The Ogoni people are one of the nationalities living in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. For decades they have struggled against the exploitation by Royal Dutch Shell and other giant oil companies in the region, which is known as Ogoniland.

Williamson, who is the administrative secretary of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), welcomed some two dozen people to the meeting. “Today Ogoni people and supporters are meeting in several countries, as well as in U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, and here in Des Moines,” he said.

The meetings were organized by MOSOP and the National Union of Ogoni Students, USA. They marked the eighth anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders by the Nigerian government.

The organizers showed Delta Force, a 1994 documentary by a British television crew depicting the Ogoni struggle. It shows how Shell’s operations were marked by lack of maintenance on its above-ground pipelines, resulting in widespread pollution of farming areas and fishing waters, including devastating oil spills. Ogoni protests were met by fierce repression by the Nigerian government.Shell extracted oil from Ogoniland from 1958 into the mid-1990s, gaining revenues estimated to be over $30 billion. The Ogoni people have never received any compensation for the use and destruction of their lands.

MOSOP president Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other leaders were arrested, tried by a Nigerian military tribunal, and executed in 1995, as they were helping lead the Ogoni struggle.

During the discussion period, Moses Kiobel, whose brother Barinem Kiobel was one of the nine leaders executed, told the audience: “I am very happy that we have come here today as a group to make sure that our leaders did not die in vain, and I ask everyone to not give up the fight. We need to be meeting more frequently now in order to advance our struggle.” The meeting concluded with the singing of traditional Ogoni songs and a reading of Saro-Wiwa’s last statement. Ogoni students are planning to hold a demonstration in Atlanta, Georgia.  
 
 
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