Pictures of all actions can be found on Flickr
17.30 hrs
“Dance your anger and your joys
Dance the military guns to silence
Dance oppression and injustice to death
Dance my people
For we have seen tomorrow
And there is an Ogoni star in the sky”
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Artist collective Fossil Free Culture NL orchestrated a performance at the NEMO Science Museum today to commemorate the Ogoni 9. After successfully campaigning to liberate the Museumplein from the toxic influence of the fossil fuel industry, the artist collective is now focusing on NEMO.
The nine Ogoni men are represented by nine flames, held by nine guardians at the NEMO. On the back of the NEMO a poem by Saro-Wiwa, ‘Dance’, is projected. Frida from FFC-NL explains: “Like Ken Saro-Wiwa, we fight non-violently but passionately. We will take upon every cultural institution that affiliates with Shell. They killed strong voices, but the struggle is not silenced.”.
FFC-NL has a clear message for the NEMO science museum: Break ties with Shell. NEMO facilitates the cleansing of Shell’s dirty image by giving them an influential place in their ambitious and broadly distributed educational programs for primary schools. FFC-NL has vowed to continue to target NEMO and other cultural institutions that accept money from the fossil fuel industry as long as necessary.
16.30 hrs
We call on newspaper NRC to stop publishing branded content from Shell. Stop providing Shell a platform for greenwashing and dirty lies!
15.30 hrs
BREAKING: young activists of @XR_Rotterdam are climbing a Shell oil tank at Europe’s biggest oil refinery. With security helmets, overalls and face masks on, the activists are demanding that Shell be held accountable for colluding in the #Ogoni9 murders, 25 yrs ago. #ShellGuilty
15.00 hrs
Climate activists and human rights defenders laid a memorial to the “Ogoni Nine” at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden, of which Shell is the main sponsor. The Ogoni Nine were 9 Nigerians executed on 10 November 1995 for their opposition to Shell’s negligence and environmental pollution in the Ogoni region of Nigeria.
The activists demand that Rijksmuseum Boerhaave immediately sever all ties with Shell for its role in funding the oppression, and resisting taking responsibility for clean-up efforts. Solidarity campaigns are also taking place in eight other places in the Netherlands.
14.30 hrs
A gallows was placed at the Shell Research Center in Amsterdam to show the horror of what happened to the Ogoni 9 in Nigeria.
13.00 hrs
Code Rood Wageningen has just arrived at Staatsbosbeheer (Dutch government organisation for forestry) to protest against its collaboration with Shell. ‘A company that is responsible for ecocide has no business in forest management!’
12.00 hrs
A banner with the text “Justice for the Ogoni 9” has just been put up Shell’s head quarters in The Hague. Climbers of climate action group Extinction Rebellion The Hague replaced the Shell flags with the banner. They also set up two flags on the ground with the text Shell Must Fall. Emma of Extinction Rebellion The Hague: ‘Today 25 years ago, in 1995, nine Nigerians were hanged for resisting the pollution of their living environment by Shell’s oil extraction. Shell is responsible for large-scale pollution of Ogoniland and was instrumental in the suppression of the resistance and the illegal arrest, imprisonment and execution of nine members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). We will not let this day pass unnoticed, which is why we are here today at Shell’s head office.’
11.30 hrs
Extinction Rebellion Enschede and Extinction Rebellion Deventer organized a mourning circle at the Oyfo Techniekmuseum in Hengelo, to commemorate Ogoni 9, who were murdered in 1995. The climate action group is protesting against the sponsorship relationship that the museum has with oil company Shell.
9.30 hrs
As part of a series of commemoration actions all across the Netherlands to honor the #Ogoni9 an action group from Groningen stands in front of the central entrance of the headquarters of the NAM (Shell, Exxon & Dutch State collaboration for gas extraction) in Assen to draw attention to Shell’s environmental and human rights abuse in Nigeria.
The anger against Shell also has deeper roots in Groningen, which is why NAM was targeted for this action (at this symbolic location). “NAM of which Shell is a shareholder exploits the gas field in Groningen. Extraction has caused over a thousand of gasquakes. The residents of Groningen live in uncertainty, because of their unsafe physical situation, psychological hardships and economic impacts. NAM scarcely takes responsibility for this harm.”
@XR Groningen @Code Rood Groningen
