The Africans was a series of five fifteen-minute programmes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during 2007, introduced by Nigerian journalist Ken Wiwa, whose father Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian military government in 1995. The series attempted to give a more positive or different view of Africa than the commonly held pessimistic one, by interviewing "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" in different parts of the continent. The series was produced by Caroline Pare.
The programme interviewed Africans living in Kenya, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and South Africa and focused on the everyday lives of people working for social change, democratisation and progress in their own local communities.
The series bore a resemblance to Radio 4's Crossing Continents and followed a similar format.
Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta, which has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.
Sani Abacha GCFR was a Nigerian military general who served as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He was also Chief of Army Staff between 1985 to 1990; Chief of Defence Staff between 1990 to 1993; and Minister of Defence. In 1993, Abacha became the first Nigerian Army officer to attain the rank of a full military general without skipping a single rank.
Kenule "Ken" Bornale Tsaro-Wiwa, also known as Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr, although he himself chose to use the name Ken Wiwa, was a Nigerian journalist and author. The eldest son of human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, he worked as an adviser to three Nigerian presidents.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, also known as (MOSOP), is a mass‐based social movement organization of the indigenous Ogoni people of Central Niger Delta. MOSOP is the umbrella organization of currently 11 member groups representing more than 700,000 indigenous Ogoni in campaigning for social, economic and environmental justice in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. MOSOP's mandated use of non-violent methods to promote democratic principles assist Ogoni people pursue rights of self-determination in environmental issues in the Niger Delta, cultural rights and practices for Ogoni people.
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is typically considered to be located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical zone, one state (Ondo) from South West geopolitical zone and two states from South East geopolitical zone.
The Ogonis are a people in the Rivers South East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a 1,050-square-kilometre (404-square-mile) homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.
Jude Dibia is a Nigerian novelist. In 2007, he Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose for his novel Unbridled.
Mass media in Nigeria has an interesting and long history.
Monday Owens Wiwa is a medical doctor and human rights activist. He is the brother of executed Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the son of Ogoni chief Jim Wiwa. Wiwa is an internationally renowned expert on the effects of globalisation, especially as it relates to the highly controversial business practices of Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta. Vice-chairman of the Toronto chapter of the Sierra Club Canada and an active member of Amnesty International, Wiwa is frequently called upon to advocate for development programs in Canada and abroad and to campaign for increased corporate responsibility. This work has taken him to Ireland, which he visits in support of the Shell to Sea campaign. Currently, he is the Global Vice President Human Resource for Health, Director for West Africa and Central Africa and Country Director, Nigeria for Clinton Health Access Initiative.
Chief Jim Beeson Wiwa was a chief of the Ogoni people of southern Nigeria, and the chairman of the Council of Chiefs of Bane. He was born in Bane, Rivers State. He was the father of executed playwright and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and of doctor and human-rights activist Owens Wiwa, and the grandfather of journalist Ken Wiwa.
Major Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, fondly called "Boro", was a Nigerian nationalist, Ijaw, and soldier. He was one of the pioneers of minority rights activism in Nigeria.
The Wiwa family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell were three separate lawsuits brought by the family of Ken Saro-Wiwa against Royal Dutch Shell, its subsidiary Shell Nigeria and the subsidiary's CEO Brian Anderson, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Alien Tort Statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1992 and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). They were charged with complicity in human rights abuses against the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, including summary execution, crimes against humanity, torture, inhumane treatment, arbitrary arrest, wrongful death, and assault and battery. The lawsuits were filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel from EarthRights International in 1996, and after 12 years of Shell petitioning the court not to hear the cases, they were heard 26 May 2009.
Zina Saro-Wiwa is a Brooklyn-based video artist and filmmaker. She makes video installations, documentaries, music videos and experimental films.
Lt. Colonel Dauda Musa Komo was Administrator of Rivers State, Nigeria from December 1993 to August 1996 during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. He took office at a time of escalating violence between the Ogoni and Okrika people over crowded waterfront land, combined with Ogoni protest against Shell Oil activities and the environmental destruction of Ogoni land. He reacted aggressively, sending troops to break up demonstrations and arresting leaders of the Ogoni's MOSOP movement.
Basi and Company was a Nigerian sitcom which ran from 1986 to 1990 on NTA, and was later syndicated across Africa. Written and produced by Ken Saro-Wiwa and filmed in Enugu, the show derived inspiration from African folklore and lampooned widespread corruption in oil-rich Nigeria while highlighting its consequences. To date, it remains one of Africa's most watched comedy programmes, with an estimated thirty million viewers during its peak.
Six awards were awarded in the categories: National Print; Periodicals; Photojournalism; Radio; Television Documentary; and Television News.
Noo Saro-Wiwa is a British-Nigerian author, noted for her travel writing. She is the daughter of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Wiwa may refer to:
BBC Hausa is the Hausa language service of BBC World Service meant primarily for the Hausa-speaking world in Nigeria, Ghana, Niger and the rest of Hausa speakers in West Africa. It is part of BBC foreign language output of 33 languages, of which five are African languages. The language service include radio station, Abuja bureau office and daily updated website which serves as a news portal and provides information as well as analyses in text, audio and video and provides online access to radio broadcasts. The radio service is broadcast from Broadcasting House in London and preliminary editing done at BBC bureau office in Abuja.
In Business Africa is a BBC news programme broadcast on BBC World News globally and on local partner channels of the BBC in African countries. The programme is presented by Nancy Kacungira in Lagos, Nigeria and Lerato Mbele in South Africa. The programme gives an indepth look at the economic trends shaping the African continent, with interviews, discussions and informative features about different business topics in Africa.