FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Diana Ayton-Shenker
tel. (212) 334-1660 [w]; fax (212) 334-2181

May 8, 1998

PEN welcomes the amnesty granted to our colleague Ogaga Ifowodo, accompanied by his immediate release from prison. His release comes days after PEN announced him as the 1998 award recipient for the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom-to-Write awards.

Ogaga Ifowodo, winner of the 1996 Association of Nigerian Authors award for poetry, an honorary fellow at the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Germany, and an Honorary Member of PEN American Center, was held in solitary confinement with no access to family, lawyer or doctors for over six months. His work has been collected in two volumes, Maroko’s Blood and Red Rain, and has appeared in such publications as The Guardian and The London Times Review, as well as in the anthology Voices From the Fringe (1989).

Mr. Ifowodo was arrested by the Nigerian authorities on November 6, 1997, on his return to Nigeria from the United Kingdom where he had attended the Commonwealth Summit in Edinburgh, and where he and other activists appealed for stronger sanctions against the government of General Sani Abacha. While there has been no official acknowledgment of Ifowodo’s arrest, it is believed that his detention is linked to his outspoken criticism of Nigeria’s government. Given the notoriously harsh conditions prevalent in Nigeria’s prisons, PEN remained concerned for the health and safety of Mr. Ifowodo throughout his detention.

During his imprisonment, PEN urged the government of General Sani Abacha to respect Mr. Ifowodo’s importance as an acclaimed Nigerian poet and to protect the value of human life. In its appeals to the General, PEN emphasised the centrality of the respect for the fundamental right to read and write freely to any claims of a transition to democracy. We have reiterated the belief that poetic expression in one’s own language is one of the greatest glories of the human spirit and that denying that expression to a poet and his audience abridges a fundamental human right.

Meanwhile, dozens of other writers and journalists in Nigeria continue to brave harassment, intimidation and imprisonment for invoking their right to free expression. Many languish in detention where they suffer deteriorating health, deprivation of medical attention, isolation from any visitors, and other daily hardships. We hope this amnesty signals the beginning of a new direction for Nigeria to release its other imprisoned writers and dissidents.

PEN stands in firm solidarity with Mr. Ifowodo, and all those who brave repression in pursuit of their literary and artistic goals. Until Nigerian writers are truly free, PEN will continue to appeal on their behalf and for the cause of Nigerian literary culture.

PEN American Center, the 2800-strong association of writers, stands at the forefront of the global struggle against intolerance and censorship, mobilizing high profile writers and empowering local activists in the field to act in defense of free expression. The largest of 130 PEN centers worldwide, PEN American Center campaigns to free imprisoned or censored writers in over 100 countries around the globe. With its seventy-five year history of defending free expression, PEN is one of the oldest and most experienced human rights groups in the world.