The Ken Saro-Wiwa Rooms or KSW Rooms is a brand new museum that explores the life and multiple legacies of the writer, activist and global icon Ken Saro-Wiwa. Opened in November 2025 to mark the 30th anniversary of his tragic and wrongful killing, the Mangrove Arts Foundation has launched the first phase of this ambitious project. KSW Rooms will occupy two out of three floors of the building Ken owned and operated within on Aggrey Road in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
KSW Rooms is a space that deepens and carries the legacy of Ken Saro-Wiwa forwards in fresh and profound contemporary-art led ways. This is not just a space that revisits his activism. It is a space that asks deeper questions about what it means to be an activist in the 21st century today. It asks hard questions about martyrdom and collective responsibility. It probes indigenous and African environmentalisms. It delves into literature and poetry, uses food, music and humor to explore the themes that propelled him. Far from being a dry political space KSW Rooms is unapologetically magical. Deeply cultural. Leading you down emotional paths that challenge and inspire. That make you see the world around you and your place within it very differently.
On view this year will be:
A Forest of Flowers a stunning permanent installation inspired by and named after his book of short stories. The work features a living indoor forest and hypnotic sound installation featuring Ken’s own voice reading from his book and explores the question where do stories come from? The space speaks to Ken’s love for plants and flower and forests. The installation also offers an opportunity for visitors to meditate in nature and reflect upon the many lessons offered by Ken’s life and death.
Where Were You? is a room featuring the stories of people around the world recounting the moment they heard about Ken’s execution and the impact his death had on their life. An ongoing project produced by Rocio Cano and Simon Morris, current interviewees in this current cycle include George Monbiot, James Marriot, Mordecai Ogada, Mark Johnson, Nimmo Bassey, Firoze Manji and others.
Karikpo Pipeline, the celebrated five-channel piece by Zina Saro-Wiwa, will be on display for the first time in West Africa. This is a work that questions power and the identity of Ogoniland asking is it defined by oil or by indigenous culture?
And the Museum’s cafe - Simaseng Research Cafe - will feature Table Manners by Zina Saro-Wiwa plus footage taken by Glenn and Kay Ellis of Ken in the year before his death edited by Zina.
Over the course of the year there will be rooms opening that feature contemporary art takes on Ken’s hit TV show Basi & Company, rooms that explore the role and impact of the activism of Anita and Gordon Roddick of The Body Shop, commissioned pieces from Port Harcourt artists Johnson Uwadinma and Oliver Socrates Nenubari and rooms dedicated to Ken’s darkly hilarious newspaper column Similia published in the Sunday Times and a room dedicated to Ken Jnr.
KSW Rooms is also a chance to properly tell the buried emotional stories of all the families affected by the wrongful killings on 10th November 1995. A chance for the local and global community to truly work through and metabolize the pain and the lessons from this death. A death from which little collective healing has been derived. To achieve this we plan on holding symposiums, listening events, readings, parties, publications, podcasts and lectures. There will also be the official opening of Simaseng Research Cafe where delicious re-imagined local seasonal food and drink will be served to visitors. We at Mangrove Arts Foundation see engaging with food and the natural environment as a mode of healing and will be creating recipes for the community that draws from Ogoniland and beyond and celebrating the life of the land outside the existence of petroleum and gas.
This space will be the first time that Ken’s legacy will have been considered in its entirety, drawing connections between the journalist, the poet, the TV producer, the author, the activist, the politician, the nature lover, the music lover, the mentor and the business man. Where the spiritual and the political are considered alongside one another. KSW Rooms is a place that will inspire much thought, some tears but much joy and inspiration. A contemplative site that offers a warm and comforting space to deeply metabolize the pain, and the many meanings and lessons of his life and death. An important step that allows us collectively to plan for a new kind of future for the Niger Delta on a resolved and creative footing.
The Ken Saro-Wiwa Rooms is now open to the public. Fridays and Saturdays throughout December 2025 and Wed-Saturday 11am-6pm in 2026.
MAF wishes to thank The Roddick Foundation for their support for this project. We are still in great need of funding to create all the events and curate further rooms. If you would like to support please click on our DONATE page or email us on connect@mangroveartsfoundation.com.