Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Ogoni Struggle and the Aesthetics of Spectacle

Abstract

"In this paper, I examine how the Ogoni use demonstrations, boycotts, petitions, etc, as counter-narrative forms possessing “a formative energy in the dynamic of history” (Sfez: 1999, Colin Caret: 2003). Since demonstrations and protest marches help to collectivize the people and serve to canalize diverse oppositional sentiments, I will interpret these forms as elemental sites of popular sovereignty. Further, since the law is frequently used by the Nigerian state to legitimize and naturalize its repression of minority communities, I examine how dissenting groups transgress and de-legalize the law in their pursuit of a more egalitarian modernity. Throughout this paper, I use what I shall term the aesthetics of spectacle - a cardinal tenet of the theatre, as the main interpretive idiom to examine how Ogoni communal refusal is mobilized against a national and transnational technology of oppression."