Ken Saro-Wiwa
Encyclopedia
Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa (October 10, 1941 – November 10, 1995) was a Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n author, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...

 and the Goldman Environmental Prize
Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of...

. Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people
Ogoni people
Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the region of southeast Nigeria. They share common oil related environmental problem with the Ijaw people of Niger Delta, but Ogonis are not listed in the list of people historically belonging to Niger Delta...

, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

 has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s and which has suffered extreme and unremediated environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping. Initially as spokesperson, and then as President, of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People is a campaigning organization representing the Ogoni people. Ogoniland is situated north-east of Niger Delta...

 (MOSOP), Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...

 campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

 petroleum industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...

, especially Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.

At the peak of his non-violent campaign, Saro-Wiwa was arrested, hastily tried by a special military tribunal
Military tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...

, and hanged in 1995 by the military government
Military government
Military government can refer to conditions under either Military occupation, or Military dictatorship.-Military Government:Military government is the form of administration by which an occupying power exercises governmental authority over occupied territory.The Hague Conventions of 1907 specify...

 of General Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, he was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998....

, all on charges widely viewed as entirely politically motivated and completely unfounded. His execution
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 for over three years.

Early life

A son of Ogoni chieftain Jim Wiwa
Jim Wiwa
Jim Beeson Wiwa was a chief of the Ogoni people of southern Nigeria, and the chairman of the Council of Chiefs of Bane. He was born in Bane. He was the father of executed playwright and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and of doctor and human-rights activist Owens Wiwa, and the grandfather of...

, Ken was born in Bori
Bori, Nigeria
Bori is a city in Khana Local Government Area, Rivers State, southern Nigeria. It is the birthplace of executed author Ken Saro-Wiwa.Bori is the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni people,Bori serves as a commercial centre for the Ogoni, Andoni, Opobo...

, in the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

. He spent his childhood in an Anglican home and eventually proved himself to be an excellent student; he attended Secondary School at Government College Umuahia  and on completion obtained a scholarship to study English
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 at the University of Ibadan
University of Ibadan
The University of Ibadan is the oldest Nigerian university, and is located five miles from the centre of the major city of Ibadan in Western Nigeria...

 and briefly became a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos
University of Lagos
The University of Lagos - popularly known as Unilag - is a federal government university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos, Lagos State, southern Nigeria...

.

However, he soon took up a government post as the Civilian Administrator for the port city of Bonny in the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

, and during the Nigerian Civil War
Nigerian Civil War
The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War, 6 July 1967–15 January 1970, was a political conflict caused by the attempted secession of the southeastern provinces of Nigeria as the self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra...

 was a strong supporter of the federal cause against the Biafra
Biafra
Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra . The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious...

ns. His best known novel, Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, tells the story of a naive village boy recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970, and intimates the political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

 and patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

 in Nigeria's military regime of the time. His war diaries, On a Darkling Plain, document Saro-Wiwa's experience during the war. Saro-Wiwa was also a successful businessman and television producer. His satirical television series, Basi & Co., is purported to have been one of the most watched soap operas in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, surpassed only by Jab Adu's The Village Headmaster and Claudius Eke's Masqurade.

In the early 1970s Saro-Wiwa served as the Regional Commissioner for Education in the Rivers State
Rivers State
Rivers State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. Its capital is Port Harcourt. It is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states...

 Cabinet, but was dismissed in 1973 because of his support for Ogoni autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...

. In the late 1970s, he established a number of successful business ventures in retail and real-estate, and during the 1980s concentrated primarily on his writing, journalism and television production, His intellectual work was interrupted in 1987 when he re-entered the political scene, appointed by the newly installed dictator Ibrahim Babangida
Ibrahim Babangida
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida CFR DSS mni , popularly known as IBB, was a Nigerian Army officer and military ruler of Nigeria...

 to aid the country's transition to democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

. But Ken soon resigned because he felt Babangida's supposed plans for a return to democracy were disingenuous. Ken's sentiments were proven correct in the coming years, as Babangida failed to relinquish power. In 1993, Babangida annulled Nigeria's general elections which would transfer power to a civilian government, sparking mass civil unrest and eventually forcing him to step-down, at least officially, in the same year.

Activism

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa began devoting most of his time to human rights and environmental causes, particularly in Ogoniland. He was one of the earliest members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People is a campaigning organization representing the Ogoni people. Ogoniland is situated north-east of Niger Delta...

 (MOSOP), which advocated for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In particular, MOSOP struggled against the degradation of Ogoni lands by Shell oil company.

In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.

Saro-Wiwa was Vice Chair of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) General Assembly from 1993 to 1995. UNPO is an international, nonviolent, and democratic organization (of which MOSOP is a member). Its members are indigenous peoples, minorities, and unrecognised or occupied territories who have joined together to protect and promote their human and cultural rights, to preserve their environments and to find nonviolent solutions to conflicts which affect them.

In January 1993, MOSOP organized peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people – more than half of the Ogoni population – through four Ogoni centers, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year the Nigerian government occupied the region militarily.

Arrest and death

Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month.
On May 21, 1994 four Ogoni chiefs (all on the conservative side of a schism within MOSOP over strategy) were brutally murdered. Saro-Wiwa had been denied entry to Ogoniland on the day of the murders, but he was arrested and accused of incitement to them. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The same happened to other MOSOP leaders (Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine).

Nearly all of the defendants' lawyers resigned in protest against the trial's cynical rigging by the Abacha
Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. A Kanuri from Borno by tribe, he was born and brought up in Kano, Nigeria. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998....

 regime. The resignations left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers. Many of these supposed witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony – in the presence of Shell’s lawyer.

The trial was widely criticised by human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 organizations, and half a year later, Ken Saro-Wiwa received the Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...

  for his courage as well as the Goldman Environmental Prize
Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize includes a no-strings-attached award of...

.

Very few observers were surprised when the tribunal declared a "guilty" verdict, but most were shocked that the penalty would be death by hanging for all nine defendants. Many were skeptical that the punishments would actually occur, as the Nigerian government would face international outrage and possible sanctions and other legal action should the penalties be carried out. But on 10 November 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other MOSOP leaders (the "Ogoni Nine
Ogoni Nine
The Ogoni Nine were a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including outspoken author and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine , who were executed by hanging in 1995 by the...

") were killed by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 at the hands of military personnel. According to most accounts, Saro-Wiwa was the last person to be hanged and so was forced to watch the death of his colleagues. Information on the circumstances of Saro-Wiwa's own death are unclear, but it is generally agreed that multiple attempts were required before Saro-Wiwa died..

In his satirical piece Africa Kills Her Sun first published in 1989, Ken correctly foreshadowed his execution in a resigned, melancholic mood... This came to pass few years later on November 10, 1995 when he was hanged by the then military rule (just like he had written).

His death provoked international outrage and the immediate suspension of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

 as well as the calling back of many foreign diplomats for consultation. The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and other countries considered imposing economic sanctions
Economic sanctions
Economic sanctions are domestic penalties applied by one country on another for a variety of reasons. Economic sanctions include, but are not limited to, tariffs, trade barriers, import duties, and import or export quotas...

 on Nigeria because of its government's actions.

A memorial to Saro-Wiwa was unveiled in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on 10 November 2006. It consists of a sculpture in the form of a bus, and was created by Sokari Douglas Camp
Sokari Douglas Camp
Sokari Douglas Camp is an artist who has had exhibitions all over the world and was the recipient of a bursary from the Henry Moore Foundation, as well as being honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Honours List.She was born in Buguma, Nigeria, a Kalabari town in...

, also from Nigeria. It toured the UK the following year.

Family lawsuits against Royal Dutch Shell

Beginning in 1996, the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

 (CCR), EarthRights International (ERI), Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman and other human rights attorneys have brought a series of cases to hold Shell accountable for alleged human rights violations in Nigeria, including summary execution
Summary execution
A summary execution is a variety of execution in which a person is killed on the spot without trial or after a show trial. Summary executions have been practiced by the police, military, and paramilitary organizations and are associated with guerrilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and...

, crimes against humanity, torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

, inhumane treatment and arbitrary arrest and detention. The lawsuits are brought against Royal Dutch Shell and Brian Anderson, the head of its Nigerian operation.

The cases were brought under the Alien Tort Statute
Alien Tort Statute
The Alien Tort Statute ) is a section of the United States Code that reads: "The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States." This statute is notable for allowing...

, a 1789 statute giving non-U.S. citizens the right to file suits in U.S. courts for international human rights violations, and the Torture Victim Protection Act, which allows individuals to seek damages in the U.S. for torture or extrajudicial killing, regardless of where the violations take place.

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...

 set a trial date of June 2009. On June 9, 2009 Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...

 agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $15.5 million USD to victims' families. However, the company denied any liability for the deaths, stating that the payment was part of a reconciliation process. In a statement given after the settlement, Shell suggested that the money was being provided to the relatives of Saro-Wiwa and the eight other victims, in order to cover the legal costs of the case and also in recognition of the events that took place in the region. Some of the funding is also expected to be used to set up a development trust for the Ogoni people
Ogoni people
Ogoni people are one of the many indigenous peoples in the region of southeast Nigeria. They share common oil related environmental problem with the Ijaw people of Niger Delta, but Ogonis are not listed in the list of people historically belonging to Niger Delta...

, who inhabit the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...

 region of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

. The settlement was made just days before the trial, which had been brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa's son, was due to begin in New York.

Biographies

A biography, In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understanding His Father's Legacy, was written by his son, journalist Ken Wiwa
Ken Wiwa
Ken Wiwa , also known as Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., is a Nigerian journalist and author. His book In the Shadow of a Saint is a memoir of his father, executed activist and political prisoner Ken Saro-Wiwa....

. Published in September 2005, shortly before the tenth anniversary of Saro-Wiwa's execution, Canadian author J. Timothy Hunt
J. Timothy Hunt
James Timothy Hunt is an American-Canadian author and journalist.- Biography : Hunt was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and attended university in Montana, receiving a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration from Rocky Mountain College in 1981...

's The Politics of Bones
The Politics of Bones
The Politics of Bones: Dr. Owens Wiwa and the Struggle for Nigeria's Oil is a book by Canadian journalist J. Timothy Hunt. It was published by McClelland & Stewart in September 2005 just before the tenth anniversary of the controversial execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa.On November 10, 1995, Nigeria’s...

documented the flight of Ken's brother Owens Wiwa
Owens Wiwa
Monday Owens Wiwa is a medical doctor and human rights activist. He is the brother of executed Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the son of Ogoni chief Jim Wiwa. Wiwa is an internationally renowned expert on the effects of globalization, especially as it relates to the highly controversial business...

, after his brother's execution and his own imminent arrest, to London and then on to Canada, where he is now a citizen and continues his brother's fight on behalf of the Ogoni people. Moreover, it is also the story of Owens' personal battle against the Nigerian government to locate his brother's remains after they were buried in an unmarked mass-grave. Ken Saro-Wiwa's own diary, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary was published in January 1995, 2 months after his execution. A book of essays about Wiwa entitled Before I Am Hanged: Ken Saro-Wiwa, Literature, Politics, and Dissent was published by Africa World Press in December 1999. More information on the struggles of the Ogoni people can be found in the book Ogoni's Agonies: Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Crisis in Nigeria he(ISBN 0-86543-647-9)

In popular culture and academia

The Finnish band Ultra Bra
Ultra Bra
Ultra Bra was a Finnish band, formed in 1994 by Olli Virtaperko and Kerkko Koskinen, and disbanded in 2001. Throughout the 1990s, the band was very popular in Finland, but never spread to other countries.-Band history:...

 dedicated their song "Ken Saro-Wiwa on kuollut" ("Ken Saro-Wiwa is dead") to the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa. The Italian band Il Teatro degli Orrori dedicated their song "A sangue freddo" ("In cold blood", it's also the title track of their second album) to the memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa. An academic book on trade, health and human rights has been dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa.
The folk duo Magpie included the song "Saro-Wiwa" on their album "Give Light," crediting it as Words and Music by Terry Leonino and Ken Saro-Wiwa. It includes lines from Saro-Wiwa's poem "Dance."

Ken Saro Wiwa's execution is quoted and used as an inspiration for Beverley Naidoo
Beverley Naidoo
Beverley Naidoo is a popular South African children's author who has written a number of award-winning novels, mainly about life in South Africa, where she spent her childhood. She graduated from the University of York with a BA in Education in 1968....

's 2000 novel The Other Side of Truth
The Other Side of Truth
The Other Side of Truth is a children's novel about Nigerian political refugees by Beverley Naidoo, published in 2000. A powerful story about justice and freedom of speech, it received several awards including the Carnegie Medal....

.

A novel, Eclipse, which is based on the events in Nigeria, was published by Richard North Patterson
Richard North Patterson
Richard North Patterson is an American author of fiction. He was born in Berkeley, California, the eldest child of a corporate executive and a housewife. While still a child, he moved with his parents to Bay Village, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated from Bay High School in 1964. He...

 in 2009.

Guitarist and composer Robin Flower and musical partner Libby McClaren included Saro-Wiwa as an example of a cultural "Angel of Change" on a 2003 recording of the same name.

A Igbo high-life Bongo musician hailing from Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria is currently recording under the stage name "Saro-Wiwa". He has gone on to release several popular albums such as "Bongo Jere Uzo Ije" & "Bongo Ekoo".

M.I a popular Nigerian artist mentions Ken Saro Wiwa in his song Craze. ..I discovered that the oil people paid off my leader,I can't complain or else they'll do me Ken Saro Wiwa.

Hip Hop duo Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & HiTek, in their 2010 album, Revolutions Per Minute, mention in their song "Ballad Of The Black Gold": "They was activists and poets using non-violent tactics/That was catalyst for soldiers to break into they crib/Take it from the kids and try to break'em like a twig/And make examples of the leaders; executed Saro-Wiwa"

External links

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