25 schoolchildren, and their mothers, sat enraptured, listening to Sister Majella McCarron telling the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa, in the bean bag room of the Library. The visit, on the 21 of July was organised by Gbemi Alli, who set up a group Adorable Mum when she moved from Nigeria to Kilcock. Set in the context of Sister Majella’s 30 years in Nigeria and her efforts of save the lives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, Sister Majella captivated the children and their parents, weaving the story of the Saro-Wiwa family, the poisoning of water by oil pollution, the death of fish resulting in the destruction of the livelihood of the Ogoni fishermen and women and the many other detrimental effects of oil extraction, by the international petrochemical industry on the Niger Delta.
Following the storytelling the group was divided into two: those up to 11 and those aged 12 to 16. The older schoolchildren and their parents went on the first visit to the archive, while the younger children remained in the beanbag room drawing the Ogoni story.
The older schoolchildren returned to the beanbag room, where they devised a newspaper heading and content based on the story as told to them by Sister Majella and their visit to see the letter, while the younger children went upstairs to view the archive and had a very simple explanation of the letters. The children were intrigued to learn that Ken Saro-Wiwa’s letters to Sister Majella were smuggled out of military detention in breadbaskets.
Tolu Alli, aged 10, shared her thoughts: I enjoyed the way it taught us about Nigeria, and I liked how we could colour in pictures and do the wordsearch and I liked the letters and the way the Library looks after them. I like the story of smuggling out the letters; it was a bit adventurous. Ken Saro-Wiwa died doing what he thought was right. I liked the map too and how we could colour it in.
The children’s artwork was displayed on the walls of the whiteboard room and lively conversation and viewing of the art took place during a refreshment break.
The event closed with Sister Majella reading a poem “Mama Came Calling” written by Ken Saro-Wiwa. Certificates were presented to all the children who attend.
Commenting on the event Sister Majella said:
I wanted the archive to be available to activists and researchers, which the Library has been doing extremely well. Making it available, in an accessible way, to the schoolchildren today, is another great way of ensuring the Ogoni story is told; and it was all great fun today!
Click on the image below to open the full set of images from the day
Click on the images below to open images from the Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive