"Riveting, searingly honest, and deeply moving. It is a splendid monument to an outstanding man."-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"All the ingredients of a Shakespearean drama. You feel for him. You feel for his father. His elegantly written book is a weave of Nigerian and family history, both turbulent, both tragic, neither without hope. It is, moreover, a story of being trapped in history; the children of heroes who find their lives shaped by their parents'." -- The Observer

This accomplished memoir is part primer on the modern Nigerian nation state, part biography of the martyred writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and part examination of the struggle that inevitably occurs when a son tries to establish an identity beyond the shadow of a successful father.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed in November 1995. One of Nigeria's best-loved writers and human rights activists, his death was headline news internationally. The name Ken Saro-Wiwa became a potent symbol of the struggle between a traditional way of life and the juggernaut of global commercial interests.

Saro-Wiwa's son, Kenule Bornale Tsaro-Wiwa ("In troubled times I am fearless - first son of Wiwa"), was born in Nigeria, then raised and schooled in England. Much is expected of those to whom much is given, and the father expected his son to return to his native land and take up the struggle for which so many had fought, suffered, and died. The son resisted, distancing himself even to the point of changing his name, until his father was arrested and sentenced to be hanged, leaving him no choice but to publicize his father's plight and take up the fight to save his life. With the refusal of the world's leaders, including Nelson Mandela, to press the condemned man's cause, the son's efforts ended in failure, but the journey changed Ken Wiwa's life. He went looking for his father and ended up finding himself.

KEN WIWA is a journalist who contributes regularly to newspapers throughout Europe, North America, and Africa. He currently lives in Canada with his family, where he writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail and is senior resident writer at Massey College at the University of Toronto. He travels to Nigeria several times a year, and is currently working toward the establishment of the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation, an organization that will set up a secondary school in Ogoni, offer scholarships to Ogoni children, and maintain his father's gravesite.

This event is cosponsored by the UCSB Amnesty International, Bookstore, Center for Black Studies, Division of Student Affairs, Educational Opportunity Program, IHC African Studies Research Focus Group, MultiCultural Center, Office of International Students and Scholars, and Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.