THE SLAVE BOY WHO BECAME KING.
Jaja was born in 1821 in Amiagbo, close to Orlu. Later, he became a slave and arrived at Bonny. He joined the Anna Pepple House and worked his way up to become a prominent and successful merchant. After that, he was made head of the household. The House flourished under his leadership. The house’s competitors were envious of its rising fame. Jaja left the area in 1869, bringing fourteen of the eighteen bonny cottages with him in order to start a new community known as Opobo and prevent a civil war from escalating. Because of Opobo’s geographic location, he was able to dominate the Igbo and Ibibio hinterland’s palm oil commerce.
As a result of Opobo’s rise and the shift in commerce to Opobo, Bonny’s fortunes declined. Jaja thus rose to prominence in a matter of years as the richest and, consequently, most powerful monarch in the Niger Delta region at the time.
One may say that he and the British had friendly relations at first. An arrangement that allowed the British to acknowledge Jaja of Opobo was made in 1837. In exchange for lending his warriors to the British for the 1837–1874 Asante expedition, he was given a sword by Queen Victoria.
However, Jaja was well aware that his dominance over the palm oil markets in the hinterland was what gave him his influence. As a result, he forbade European traders from conducting business with such markets directly. A fight broke out between Jaja and the British in 1886. The British traders’ attempt to obtain direct access to Jaja’s hinterland marketplaces was the cause of this argument. In response, he outlawed any business dealings with European companies and began shipping oil directly to England.
Acting Consul Johnson intervened in 1887 and ordered him to permit European traders to enter the hinterland marketplaces. Because Jaja refused to cooperate, the consul brought the warship HMS Goshawk to Opobo in September of that year and requested Jaja to meet with him on board. Johnson gave Jaja the reassurance that nothing bad would happen to him. However, as soon as he boarded, Jaja was informed that he would either have to go into exile or face being bombarded by Opobo for refusing to let European trade.
Jaja chose exile as a means of preserving Opobo. He was transported to Accra, where he was tried and found guilty. He was then deported to the West Indies, where he died while returning to Opobo in 1891.
The story is Nana of Itsekiri
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