Black Mangrove: The Wiwa Story

The show opens with nine distraught men standing in the gallows, waiting for an ominous hand signal. When the signal comes, their hanging is botched, and they must be re-executed. Again. And again. The year is 1995. The place is Lagos. When Nigeria's kleptocratic military dictatorship executed nine environmental activists by hanging in 1995, the world gasped in horror - and then moved on. All but one man of purpose and unshakable honor: Dr. Owens Wiwa. Among those executed that day was Ken Saro-Wiwa, Owens' controversial older brother, a renown writer, human rights activist, and the charismatic spokesperson of the Ogoni people, whose land in the fertile Niger River delta had been grotesquely polluted by oil extraction, the roots of its endless mangroves intertwining with pipelines snaking their way through villages and riverbanks. In this political and environmental wasteland, Owens Wiwa must try to find a way to help his brother, going against a brutal regime and the American and European oil conglomerates supporting it. Despite Owens's valiant attempts to save Ken's life, he fails. Owens' love for his brother almost costs him his own life. Suddenly finding himself on the government's most-wanted list, this proud, resourceful man, and his smart, resilient wife must run, eventually crossing the border out of Nigeria by foot, with their newborn son. Escaping first to London and then to Toronto, they become spokespersons for their people and formidable foes to those responsible for the violence and environmental catastrophe that surrounds them. In the aftermath of this incident, Nigeria dives into a decade of unspeakable corruption, violence, and greed, fueled by small men with big guns, and big men with deep pockets. Based on actual historic events, this limited series unfolds at the pace of "24", with the ominous darkness of "1983" and the cultural gravitas of "The Last King of Scotland".