Ken Saro-Wiwa: Key Lessons from Silence Would Be Treason — Book Summary & Review

Hi! It’s konkaz (@konkazuk).

The book I’m introducing today is “Silence Would Be Treason“, which tells the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa — a Nigerian hero who was both a writer and an environmental activist.

This book contains letters and poems left behind by Saro-Wiwa, who risked his life fighting against Shell to protect the environment and human rights of the Ogoni people, his homeland.

Behind the consumer lifestyles we take for granted, what is really happening in other parts of the world? I believe more people should know about Ken Saro-Wiwa to understand that reality.

Afterword
Letters from Prison
To End With

Afterword

I’d like to begin with the afterword, as it left the strongest impression on me.

After finishing this book, I expected that Ken Saro-Wiwa’s powerful message would eventually reach the world — but the story does not end in a hopeful or happy way.

Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow activists gave their lives to stand up to the oil companies, but sadly, the problems they fought against remain unresolved nearly 30 years after their deaths.

In the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria, where the Ogoni people live and where the activists carried out their movement, oil spills continue to this day. Residents still eat crops grown in contaminated soil, consume fish from polluted waters, and drink water from wells poisoned by oil.

As a result, many people are suffering from serious health problems.

Shell, which has been operating in this region since the British colonial era, continues to extract massive amounts of oil every day through its pipeline network. However, these pipelines are now old and deteriorating, leading to constant oil leaks — and yet Shell has made little to no effort to fix the problem.

Prioritising corporate profits over human rights is a typically arrogant attitude often displayed by ultra-rich corporations.

Letters from Prison

“SILENCE WOULD BE TREASON” is essentially a collection of letters that Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote from prison to Sister Majella.

Sister Majella, an Irish Roman Catholic nun, spent many years working on social and environmental issues in Nigeria. Thanks to her decision to keep Saro-Wiwa’s letters after his death, this book was eventually published.

In other words, she was one of the few people who tried to bring his voice to the world.

The letters written by Saro-Wiwa are not just updates or simple correspondence — they are filled with his inner thoughts while in prison, his love for his family and comrades, his political philosophy and beliefs, and his deep anger at injustice in the legal system.

These are just small samplings, but I’d like to share a few passages that personally stood out to me.

🔹I’m not worried for myself. When I undertook to confront Shell & the Nigerian establishment, I signed my death warrant, so to speak. (date unknown)

At this point, Saro-Wiwa was 52 years old. He was under constant surveillance by two armed guards, with no access to news, radio, or books. It’s clear that he had already come to terms with the fact that he might die.

🔹Freedom can be quite expensive or cheap depending on how you look at it. To those who have freedom, it’s cheap; those of us who lack it, pay a lot to get just a bit. (1st October 1994)

At the time, most of the MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) executive committee had either been imprisoned or were facing arrest warrants.

The Ogoni people had their salaries cut off and were forced to survive by relying on their dwindling savings. Saro-Wiwa wrote this letter during that desperate period.

What was going on in your life when all this was happening?

🔹This may not sound very nice, and most people around me do not want to hear it (so don’t tell Hauwa), but I have assumed for quite some time that death cannot be very far away from me. (29th October 1994)

This is an excerpt from a letter he wrote about a year before his execution.

He wrote about the speech he hoped to give if he ever got his freedom back, and the importance of helping train young people in the Ogoni community.
As you read it, you can tell he was holding onto his beliefs—but also that he somehow knew he didn’t have much time left.

🔹I thought that I’d remain in captivity until God should have used that fact to make the Ognoi cause better known and pave the way for solving some of the many problems which confront the Ognoi people and similar groups in Nigeria, if not the African continent. (21st March 1995)

At the time, nine Ogoni leaders, including him, were being held in custody without a fair legal process, and international criticism was growing louder and louder.

In the letter, he wrote that being detained might actually help draw global attention to the Ogoni cause — and that it could be a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about the issue.

🔹No, one cannot allow the fear of death to dent one’s belief and actions. (19th June 1995)

With the death sentence looking more and more certain, these words really show just how strong and unbreakable his spirit was.

To End With

What struck me while reading this book was the fact that our “happiness” and “convenient lifestyles” are often built at the expense of people in other countries.

Still, we go on complaining about small things, taking so much for granted.

We rarely stop to think about where the things we own actually come from — and that’s why we often fail to realise just how fortunate we really are.

At the end of the day, so much of our fate comes down to the simple accident of where we’re born. Whether the justice sought by those fighting powerful, greed-driven forces ever reaches us depends on one thing: whether we—who benefit from those very powers—are willing to face the truth, or whether we choose to keep looking away in guilt until it becomes our problem too.

Finally, I found a video about Ken Saro-Wiwa, so I’m sharing it here.