"A Month and A Day & Letters" is an edited version of "A Detention Diary" - Ken Saro-Wiwa's own record of his arrest and imprisonment in July 1993, and the history of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and his ever-increasing commitment to the Ogoni cause in Nigeria. This new edition has a foreword by the Nobel Laureate and fellow Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka. It also includes a 'Letter to My Father' ten years on from the brutal hanging by Saro-Wiwa's eldest son, Ken Wiwa, and other letters of support (and later condolence to Ken Wiwa and his family) from world leaders, prominent writers, friends and individuals concerned with his plight and cause, delivered to and from Ken Saro-Wiwa in prison with the help of organisations such as International PEN. This book highlights his ideology, his cause, his ultimate sacrifice and the injustice of his death. It focuses on the Ogoni struggle against the multinational Shell and the Nigerian military dictatorship.
It gives an insight into the reasons for Saro-Wiwa's elimination at all costs for daring to question the actions of Shell in polluting Ogoniland and for his criticisms of a corrupt regime financed largely by oil money. Ken Saro-Wiwa's story illustrates the consequences and dangers of living in a global economy powered by fossil fuel.
