Ogoni Ethnic Nationality

Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggest the Ogoni have inhabited the Niger Delta for more than 500 years. They established an organized social system under which men and women of courage and ability enjoyed special status. Although Ogoniland lay on the slave route from the hinterland to the coastal slave market, there is little evidence of Ogoni people being taken as a slave. When other forms of trade were introduced into the region in the second half of the 19th century, weapons were purchased and wars became the order of the day. After the Berlin Treaty of 1885, Nigeria came under British colonial rule, but it was not until 1901 that British forces arrived in Ogoniland.

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) is an Ogoni-based non-governmental, non-political apex organisation of the Ogoni ethnic minority people of South-Eastern Nigeria and was founded in 1990 with the mandate to campaign non-violently to: • Promote democratic awareness; • Protect the environment of the Ogoni People; • Seek social, economic and physical development for the region; • Protect the cultural rights and practices of the Ogoni people; and • Seek appropriate rights of self-determination for the Ogoni people. 

Ogoni Bill of Rights

We, the people of Ogoni (Babbe, Gokana, Ken Khana, Nyo Khana and Tai) numbering about 500,000 being a separate and distinct ethnic nationality within the Federal Republic of Nigeria, wish to draw the attention of the Governments and people of Nigeria to the undermentioned facts: 1. That the Ogoni people, before the advent of British colonialism, were not conquered or colonized by any other ethnic group in present-day Nigeria. 2.  That British colonization forced us into the administrative division of Opobo from 1908 to 1947. 3.  That we protested against this forced union until the Ogoni Native Authority was created in 1947 and placed under the then Rivers Province. >>> more