While the Manilla House welcomed the Christians with a warm embrace, the Anna House was opposed to the exotic religion. Not surprisingly, the missionaries sided with the Manilla House against the Anna House.
Second, in , King William Pepple died and, with this, the contest for the throne between the two royal houses took on a monstrous posture. Three years later, in , Bonny was ravaged by fire, and the Anna House was the worst hit.
In the discomfiture of his opponent, Oko Jumbo saw his opportunity. On September 13, , heavy fighting erupted between the two royal houses. Outmatched in men and armament, though not in strategy, Ja Ja pulled out of Bonny, accepted defeat, and sued for peace with a suddenness that surprised both his adversaries and the European supercargoes.
Peace palaver commenced and dragged on for weeks under the auspices of the British consul. This was exactly what Ja Ja planned for. It soon became doubtful if the victors were not indeed the vanquished. Ja Ja had sued for peace in order to gain time to retreat from Bonny with his supporters with little or no loss in men and armament.
A master strategist, he relocated in the Andoni country away from the seaboard at a strategic point at the mouth of the Imo river, the highway of trade between the coastal communities and the palm-oil rich Kwa Iboe and Igbo country. There, he survived the initial problems of a virgin settlement as well as incessant attacks of his Bonny enemies. In , feeling reasonably secure, Ja Ja proclaimed the independence of his settlement which he named Opobo, after Opubu the Great, the illustrious king of Bonny and founder of Anna House who had died in As Dike writes: [I]t is characteristic of the man that he had not only a sense of the occasion but of history….
Kingship was impossible of attainment for anyone of slave origins in Bonny. Instead he sought another land where he could give full scope to his boundless energies. Long before the war of , Ja Ja had been carefully planning to found his own state. The war merely provided him with the occasion to implement his design. In naming his new territory Opobo, Ja Ja was appealing to the nostalgia and historical consciousness of his followers while giving them the impression that he was truly the heir of the celebrated king.
That this impression was widespread and accepted by most Bonny citizens may be judged from the fact that of the 18 houses in Bonny, 14 followed Ja Ja to Opobo. To no avail, the British consul tried to coerce Ja Ja to come back to Bonny. For 18 years, Ja Ja ruled his kingdom with firmness and remarkable sagacity.
He strengthened his relations with the hinterland palm-oil producers through judicious marriages and blood covenants which bound the parties into ritual kingship. He armed his traders with modern weapons for their own defense and that of the state.
He thus monopolized trade with the palm-oil producers and punished severely any community that tried to trade directly with the European supercargoes.
In , the British recognized him as king of independent Opobo, and Ja Ja reciprocated by sending a contingent of his soldiers to help the British in their war against the Ashanti kingdom in the Gold Coast now Ghana. Queen Victoria expressed her gratitude in by awarding him a sword of honor. It seemed a honeymoon had developed between Opobo and Britain.
He retained most of the sociopolitical and cultural institutions of Bonny, such as the house system, and stuck steadfastly to the religion of his fathers, arguing that Christianity was a serious ferment of societal destabilization. While recognizing the value of Western education and literacy, he objected to its religious component. Thus, he sent his two sons to school in Scotland but insisted they acquire only secular education.
An Englishman who visited Opobo in stated that the standard of the pupils in the school compared quite favorably with that of English children of the same age. The honeymoon between Ja Ja and the British turned out to be meteoric: the ultimate ambitions of the two ran at cross-purposes.
Ja Ja guarded his independence jealously, had a tight grip on the interior markets and confined British traders to Opobo, away from these markets. He made sure that the traders paid their comeys customs and trade duties as and when due. But in the s, the clouds of British imperialism were closing in menacingly on Opobo, the overthrow of indigenous sovereignties having been initiated by John Beecroft, the first British consul to Nigeria British imperialism had begun to assert itself forcefully; British officials on the spot were increasingly ignoring indigenous authorities, while British traders had begun to insist on trading directly with the hinterland palm-oil producers.
Ja Ja tackled these formidable problems judiciously and with restraint. In July , fearing German intrusion in the Delta, the British consul, Edward Hewett, rushed to the area, foisting treaties of protection on the indigenous sovereignties.
With a veiled threat from a man-of-war, Ja Ja too was stampeded into placing his kingdom under British protection. Hewett wrote to Ja Ja informing him, inter alia among other things , that: the queen does not want to take your country or your markets, but at the same time she is anxious that no other nation should take them. She undertakes … [to] leave your country still under your government; she has no wish to disturb your rule. The following year, European powers entered into the Treaty of Berlin which set the stage for the scramble and partition of Africa among themselves, without regard to the wishes of Africans.
The treaty provided for free navigation on River Niger and other rivers, such as the Imo, linked to it. On the basis of this, the British consul asserted that British firms were within their rights to trade directly in the interior palm-oil markets.
A man of his word, he was shocked at Britain reneging on her pledge. Worse times were yet to come as political problems were compounded by economic dispute. The s witnessed a severe trade depression that ruined some of the European firms trading in the Delta and threatened the survival of others.
The surviving firms responded to the situation in two ways. First, they reached an agreement among themselves, though not with complete unanimity, to offer low prices for produce. Second, they claimed the right to go directly to the interior markets in order to sidestep the coastal middlemen and reduce the handling cost of produce. As would be expected, Ja Ja objected to these maneuvers and proceeded to ship his own produce directly to Europe.
The British consul directed the European firms not to pay comey to Ja Ja anymore, arguing that in shipping his produce directly to Europe, he had forfeited his right to receive the payment. Once again, this was to no avail. Under a threat of naval bombardment, Ja Ja signed an agreement with the British consul in July to allow free trade in his territory.
Harry Johnston, acting vice-consul, a young hothead anxious to advance his colonial career, imagined that Ja Ja would be a perfect stepping-stone to attain his ambition. Arriving at Opobo on a man-of-war, Johnston invited Ja Ja for a discussion on how to resolve the points of friction between Opobo and the British traders and officials.
Said Johnston: I hereby assure you that whether you accept or reject my proposals tomorrow, no restrictions will be put on you — you will be free to go as soon as you have heard my message. But again the British reneged on their pledge: Ja Ja would not return to his kingdom alive.
Long before the war of , Ja Ja had been carefully planning to found his own state. The war merely provided him with the occasion to implement his design. In naming his new territory Opobo, Ja Ja was appealing to the nostalgia and historical consciousness of his followers while giving them the impression that he was truly the heir of the celebrated king.
That this impression was widespread and accepted by most Bonny citizens may be judged from the fact that of the 18 houses in Bonny, 14 followed Ja Ja to Opobo. To no avail, the British consul tried to coerce Ja Ja to come back to Bonny. For 18 years, Ja Ja ruled his kingdom with firmness and remarkable sagacity. He strengthened his relations with the hinterland palm-oil producers through judicious marriages and blood covenants which bound the parties into ritual kingship. He armed his traders with modern weapons for their own defense and that of the state.
He thus monopolized trade with the palm-oil producers and punished severely any community that tried to trade directly with the European supercargoes. In , the British recognized him as king of independent Opobo, and Ja Ja reciprocated by sending a contingent of his soldiers to help the British in their war against the Ashanti kingdom in the Gold Coast now Ghana.
Queen Victoria expressed her gratitude in by awarding him a sword of honor. It seemed a honeymoon had developed between Opobo and Britain. He retained most of the sociopolitical and cultural institutions of Bonny, such as the house system, and stuck steadfastly to the religion of his fathers, arguing that Christianity was a serious ferment of societal destabilization.
While recognizing the value of Western education and literacy, he objected to its religious component. Thus, he sent his two sons to school in Scotland but insisted they acquire only secular education. An Englishman who visited Opobo in stated that the standard of the pupils in the school compared quite favorably with that of English children of the same age.
The honeymoon between Ja Ja and the British turned out to be meteoric: the ultimate ambitions of the two ran at cross-purposes. Ja Ja guarded his independence jealously, had a tight grip on the interior markets and confined British traders to Opobo, away from these markets.
He made sure that the traders paid their comeys customs and trade duties as and when due. But in the s, the clouds of British imperialism were closing in menacingly on Opobo, the overthrow of indigenous sovereignties having been initiated by John Beecroft, the first British consul to Nigeria British imperialism had begun to assert itself forcefully; British officials on the spot were increasingly ignoring indigenous authorities, while British traders had begun to insist on trading directly with the hinterland palm-oil producers.
Ja Ja tackled these formidable problems judiciously and with restraint. In July , fearing German intrusion in the Delta, the British consul, Edward Hewett, rushed to the area, foisting treaties of protection on the indigenous sovereignties. With a veiled threat from a man-of-war, Ja Ja too was stampeded into placing his kingdom under British protection. Hewett wrote to Ja Ja informing him, inter alia among other things , that:.
She undertakes. The following year, European powers entered into the Treaty of Berlin which set the stage for the scramble and partition of Africa among themselves, without regard to the wishes of Africans. The treaty provided for free navigation on River Niger and other rivers, such as the Imo, linked to it. On the basis of this, the British consul asserted that British firms were within their rights to trade directly in the interior palm-oil markets.
A man of his word, he was shocked at Britain reneging on her pledge. Worse times were yet to come as political problems were compounded by economic dispute.
The s witnessed a severe trade depression that ruined some of the European firms trading in the Delta and threatened the survival of others. The surviving firms responded to the situation in two ways. First, they reached an agreement among themselves, though not with complete unanimity, to offer low prices for produce. Second, they claimed the right to go directly to the interior markets in order to sidestep the coastal middlemen and reduce the handling cost of produce.
As would be expected, Ja Ja objected to these maneuvers and proceeded to ship his own produce directly to Europe. The British consul directed the European firms not to pay comey to Ja Ja anymore, arguing that in shipping his produce directly to Europe, he had forfeited his right to receive the payment.
Once again, this was to no avail. Under a threat of naval bombardment, Ja Ja signed an agreement with the British consul in July to allow free trade in his territory. As always, Netflix is set to have you on the edge of your seat throughout November with movies that'll leave you giddy with excitement. What's New. His manager Toni Benson in a statement to TMZ confirming his death revealed that the actor had died of prostate cancer in his home.
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Sanguine sounds from Warri math Maverick. He sat relaxed, gazing into the thin air as he spoke. And for this year-old, Not relenting on the chart-topping success of "Feeling," Ladipoe is back with a new song titled "Running" on which he features Fireboy DML. The rapper revealed that it is also the first single off his forthcoming EP "Providence," set to drop next month.
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With a cinematographer Halyna Hutchins killed and a movie director wounded after US actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun during filming, we look at other deadly movie accidents. Streaming giant Netflix has released the official trailer for the movie 'Red Notice' When Interpol issues Red Notice; the highest level warrant to hunt and capture the world's most wanted, the FBI's top profiler John Hartley Dwayne Johnson is on the case. His global pursuit finds him smack dab in the middle of a daring….
US actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed a cinematographer and wounded the director on a film set in New Mexico, US law enforcement officers said Thursday. The incident happened on the set of "Rust" in the southwestern US state, where Baldwin is playing the lead in a 19th-century western. Halyna Hutchins and…. Travel and Places.
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