Call for Papers: Special Issue on Ken Saro-Wiwa’s Legacy and Impact 20 Years Later

Sep 10, 2014 | Elsevier

On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni leaders were hanged by the Abacha government in Nigeria in a process that former British Prime Minister John Major described as “judicial murder.”  To commemorate the 20th anniversary of his assassination, The Extractive Industries and Society will be publishing a special issue assessing Saro-Wiwa’s life, legacy and impact in Fall 2015. 

A writer, poet and TV show producer, Ken Saro-Wiwa spearheaded the formation of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) which became one of the most successful non-violent protest movements in history.  The Ogoni people claim to be “the first indigenous people in the history of our planet to force a transnational oil company to leave our land by peaceful means.”  Saro-Wiwa was an early innovator in linking respect for the environment and human rights together and in highlighting the role that transnational corporations could play in creating or exacerbating security threats to local host communities in the oil-producing areas.  His ideas on self-determination and resource control continue to animate political demands in the Niger Delta today, albeit demands that are often now put forward by armed and violent groups.

This special issue of The Extractive Industries and Society seeks contributions from a variety of academic disciplines that address Saro-Wiwa’s local, regional and global impact on the extractive industries, their business practices and relations with their host communities in the two decades since his assassination.  Contributions could address themes Saro-Wiwa developed in his lifetime like the role of literature in unjust societies, non-violence, political mobilization, corruption, self-determination, resource control, environmental human rights or transnational corporations and human rights.  They could also address subsequent developments in areas such as Corporate Social Responsibility, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and other such things that are perhaps not direct results of Saro-Wiwa’s work but clearly were influenced and given urgent impetus by the worldwide attention his assassination brought to the extractive industries and their host governments in poor countries.

For this special issue on Ken Saro-Wiwa, we are looking for original research papers of up to 8,000 words in length, review papers of up to 12,000 words in length, opinion pieces or viewpoints of approximately 2,000-3,000 words in length and relevant book or video reviews of 500-1,000 words in length.  Submissions are due to the journal’s online submission system by January 1, 2015.

For questions or additional information, please contact our special issue guest editor Scott Pegg viasmpegg@iupui.edu.