A Month and a Day

"Well, he was arrested by the military government for what they called his part in electoral disturbances. But the beauty of the book is that after the opening section, the introductory moment where he was arrested, the book takes you back into the history of his involvement with the pro democracy movement and with his role in setting up the movement for the survival of the Ogoni people (MOSOP). The Ogoni people were fighting, and still are fighting, against the destruction of the environment in their land. So that is the real reason why he was arrested. He was a writer, an essayist and a dramatist – he was so prolific. And during the 1980s there was his popular TV programme called Bassey and Company – everybody watched it. This was mainly light-hearted comedy. Then gradually he became more political. I guess with the formation of the movement for the survival of the Ogoni people he began to confront the government more directly. We had a military dictatorship in the 1990s. So for me what makes him important is that he didn’t just talk about things in his writing, he also exemplified what he believed. He accepted the consequences and he spoke out without fear. You can’t help but respect that kind of commitment; and in the end he was killed for his beliefs. He was hanged by the military government. When you take into account that he could have kept quiet, or even joined the status quo, or gone into exile, you realise how courageous he must have been. You realise how important the land must have been to him and how seriously he took his duty to give back something after all his success. This kind of thing, this exemplary courage, still goes on, so this is a very interesting example of what some African writers go through."