Can Writers Bring About Environmental Justice Where Slow Violence has Devasted the People and the Land?
Introduction by Jonathan Steinwand
There can be no peace as long
as there is grinding poverty,
social injustice, inequality,
oppression, environmental
degradation, and as long
as the weak and small continue
to be trodden by
the mighty and powerful.
--Tenzin Gyatso, The XIV Dalai Lama
Message Sent to the Millennium World Peace Summit
August 23, 2000
Speaking truth to power, writers cry out for justice. Emboldened by the protests organized by MOSOP and international outrage against social injustice, corporate crime, and environmental degradation in the Niger Delta, these novelists, poets, and essayists risk their lives to bear witness to what they see. In this section, we highlight some of the key contributions we have encountered in works by Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okepwho, Kaine Agary, Ogaga Ifowodo, Tanure Ojaide, Ben Okri, and Helon Habila.
Work Cited
Gyatso, Tenzin. "The Message of the Dalai Lama Sent to the Millennium World Peace Summit." The Global Forum for Common Good. 23 August 2000. Web <http://www.commongood.info/DalaiLama.html> 25 March 2016.
