Promoting the Maynooth University (MU) Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive

In November 2011, Sister Majella McCarron donated 28 letters and 27 poems written by Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa to the library at Maynooth University (MU). The letters were written to Sister Majella in the two years leading up to his execution. Saro-Wiwa had been leading a peaceful protest against the environmental destruction of his homeland Ogoni in the Niger Delta, by the international petrochemical industry. Despite widespread international protest, including the intervention of President Bill Clinton, he was executed, along with eight others (the Ogoni Nine), by the then Nigerian military regime. The letters to Sister Majella were smuggled out of military detention in food baskets. She kept the collection among her personal belongings for sixteen years. In her mid-seventies she had concerns about the future of the collection, recognising their potential value to researchers and human rights activists. She approached MU, which has strong associations with missionary activity and a range of courses dealing with social justice issues, as a suitable home for it. Sister Majella also donated a collection of photographs, video recordings, flyers, articles and artefacts including a cap that had belonged to Ken Saro-Wiwa and a Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) flag