By: Felix Ikpotor
Maria, wife of late Ogoni and environmental activists, Ken Saro-Wiwa has died.
She died at the age of 73.
One the daughters of the deceased, Zina Saro-Wiwa who disclosed the news of her mums death in a social media message said she died last weekend in her sleep.
Part of the message reads: “The threshold I dreaded crossing my entire life occurred last weekend. On Sunday morning I woke up to several missed calls from my twin sister Noo which meant only one thing. And for me it was my nightmare come true: my beloved mother was gone. The small mercy was that she passed away peacefully in her sleep”.
“My heart is broken. It has been broken, to some extent, since my little brother passed in 1993. The weight of the number of deaths in our immediate family was ultimately too much for her to bear. Although always strong and serene, she surely died of a broken heart”.
“This woman, was the light and often the bane of my life. I was obsessed with her in some ways. My twin and I stayed in her womb the full 9 months. Uncommon for twins I’m told. In fact none of Maria’s 5 babies particularly wanted to evacuate her belly, she told me. My mother often thought me too clingy. I would miss her even when I was with her. It was strange”.
