On Nov. 8, Joe Watkins, Arizona Area Coordinator for Amnesty International, received a cryptic message over electronic mail: "Do not go home."

Waiting for more clues from Amnesty, Watkins, assistant professor of mathematics, glued himself in front of the terminal. Watkins stayed at his office through the night while the story of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists sentenced to executio n by the Nigerian government materialized through e-mail reports and telephone calls.

Watkins and other Amnesty area coordinators raced to mass attention around the Nigerian case while the clock ran down for the activists, whom the Nigerian government killed the following day.

According to David Gibbs, assistant professor of political science, Saro-Wiwa was a writer and television producer who belonged to the Ogoni ethnic group in Nigeria.

Although the Ogoni count for only 0.05 percent of Nigeria's population and have little political clout, they inhabit the oil-rich Niger delta which has played a critical role in Nigeria's economy since the 1950s.

Gibbs says the Ogoni have received no compensation for use of their land, while foreign oil companies, supported by Nigeria's military dictatorship, continue to pollute Ogoni fields.

In response to these abuses, Saro-Wiwa and other Ogonis organized the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. In 1991, the movement mobilized 60 percent of the Ogoni population in a 300,000 person non-violent demonstration against the government's policies and Shell Oil Company's extraction methods.

"This kind of massive political participation is unprecedented in post-colonial Africa," says Nancy Hunt, assistant professor of history.

The Nigerian government, led by General Sani Abacha, had not anticipated such resistance and acted quickly to suppress the Ogoni, Gibbs says.

"Abacha lives in a chaotic, fearful world," says Watkins. "His advisors are not reliable. He didn't know Saro-Wiwa was such a big deal."

According to Richard Henderson, professor of anthropology, when the Ogoni movement split, the Nigerian government made its move.

In 1994, a meeting of the Ogoni faction that opposed Saro-Wiwa turned violent. A mob attacked the group, killing four people.

Although Saro-Wiwa was absent during the attack, the Nigerian government arrested him without charge, detaining him and other Ogoni for several months. In October, a military tribunal sentenced Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists to death by hanging.

"Ken Saro-Wiwa was adopted by Amnesty as a Prisoner of Conscience," says Watkins. "This means he never used or advocated violence. Not even Nelson Mandela received this kind of support."

Following Saro-Wiwa's death sentence, Watkins and other Amnesty staff worked night and day, mounting a blitzkrieg campaign to inform key state officials.

"By the next day, Clinton knew what we were talking about." says Watkins. "All foreign ambassadors had been recalled from Nigeria. I had never seen anything like this before. The response was more than we could have ever hoped for."

According to Watkins, Amnesty never proposes specific policy interventions and works only on raising public awareness.

"Our strategy is to say to the international community, 'Here's what's going on. You deal with it.'"

Despite United States pressure- which did not include economic sanctions - the Nigerian government refused to stop the executions. The activists were finally hung successfully after a series of fumbled attempts involving brittle rope.

"We were in a state of grief," says Watkins. "Success wasn't in the cards, but I wasn't thinking about that when we were doing our work."

December 8, one month after Saro-Wiwa's execution, Watkins and the Working Group on African studies organized a teach-in to educate the university community on issues in the Niger delta.

"I was thinking of Itzak Rabin," says Watkins. "People saw Rabin as very brave, and I think Saro-Wiwa was similarly brave, but not as public. I wanted there to be some memorial, some way to mark his passing."

Molly Childers, senior program coordinator at the Office of International Programs, says, "The teach-in was a way to gather the University around African issues." Childers coordinates the Working Group in African Studies, a faculty research organization t hat also supports speakers, film series and events.

The teach-in included lectures by top Africanists, readings from Saro-Wiwa's work, and clips from Basi & Company, the popular serial Saro-Wiwa produced for Nigerian Television.

The teach-in's centerpiece, a film produced by Amnesty, tells the Ogoni story with graphic footage that winds down shortly before Saro-Wiwa's execution. Throughout the film, Ogoni farm land appears riddled with Shell Oil's natural gas plumes and leaking o il pipes.

The film implicates Shell in violence against the Ogoni and presents internal Shell memos that mention Saro-Wiwa by name. One Nigerian memo reads, "Shell operations impossible unless brutal military operations engaged."

The film also contains amateur video of the aftermath of raids against the Ogoni, including shots of destroyed villages and bodies hacked beyond recognition.

After the screening, Ikenna Dieke, associate professor of African American Studies and former Nigerian school teacher, stood to say, "Let's not kid ourselves. Showing these pictures is not enough. Shell couldn't do what it's doing if we weren't buying its oil."

Watkins, reflecting on the U.S. failure to boycott Nigerian oil, says, "I'm not impressed with what Americans are willing to give up to make life easier for other people."

Students interested in participating in Amnesty International should e-mail Maureen Meyer at mmyer@gas.uug.arizona.edu.

Students interested in the Working Group on African Studies can subscribe to WGAS Listserver by sending the message "subscribe Africa yourname" (without quotation marks) to the address listserv@listserv.arizona.edu.