The Drilling Fields

1994

This documentary first aired on British TV in May 1994 during the height of the Ogoni conflict in which a small Nigerian minority, the Ogoni, rose up against the oppression and exploitation perpetrated by Shell in their collaboration with the Nigerian military government and powerful Western economic interests. The peaceful Ogoni protests were violently ended by the military government in 1995 with the unlawful hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer, journalist and activist for the Ogoni people. Saro-Wiwa succeeded in reaching out to the international community to put pressure on those holding the Ogoni hostage. In the end, he may not have achieved all the goals set out by the Ogoni, but he drew attention to social grievances which were falsely believed to be exclusive to the colonial era.