Items

• World Service

  "Today 7:15 Off The Shelf: African Stories. Civil Peace, by Chinua Achebe."
• Violence Hits Central Johannesburg after Execution of Moloise

  International outrage and violent demonstrations in the centre of Johannesburg followed the execution yesterday in Pretoria of Benjamin Moloise, a black South African poet. The execution - carried out in spite of pleas from around the world for clemency - prompted an angry response from Commonwealth heads of government, meeting in Nassau. Efforts are under way there to draw up a joint policy aimed to end apartheid in South Africa. [Article continues to describe Margaret Thatcher's involvement, and the meeting of the Commonwealth leaders/how they plan to work to end apartheid.]
• The arrest of Ken Saro-Wiwa

  [Excerpt]: "At three o'clock on the afternoon of June 21, the President of the Nigerian Association of Writers, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was arrested in Port Harcourt, and has been held incommunicado ever since. He had long been expecting such a move against him. He had also long had doubts about the value of literature as a vocation in a social and political situation as critical as Nigeria's. For the past two years, he had devoted himself to promoting the interests of the Ogoni people, the ethnic group to which he belongs... Born in 1941, he attended Umuahia Government College, the school from which many eminent Nigerian writers--Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Christopher Okigbo among others-- graduated...."
• Pretoria judge delays hanging

  A three week stay of execution was granted last night to Benjamin Moloise, who was due to be hanged shortly after dawn today for the murder of a black security policeman... Moloise, a poet and upholsterer, aged 30, was convincted in November 1983 of the murder of Warrant Officer Phillip Selope, who was shot in an ambush in a township outside Pretoria a year earlier. The African National Congress has said it ordered the "execution" of the policeman for his part in the arrest of three ANC guerrillas who were later hanged in Pretoria, but that Moloise had no part in it.
• New writers emerge after the 'big sleep'

  [Excerpt]: "Nigerian writing received its second wind in exile. Over the past decade, a new crop of Nigerian writers, celebrated in the diaspora, has resuscitated Nigeria's literary tradition. At home, it is the business of publishing, rather than the art of writing that is uppermost in many young writers' minds. Two decades of military rule coupled with the crippling effects of Nigeria's precipitous economic decline in teh [sic] 1980s and 1990s hs left the cultural landscape in ruins... Several UK publishers, including Oxford University Press, Evans, and, most notably, Heinemann, had set up shop in Ibadan, south-west Nigeria, and were able to tap the literary talents emerging from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria's foremost seat of learning. Magazines such as Black Orpheus and The Horn, showcased the work of such writers as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Elechi Amadi, Ama Ata Aidoo and Ezekiel Mphalele, the South African writer. From the 1960s and well into the 1980s and 1990s, Heinemann's African Writers Series, distributed acorss the writers into international household names..."
• Black poet will hang on Friday after Botha rules out retrial

  President Botha of South Africa turned down a petition yesterday for a retrial of a black man sentenced to death in June 1983 for the murder of a security policeman, also black, seven months earlier. The convicted man, Benjamin Moloise, aged 30, a poet and upholsterer by trade, who has been in "Death Row" in Pretoria Central Prison since his conviction, will be hanged on Friday. No further appeal is possible. ...Fears have been expressed that the execution could provoke a violent reaction from blacks at a time of serious unrest. A partial state of emergency has been in force in South Africa since July 20. [Article continues to describe other instances of violent unrest.]
• Black poet reprieved

  Lawyers won a 21-day stay of execution for black South African poet Benjamin Moloise who was due to have been hanged in Pretoria this morning for killing a policeman.
• Black poet defiant in face of death

  The mother of Benjamin Moloise, the poet convicted of killing a black security policeman, yesterday sang the song he intends to chant as he is led to the gallows in Pretoria Central prison today... Mrs. Moloise said her son gave a clenched fist black nationalist salute as he was led from the interview room back to his cell... The ANC said that if Moloise goes to the gallows his death would be avenged "in every corner of our land."
• Police hold 280 after apartheid sit-down

  "On Friday, black youths rampaged through the streets of Johannesburg after a memorial service for the excuted Benjamin Moloise."
• Crafty Words, Bloody Deeds

  "The police shootings in Capetown and the execution of Benjamin Moloise despite a last minute plea for clemency from Commonwealth leaders, hardened the positions of those urging sanctions."
• Repressing the Rebels

  "When news that Benjamin Moloise had been hanged in Pretoria prison was confirmed on Friday, a Johannesburg businessman commented: "This government has a reputation for shooting itself in the foot. This time it shot itself in both feet.""
• Today 10 November

  "12:30 The Late Story. On the Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa by Ken Saro-Wiwa.
• BBC1

  "8.00 In Remembrance. Ken Saro-Wiwa. A tribute to Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian environmental and minority rights leader, on the first year anniversary of his execution."
• The heavy burden of white man's guilt

  "No sooner had been executed than the hunt was on for Western culprits."
• Persecuted hero or pet prisoner of the chattering classes?

  "Donu Kogbara says the case of the imprisoned Nigerian is not as simple as it looks to his fashionable supporters."
• Radio

  "4.45 Short Story on the death of Ken Saro Wiwa written by Ken Saro Wiwa."
• Pick of the day

  "Lord Oliver's son Richard and the Nigerian dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa's son also called Ken, discuss their famous father's in Between Them.'
• Nigeria poised to hang more Ogoni dissidents

  "They are charged with complicity in the murders for which writer Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others were hanged in November."
• Rifkind threatens Nigeria sanctions

  "Nigeria called its suspension "unfortunate, unfair, and baseless'"
• Strong world from freedom fighters

  "When the late Nigerian writer was first arrested in 1994, a small group of his family and friends in Britain tried to have him released from prison."
• Body Shop helps Wiwa flee Nigeria

  "THe Waiwas had hoped that the death sentences on Saro-Wiwa and his eight friends would be commuted."
• Under Fire

  "Shell has caused outrage by pressing on with a £2.6Bn gas project in Nigeria, fueling the debate on big business ethics."
• Anniversaries

  "1995 Writer and activist is hanged in Nigeria."
• Critics' choice

  "Ever since, the Ogoni have been victims of brutal assaults and their villages destroyed by murdering thugs and their leader, Ken Saro-Wiwa, imprisoned for the past year without medical help or legal representation."
• Rise and Fall of an Oil Baron

  "When Ken Saro Wiwa started a popular protest movement, the oil company was alarmed by the threat of disruption to its operations."