my people, the kalabari, live on 22 islands in the niger delta and our transport was by boat. that women could take out and they would gather periwinkles on the mudflats and make the most incredible stew. you had oysters growing on the roots of mangroves, dangling in the water. nature was full. gradually these things have been dying out because of pollution. because of the way that oil is being extracted there. newsreel: oil was discovered in the niger delta in 1956 and now nigeria is one of the largest oil producing countries in the world. newsreel: the ogoni people say their homeland has been ruined by oil. we are going to demand our rights peacefully, nonviolently and we shall win. ken saro—wiwa, poet, environmentalist, and leader of the 0goni people. the nigerian government says he is a murderer and has sentenced him to death. ken saro—wiwa tried to get the oil companies to behave differently by talking. there was no violence involved. nigeria's military leaders provoked a storm of international outrage today when they went ahead with the executions of nine human rights ac