Skip to content

Black Gold (Ogoni Nine)

Dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine, who were executed by hanging in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.

My lord,

We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas.  Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginilization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.

– Ken Saro-Wiwa

Off a dark continent by the edge of the sea
Lies a dark liquid gold waiting to be seized
By whomever has the confidence, by whomever has the might
Irregardless of the consequence, irregardless of the right

Black liquid gold

Worth more than the land that God gave to Eve
More valuable than the oceans and the air we breathe
Worth more than the cries in the middle of the night
Of the widowed wives of those who sacrificed

Black liquid gold

They met you with poise and they met you with valiance
And you met them with charts showing profits per gallons
But the mighty Dutch gilder proved too hard to resist
For the Nigerian generals and the minds they would twist

And like those who came before with only gold on their minds
To the natives and their lands and to their rights they are blind
As history has shown on every continent
Yellow or black gold always leaves a trail of lament

Black liquid gold

As their veins once carried to their arteries
Your pipes now take their blood to your refineries
So it can fuel our cars and our SUVs
But if you look up to the stars then you just might see

Ogoni Nine, Ogoni 9

Unmoved by blackmail, undeterred by death
They forged on for their tribe as your noose stole their breath
As you watched without concern for a Heaven or a hell
Or the lives you sold to Royal Dutch Shell

Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine

They Royal Dutch Shell oil company
They weren’t what you needed them to be
The Royal Dutch Shell oil company
They weren’t where you needed them to be

Back to top