow, Melissa (1995). 'The Ogoni Crisis: A Case-Study of Military Repression in Southeastern Nigeria," Human Rights Watch 7(5): July 1995.

Endicott-Guthaim Gallery, Inc. (1975). Art of the Ibo, Ibibio, Ogoni. New York: The Gallery.

Jeffreys, M. D. W. (1947). Ogon i Pottery," Man 47: 81-83.

Kpone-Tonwe (1997). "Property Reckoning and Methods of Accumulating Wealth among the Ogoni of the Eastern Niger Delta," Africa 67: 13-158.

Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (1992). Ogoni Bill of Rights: Presented to the Government and People of Nigeria October, 1990. Port Harcourt: Saros International.

Osaghae, Eghosa E. (1995). 'The Ogoni Uprising: Oil Politics, Minority Agitation and the Future of the Nigerian State," African Affairs 94(376): 325.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken (1968). The Ogoni Nation Today and Tomorrow. Port Harcourt: Saros International.

—— (1991). Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster. Lagos: Saros International.

—— (1991). The Singing Anthill: Ogoni Folk Tales. London: Saros International.

—— (1992). Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy. London: Saros International.

—— (1994). Ogoni Moment of Truth. Port Harcourt: Saros International.

ALONFORD JAMES ROBINSON, JR.