The Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the Niger Delta region of southeast Nigeria. They number about a half million people and live in a 404-square mile homeland which they also refer to as Ogoni, or Ogoniland.
The Ogoni rose to international attention after a massive public protest campaign against Shell Oil, led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
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Geography
The territory is located in Rivers State on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, east of the city of Port Harcourt. It extends across the Local Government Areas (LGAs) Khana, Gokana, Tai, and Eleme. Traditionally, Ogoniland is divided into the six kingdoms of Babbe, Eleme, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo-Khana, and Tai. Unlike many other Nigerian minorities, the Ogoni have no myth of their common origin around which to rally to be used as a cause for unification. The Ogoni speak the related, but not mutually intelligible languages of Khana, Gokana, Tai (Tee), Baan and Eleme,[1] part of the extremely large linguistic diversity of the Niger Delta.
History
Like many peoples on the Guinea coast, the Ogoni have an internal political structure led by chiefs. They survived the period of the slave trade in relative isolation, losing few if any of their members to enslavement. After Nigeria was colonized by the British in 1885, British soldiers arrived in Ogoni by 1901. Major resistance to their presence continued through 1914. The Ogoni were integrated into a succession of economic systems at a pace that was extremely rapid and exacted a great toll from them. At the turn of the century, “the world to them did not extend beyond the next three or four villages,” but that soon changed. Ken Saro-Wiwa, the late president of MOSOP, described the transition this way: “if you then think that within the space of seventy years they were struck by the combined forces of modernity, colonialism, the money economy, indigenous colonialism and then the Nigerian Civil War, and that they had to adjust to these forces without adequate preparation or direction, you will appreciate the bafflement of the Ogoni people and the subsequent confusion engendered in the society.”[2]
The National Union of Ogoni Students ("NUOS International") USA
The National Union of Ogoni Students (NUOS International) USA is an independent, non-profit organisation that functions as the students unit of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). NUOS strives to enhance and enrich the quality of life through Educational, Charitable, Socio-cultural, Scientific and Environmental purposes for all indigenous students. NUOS provides Research, Advocacy, and Enlightens minority / indigenous students and the public on the plight and educational barriers that face indigenous and minority students. NUOS USA sent a petition to U.S. President George W Bush in July 2006 seeking his intervention in relation to the actions of the Nigerian government and the activities of Shell in Nigeria.[3]
Human Rights Violation
The Ogoni people have been victims of human right violations over the years. In 1990, Mobile Police Men (MPF) shot down protesters against Shell in the village of Umuechem, killing 80 people and destroying 495 homes. In 1993, following protests that were designed to stop contractors from laying a new pipeline for Shell, the MOF raided the area to quell the unrest. In the chaos that followed, it has been alleged that 27 villages were raided, resulting in the death of 2,000 Ogoni people and displacement of 80,000.[4][5]
Notes
- ^ Ethnologue Report for Ogoni
- ^ Quotes from Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Letter to Ogoni Youth."
- ^ Part of this information comes from the NUOS International (USA) website.
- ^ David Kupfer, "Worldwide Shell boycott", The Progressive, 1996
- ^ PBS Documentary The New Americans: The Ogoni Refugees
References
Jeffreys, M. D. W. (1947) "Ogoni Pottery" Man 47(July): pp. 81-83
