A serious television trickster: Ken Saro-Wiwa’s political and artistic legacy in Basi and Company

Abstract

Ken Saro-Wiwa has attracted both popular and scholarly recognition as a significant Nigerian writer and activist. Despite this interest, the television programme Basi and Company that he wrote and directed from 1985 to 1990 has received scant attention, often being dismissed as a frivolous side project unworthy of inclusion in Saro-Wiwa’s oeuvre. This article challenges such neglect, arguing that the show is an essential part of the work of one of the 20th century’s most important public intellectuals. Basi and Company represents a complex re-imagining of the traditional West African trickster figures, such as Kuru the tortoise and the Yoruba mythological deity of Eshu, as a means of engaging with contemporary life under a brutal regime in the post-oil boom period in Nigeria. Its 150 episodes, watched routinely by over 30 million Nigerians, subtly critiqued modern Nigeria and its government, and it deserves a place alongside Saro-Wiwa’s other politically engaged works.

Keywords:

• Ken Saro-Wiwa
• Africa
• Nigeria
• Basi and Company
• folk tale
• television

Notes

1. Although Wole Soyinka and other sympathetic figures spoke out when Saro-Wiwa was arrested, it was only after he was executed that the US and the UK took action, temporarily removing their ambassador and suspending Nigeria’s membership of the Commonwealth, respectively. During his life, Saro-Wiwa complained repeatedly that organizations such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace had consistently refused to promote the Ogoni cause internationally (Nixon 2011, 110).

2. During the boom, Nigeria moved away from an agriculture-based economy. Capital became centralized in the government and the acquisition of government jobs and contracts via bribes became an open secret. Securing a government contract meant guaranteed payment, but production of the promised goods often lagged. It is contracts like these that Basi hopes to gain with his get-rich-quick schemes, in which he provides illusory goods or services yet demands payment (as in “The Machine” episode discussed here).

3. Saro-Wiwa produced four novels, two radio plays, a volume of poetry, two books of short stories, three book-length non-fiction works, two volumes of drama, a historical book on folklore and nine children’s books. His prowess as an activist and organizer was probably most fully realized in the January 4, 1993 demonstration of approximately 300,000 Ogoni people, called the first Ogoni Day, which brought the cause of the Ogoni to worldwide attention.

4. There is some debate as to the number of episodes that Saro-Wiwa wrote and directed. Some scholars, such as Scott Pegg (2000), list him as the writer and director of all 150 episodes, while others note that he created the show and oversaw its initial run, but then allowed others to take over daily operations. This is evidenced by Uzorma Onungwa appearing in the credits of many episodes as the director, while Okokon Asuouo is credited with writing some of them.

5. The show was also syndicated in many other African countries, increasing the numbers of viewers dramatically, but exact viewer statistics are unavailable.

6. Saro-Wiwa’s advocacy was primarily undertaken as a defence of the Ogoni people and Ogoniland, but he demonstrated an acute awareness that as a micro-minority the Ogoni, unlike larger ethnic groups such as the Igbo, had to realize their identity inside the Nigerian nation.