A Month and a Day & Letters

A Month and a Day & Letters presents an edited version of A Detention Diary, Ken Saro-Wiwa s own record of his arrest in July 1993 and the story of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni people and the struggle against the Nigerian military dictatorship. Saro-Wiwa s criticisms of the corrupt regime eventually led to his execution, along with eight others, in November 1995.

This edition also includes previously unpublished letters smuggled to and from Saro-Wiwa during his final imprisonment including correspondence with Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, and Ethel Kennedy, as well as other concerned people from around the world and a letter written by Ken Wiwa to his late father.

On September 3, 1993, Saro-Wiwa wrote to the president of International PEN: The writer is his cause. I am more and more convinced ... that the path of literature is the assured way to human salvation and civilisation. I hail the power of the pen. That power is abundantly, and poignantly, displayed in this volume.