30 pages • 1-hour read
Africa Kills Her Sun
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Background
Authorial Context: Kenule “Ken” Beeson Saro-Wiwa
Born in 1941 to an Ogoni family in the Niger Delta, Saro-Wiwa grew up under the control of a military dictatorship. Although he had always dreamed of becoming an academic, circumstances led to his ascension as an activist. He devoted his time, efforts, and ultimately his life to protecting the Niger Delta, a region located in southeastern Nigeria known for its petroleum reserves and home to the Ogoni, an ethnic minority of Nigeria.
As an Ogoni witnessing the atrocities committed by the government and by foreign corporations against his people, Saro-Wiwa spoke and wrote about these ills and advocated for the rights of Nigeria’s Indigenous peoples. Saro-Wiwa’s literature is inextricable from his activism, for his writings were in service of his belief in emancipation. For Saro-Wiwa, literature combats ignorance and indifference by shedding light on a country’s social condition. It combats colonizing and internal forces that aim to undermine efforts for Indigenous self-determination. Self-determination is defined to be a people’s right to seek and explore their own social, economic, and cultural development.
While Saro-Wiwa’s “Africa Kills Her Sun” is a work of fiction, the political background of the piece, as well as the main character’s point of view, is informed by Saro-Wiwa’s own experiences as a Nigerian man living under a military dictatorship. This story is not explicitly set in Nigeria, but is situated in an unnamed African nation, implying that the circumstances and environment of the story are applicable to all nations of Africa. Like the main character of the story, Saro-Wiwa was accused and executed by the Nigerian government for alleged violent crimes. He was killed in 1995, six years after publishing “Africa Kills Her Sun.”
Saro-Wiwa was one of the founders of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), a social organization that arose in 1990 to non-violently resist exploitation of land and resources by both the Nigerian government and foreign oil companies (especially Shell Petroleum Development Oil Company). The organization, which still exists to this day, also works to educate the Ogoni community with the goal of self-determination.
Cultural Context: Political Corruption and the Ogoni Nine
In 1994, Saro-Wiwa was arrested for his alleged involvement in the killing of Ogoni MOSOP members who had disagreed with the organization’s overall approach. Saro-Wiwa was later hanged for this crime with eight other activists who came to be known as the Ogoni Nine. Many critics have stated that accusing the Ogoni Nine enabled the government to cause internal strife amongst MOSOP, with the goal of silencing any resistance to oil extraction. Shell was alleged to be complicit in the executions, and in 2017, the widows of five of the Ogoni Nine took Shell to court. The company was exonerated and denied responsibility, but they have paid over $15 million to the victims’ families, including Saro-Wiwa’s (Holligan, Anna. “Ogoni nine: Nigerian widows lose case against oil giant Shell.” BBC News, 23 March 2022). Nigerian political leaders wanted to portray the MOSOP as a violent, treasonous group for their own economic gain and political control. As a prominent figure of the organization, Saro-Wiwa was targeted and accused by Nigeria’s military dictatorship.
Saro-Wiwa considered his trial to also be the trial of the entire Nigerian nation; he saw any government-adjacent profession as complicit in the country’s ecological and genocidal crimes, not solely the military. Saro-Wiwa considers corruption in Nigeria not only a political issue but also a cultural one. Placing the guilt on all of Nigeria’s administration is evident in his literature, as he speaks to the betrayals carried out by a corrupt government and an uncaring public that has accepted this corruption as a way of life.
Literary Context: African Postcolonial Literature
Postcolonial literature, writings produced by postcolonial nations, often features writers working to reclaim a social and political identity apart from the colonizer’s dominant, often demeaning narratives. In the case of African postcolonial literature, reclaiming narratives written by European colonizers whose racist views devalued African society, creativity, and intellect.
African postcolonial literature emerged in the mid-20th century and reflected the complex socio-political landscape shaped by the continent’s colonial history. Writers from diverse African nations began to explore and articulate their experiences under colonial rule, independence struggles, and the subsequent challenges of nation-building. These literary works engage with a range of themes, including identity, cultural hybridity, power dynamics, and the impact of globalization. Authors such as Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o have played pivotal roles in shaping the narrative of African postcolonial literature, addressing issues of language, decolonization, and the complexities of navigating a postcolonial world. Wa Thiong'o’s collection of essays Decolonizing the Mind (1986) focuses on the role of language in the development of culture and identity. Wa Thiong'o, Achebe, and Adichie write in English to reach the widest possible audience, but they incorporate Indigenous words and speech patterns into their texts.
Overall, the genre encompasses a rich array of voices, languages, and perspectives, showcasing the diversity of the African experience. In Saro-Wiwa’s work, animosity toward the British is not always the most central, obvious concern, but rather emphasis is placed on chronicling and exposing the actions of Nigeria’s present-day government, as well as criticizing the public’s inability to critically determine the extent of their complicity and their own weak or nonexistent moral stances. Titling the story “Africa Kills Her Sun” places it within the context of postcolonial African literature even though it focuses on Nigeria’s situation.
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