Thought you may want toknow/ Nigeri

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Subject: Thought you may want toknow/ Nigeria's Ken Saro-Wiwa children in Canada

info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> FOR IMMIDEATE RELEASE - Thursday October 21, 1999
> 
> Children of the Ken Saro-Wiwa and Moshood Abiola remember their late
> fathers in Toronto
> 
> Ken Wiwa, journalist and son of executed Nigerian writer and activist Ken
> Saro-Wiwa, and Hafsat Abiola, the daughter of the late President-elect of
> Nigeria, Moshood Abiola, will be keynote speakers at the first annual Ken
> Saro-Wiwa Memorial Lecture in Toronto, hosted by The Movement for the
> Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Canada. The event will take place on
> Friday, November 5 at Bloor Street United Church, 300 Bloor Street West, at
> 7.30 p.m.
> 
> This year's memorial event will take place in light of Nigeria's recent
> return to democratic rule and the Nigerian government's landmark decision
> to release to their families the remains of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the eight
> Ogoni activists who were hanged with him. Dr. Owens Wiwa, recently returned
> from this sucessful mission to his homeland, will also be present.
> 
> "This evening is a chance for us to remember those who have sacrificed
> their lives for justice and democracy in Nigeria," Doctor Wiwa said. "It
> was nearly four years ago, on November 10th, 1995, that Ken Saro-Wiwa and
> eight other Ogonis were hanged simply for fighting the decades of
> oppression of our people at the hands of the Nigerian dictatorship and
> multinational oil companies. We remember them all today, and call for the
> official exoneration of Ken in Nigeria before we lay him to rest in his
> Ogoni homeland"
> 
> Hafsat Abiola is the founder of KIND (The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy)
> and daughter of the rightful winner of the 1993 Nigerian elections
> (annulled by Abacha). Ken Wiwa is a journalist who has recently settled in
> Canada with his family.
> 
> Reading from Ken's work will be Nino Ricci, author and winner of the
> Governor General's Award for his novel, The Lives of the Saints. Sandra
> Martin, journalist and President of PEN Canada, will also introduce
> International PEN's Day of the Imprisoned Writer, which has traditionally
> honoured Ken Saro-Wiwa's life and work.
> 
> Musical artists will provide the evening's entertainment. Refreshments will
> be served. Admission is free.
> 
> Half a million Ogoni people in Nigeria still live in a land devastated by
> decades of oil development in the Niger Delta. Ken Saro-Wiwa and thousands
> of other Ogonis have sacrificed their lives in peaceful protest against the
> exploitation of their land by successive rapacious Nigerian dictatorships
> and their allies in the oil industry, led by Shell Oil.
> 
> For more information: contact Vanessa Higgins at MOSOP Canada (416) 966-0910
> 
> Other events for November 10th, 1999:
> 
> London, Ontario. Friday November 19, 1999 a panel discusion on Ogoni and
> Environmental Justice including Professor Hammond Bernie and Professor
> Vincent Idemyor. University of Western Ontario, Kings College, Student's
> Lounge.
> 
> Vancouver, British Columbia. Wednesday Novmeber 10, 1999 from 4:00 - 6:00
> at the Hastings and Victoria $hell station, an Ogoni Solidarity Network of
> Vancouver rally will begin a fifth year of the Boycoll $hell campaign in
> support of the Ogoni.
> 
> At 7:30 pm, La Quena (1111 Commercial, phone 604 251-6626) and OSN will
> host a Vancouver Boycott $hell retrospective with singer/songwriter Jim
> Sands and poet/proformer Jay Hamburger.
> 
> New Haven, CT. November 5 - 7, 1999 Yale Univeristy, Dr. Owens Wiwa will
> speak (Nov 6th) at the Student Alliance To Reform Corporations (STARC)
> conference focusing on the student movement for corporate reform.
> 
> MOSOP Canada
> info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.mosopcanada.org
> tel 416 966 0910
> fax 416 966 0141