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Remember Saro-Wiwa is a coalition of organisations and individuals, initiated and co-ordinated by... and includes... African
Writers Abroad Remember Saro-Wiwa is supported amongst others by the Arts Council England
and by the Ken Saro-Wiwa Foundation
For more information about our donors and how to support Remember Saro-Wiwa click here. Remember Saro-Wiwa is a partner of Africa Beyond
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| REMEMBER SARO-WIWA NEWS ARCHIVE The RSW Tour Continues Which Bus Are You On? Remember Saro Wiwa at Glastonbury Festival 2007.
Glastonbury 2007 was even wetter and muddier than the pictures portrayed! Taking the Remember Saro Wiwa Bus to this setting was certainly an entirely different experience to the launch on Farringdon Road, outside City Hall, Bristol, Goldsmiths' College, or the backdrop of Battersea Park: a brave undertaking, with many unknowns. Meetings took place in London on the Monday afternoon and by the Tuesday evening three of us had loaded the van and were off along the M4, packed up with subsystems, banners, paints, records, lighting and wellies. We arrived at Pilton Farm just in time to miss the gates before they closed for the night, a few trips up and down around the site later we found a layby to stay in for the rest of the night, alarms set for six am we rested until first light. Hoping to beat the mad-Glastonbury rush on the Wednesday morning we packed the van and headed off, only to sit in traffic for the next hour as all keen festival-goers had been determined to be the first punters on site. Eventually we made it to Blue Gate - the crew entrance. As we made our way along the main drag, the RSW bus stood shimmering, reflecting the suns rays and softened by the (temporarily)grassy ground beneath. We were finally able to start setting up the bus and the various jobs that needed before the crowds arrived - our task is to keep the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Eight alive and to highlight the continuing actions in Ogoniland by Shell and also now the Royal Bank of Scotland. Eric Soul was the life and the rhythm of the Bus, pumping out his banging mix of Afro-Groov. We became a hub of activity and hi-energy party. During the evenings the bus was lit, shinning across the site with Ken Saro-Wiwa's words "I ACCUSE THE OIL COMPANIES OF PRACTISING GENOCIDE AGAINST THE OGONI." The image was poetic and still in the hectic setting.
There are so many direct links to the everyday lives of individuals here in the UK. We talked to people about the history of British colonial involvement in Nigeria. We discussed the impact of oil on the Niger Delta - the 'resource curse'. And we also highlighted the Oil Bank of Scotland Campaign. Many people signed a pledge not to bank with RBS, which calls itself 'The Oil and Gas Bank', as long as they continued to finance environmentally and socially devastating oil projects, including in Nigeria. Many interesting conversations took place, with folk from a whole range of different backgrounds - everyone from those openly supportive of the project to people working in the Oil Industry. People contributed their experiences and thoughts on the realities of living in Nigeria and other Oil rich countries. Five days and nights of continual rain and 180,000 people later, Pilton Farm became classically muddy, the only way of discovering the most popular attractions was the sheer amount of mud in and around each specific location. We were up to our knees - a vintage Glastonbury, certainly one to remember! With many thanks to Arts Council England, Greenpeace, Eric Soul, James Marriott, Jane Trowel, Cindy, Mika, Ed Hamer, Chris Fremantle.
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