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Before Isidore Okpewho’s Tides, Helon Habila’s Oil on Water and David Attswood’s Blood on Oil, Ken Saro-Wiwa had taken a strong stance against environmental degradation in the oil-rich Rivers State through the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) — a movement which led to his execution and eventual christening as an Ogoni hero.
Born November 10, 1941, Kenule Beeson “Ken” Saro-Wiwa hailed from the Ogoni community in Khana Local Government of Rivers State. A writer par excellence, Ken was a graduate of the English Department at the University of Ibadan; the same university that produced Nobel Laureate winner Wole Soyinka, father of African literature Chinua Achebe, the current head of the civil service of the federation Folashade Mejabi Yemi-Esan CFR and many more.
As a man of the people whose activism was roused when he was still a young boy who had first-hand experience of fishes going belly up and rivers turning grubby black, Ken Saro-Wiwa co-founded MOSOP in 1990. His petition, which captured the voices of the Ogoni people, was simple: a once healthy landscape was now withering and the Ogoniland weren’t benefitting from the environmental plunder.
After a non-violent campaign against Shell, a multinational oil and gas company, and the government, the Ogoni community would become free from the Dutch company’s pillage. But it came at a price: Ken and eight others were accused of masterminding the gruesome murder of certain Ogoni chiefs in what is now known as the Ogoni Nine. Ken was hanged on November 10, 1995, by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.
“I can remember that that day, there was no rain and there was no sun” said Barile Yornah, the Gbene Mene of Ken-Khana Kingdom, Rivers State, while speaking with Arise TV.
27 years later, Shell no longer carries out operations in Ogoniland, but not much else has changed — a rancid smell taints the once-blue seas, saltmarshes cake with dark fumes, the ether reeks of black soot and villages are surfeit with deadly spillages.
Nevertheless, the messenger may have been stopped but the message remains. And Burna Boy, the African Giant who can use his voice for art’s sake as well as he can for life’s sake, takes the baton of an activist for the city he hails from with his new documentary Whiskey.
In a screening of Whiskey on December 8, 2022, Burna Boy said: “Everything was a lot worse than the way I left it. The air was fully polluted, everything would be black when you wake up, even the cars. It’s really what you see in the documentary.”
“This is real life, everyday life for my people. I feel like we’ll make songs about everything else, so why not make songs about what’s really going on and what’s really affecting the people in real time. That’s what the song ‘Whiskey’ is. I hope it does its job and creates the necessary awareness and some type of change comes from this. If you don’t know, now you know.”
The 16-minute documentary is based on the single from his most recent album Love, Damini, and it explores the environmental depredation that Niger Delta, especially Port Harcourt, currently faces.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is the leading cause of death globally, accounting for 3 million fatalities yearly. Similarly, the world bank environmental data showed that in 2015, 94 per cent of Nigerians were exposed to high air pollution levels above the WHO guidelines. A 2018 report ranks Port Harcourt as one of the most polluted cities in the world, with an air index of 188 while Air Visual ranked the city as “very unhealthy” for sensitive groups, having attained an air index of 207.817 in December 2020.
A resident of Port Harcourt, Emmanuel Azubuike, told me that the climate situation in Port Harcourt is alarming and unsafe.
“When I first came to Port Harcourt around 2016, I knew nothing about soot. But when you breathe in and touch your nose or when you run you hands through surfaces, your hands become black. Aside the inconveniences it causes for laundrymen who spread clothes, there is also the consciousness that you’re not breathing in healthy air. It is an alarming experience,” Emmanuel told me.
From a broken woman who lost her child to respiratory disease caused by polluted air to a devastated truck driver whose truck is trapped in water on an undulating expressway, Whiskey shows biting scenes in the oil-rich city of Port Harcourt. As the track ‘Whiskey’ plays in the background — pollution make the air turn black/ Because of oil and gas, my city so dark”, gritty cameras show despondent commuters going about their wares, wide shots show water-riddled streets and bird eye shots depict piles of dying dark earth.
Burna’s documentary echoes the voices of heroes who have fought to save the earth for the sake of all humanity; heroes like Ken Saro-Wiwa, who gave himself up for the wellbeing of the Ogoni people. Burna Boy uses his global hold to call for donations to be made to The R.E.A.C.H. (Reach Every Available Communal Household), a Nigeria-based charity that provides resources including food, clean water, household necessities and medicine to Burna Boy’s community.
For Damini, whiskey could douse his strain and hurt for now, but it only takes a minute before he comes crashing out of ebriety and is reminded of a time before the tides, before oil on water and before oil became thicker than blood. A time that heroes like Ken Saro-Wiwa fought but failed to reclaim.
The post 27 Years After Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Execution, Burna Boy Makes Climate Plea With Whiskey appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
Source: TheNet
