Suzanne will be co-hosting this event with global friends and allies - tickets available

Global Arts Night in support of the Ogoni and other communities fighting extractivism around the world

10th November 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the murder of the Ogoni 9 activists: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, John Kpuine - hung by the Nigerian military regime for resisting the destruction of their land and communities by international oil companies.

Ogoni (in the Niger Delta) is still devastated by the impact of the oil industry, despite over 35 years of determined struggle. The long fought for UN-led clean-up of pollution is stalled, pipelines still cross farmlands and oil spills still blacken the creeks, while the oil companies are still pushing to re-enter Ogoni, which Shell was forced to abandon in 1994. The suffering of the Ogoni has not gone away and nor will we. This same story is happening in communities around the world, including those organising against fossil fuel extraction and pollution along the US Gulf Coast, in Mozambique, in the Albertan Tar Sands, in Indonesian villages destroyed by gas extraction, and the list goes on.

This event on Saturday 14th of November is in support of the Ogoni and other communities fighting extractivism around the world, coordinated by Platform in collaboration with MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People). The event will explore the situation in the Niger Delta within wider Reparations Movement, and link it to British corporate power, and the extraction and pollution impacts on ecologies and communities around the world. These situations can feel intractable, and traditional campaigning methods often run into the ground. In these conditions, creative, artistic, and cultural strategies can serve as a tool to tell truth to power, deconstruct the Western, colonial, and capitalist notions of existing, and re-imagine alternatives.

FEATURING

Featuring short film screenings, soundscapes, art/activist panel discussions with speakers from the frontlines around the globe, performance by Virtual Migrants & others, we hope to give ourselves space to vision beyond the now and to push ourselves to hold the complexities of environmental challenges. Move with spirit to liberate imaginations, and bringing back the human into often dehumanised crises. Healing separation and mobilising desire for solidarity.

LOGISTICS & ACCESSIBILITY

The event will be held on zoom, with live English subtitles. Translation in French & Spanish will be available too. It will be recorded and available to stream for 24 hours on Facebook and YouTube live (without translation) - enabling access across different time zones.

Please email us with any specific accessibility needs you may have and we will try our best to accomodate (we have some budget aside for interpreters, may this be required).

Read more about Platform's work here: https://platformlondon.org

Read more about MOSOP here: http://www.mosop.org