10-Oct-41 | Born in Bori, Ogoni |
1958 | Shell starts oil production in the Niger Delta |
1961 | Graduates from secondary school, Umuahia (SE Nigeria) |
1962 – 65 | BA (English) at University of Ibadan (SW Nigeria) |
1964 | First plays performed |
1965 – 67 | Teaches in Port Harcourt, Umuahia and Nsukka (SE Nigeria) |
1967 | Republic of Biafra declares independence; KSW moves to Lagos |
1967 | Administrator of Bonny Province (Rivers State) after Nigerian reconquest; Interim Advisory Council for Rivers State |
1967 – 73 | Teaching at University of Lagos |
1968 – 73 | Rivers State commissioner and member of Executive Council |
1970 | Nigerian Civil War (Biafran War) ends |
1970 | Ogoni chiefs petition against Shell-BP operations |
1972 – 3 | Commissioner for Ministry of Information and Home Affairs; removed for supporting Ogoni autonomy |
1973 | First two books (Tambari and Tambari in Dukana) published |
1973 | Sets up Saros International Limited |
1985 | Sets up Saros International Publishers |
1985 – 90 | Writes and produces Basi and Company |
1986 | Sozaboy published |
1987 – 92 | Accepts government appointments during supposed transition to democracy |
1989 – 93 | President of Ogoni Central Union |
1989 | On a Darkling Plain published |
1990 | MOSOP present Ogoni Bill of Rights |
1990 – 93 | President of Association of Nigerian Authors |
1992 – 93 | Repeated arrests |
1993 – 95 | President of Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People |
1993 – 95 | Vice-chair of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization |
04-Jan-93 | First Ogoni Day mobilises up to 60% of all Ogoni |
1993 | Military occupation of Ogoni |
12-Jun-93 | General elections; annulled by General Babangida |
21-Jun-93 | Arrested and detained until 22nd July; this is the period chronicled in A Month and A Day |
1994 | Awarded Right Livelihood Award and Fonlon-Nichols Prize |
22-May-94 | Arrested on trumped-up charges of involvement in death of 4 Ogoni leaders |
1995 | Awarded Goldman Environmental Prize |
10-Nov-95 | Executed with eight others following military-appointed tribunal |
1996 | Nominated posthumously for Nobel Peace Prize |
1998 | Death of General Abacha |
1999 | Return to civilian rule in Nigeria |
2009 | Shell settles out of court for $15.5 million on lawsuit brought by relatives of the “Ogoni Nine” |