Africa Kills Her Sun, is a short story of a dying man’s last letter to his ex-girl friend. Ken Saro Wiwa, was a Nigerian writer who executed by the firing squad of the Nigerian Federation in 1995 for armed robbery and murder. In the letter, Ken, explains to his girl friend the circumstances leading to the day he is supposedly facing the firing squad sentenced to him and his two friends. The writer and his two friends, Zazan and Jimba, were not the typical bank robbers but instead held important government jobs at one point. You know, of course, that Sazan is a dismissed Sergent of our nation’s proud army. And Jimba was once a Corporal in the Police Force (Saro Wiwa, 1995). These three friends had a similar view of tackling the countries corruption and social injustices. However, after an operation went south, and in an attempt t rob a government vehicle transporting worker’s salary turned out against the plan and some guards were killed in the cross fire, these three friends decided to face the music themselves instead of throwing it on the gangs they hired for the mission.
They unanimously agreed upon to having the same sentence and not give the corrupted judge the luxury of deciding their respective fates and the chance of passing an unjust different sentence to them. “Sentence us to death immediately and send us before the firing squad without further delay,’ we yelled in unison” (Saro Wiwa, 1995). In the letter, the writer discusses all the events leading to final day, his work over the years and the relationship with his former girl friend of before ten years. The letter depicts on how he came about the choices he made of his life. In one instant, he tells how a prostitute he had met in Hamburg explained to him how some girls choose to be secretaries and other choose to be nurse but she choice prostitution as a career. The writer also portray of the ignorance and problems of the Nigerian people in a satirical fashion. They take pleasure and pass time by watching the execution of some of their own as football match.
As an activist who dedicated is life for the justice and economic freedom of the Ogoni people, he had paid the ultimate price of his life. In other article, the writer calls on the united nations and all people of good will to intervene the greed of oil companies and their indiscriminate exploitation and pollution of the Ogoni people’s natural resources of the Delta river. According to The Editors Of Encyclopædia Britannica (2009), “From about 1991 he devoted himself full-time to the causes of the Ogoni, a minority ethnic group that numbered about 500,000 people”. After his death however, aggravated international criticism and condemnation which eventually led to economic sanctions against Nigeria. The Shell Company later vowed to commit to natural gas project worth nearly $4 billion which was the largest amount of foreign investments in the country. . Shell later paid $15.5 million in a lawsuit 1996 to Saro Wiwa’s family and others.