Who was King Jaja of Opobo?
King Jaja of Opobo was a charismatic and courageous ruler of Opobo, a city-state in modern Rivers State, who fought against British trade penetration and rule in the Igbo hinterland. Jaja was a Nkwerre man who was born in Umuduruoha in Amaigbo around 1821. His real name was Mbanaso Okwaraozurumba; Due to his contacts with the English, he later took the name Jaja. Because his upper teeth were cut, which was abnormal and evil in the Igbo tradition, he was sold to a rich man, Iganipughuma Allison of the Delta town of Bonny, then inhabited by Igbo slaves. In Bonny, Jaja Jubo was called Jubogha and belonged to the lowest group of slaves, which included those born outside the city. Since he was difficult to control, Jaja was in turn entrusted to Chief Madi from Anna Pepple’s line. Master.
Jaja’s Rise to Power During his time in Anna Pepple’s household, Jaja gained respect and rank due to his business skills. He was admired by leading members of the House of Representatives and was later elected Speaker of the House. Some slaves in the house didn’t like this, so Jaja later encountered obstacles. A jealous and influential former slave named Oko Jombo fought and defeated Jaja with the help of King George Pepple.JaJa fled for his life and settled near the Ikomtoro River where, as a skilled trader, he blocked the flow of palm oil to Pepple in Bonny. On January 4, 1873, Jaja signed a treaty with the British Crown as he was dissatisfied with the trade agreement initiated by King George of Bonny. The treaty recognized Jaja as king of Opobo and gave him exclusive trading monopoly except for White Man’s Beach. This treaty was interpreted differently by the newly sent Consul of the British Queen, E.H.Hewett, who denied that the treaty gave King Jaji of Opobo a market monopoly. Hewett argued that the decision to prevent the white man from hiking up the Opobo River was made solely for health reasons. The 1873 treaty appears to have been eventually replaced by the Protectorate Treaty of the Berlin Conference of December 19, 1884, which placed the Niger District under “Her Majesty the Queen.”
Overthrow and banishment of King Jaja Because of a conspiracy to protect his trading rights, King Jaja was accused of obstructing trade and violating the agreement reached at the Berlin Conference. King Jaja, not realizing the full significance of establishing a protectorate for the district in which his kingdom lay, sent a delegation to the Foreign Office in London to present his case to the Earl of Roseberry. “(The Consul) urges the residents of Old Bonny to go to our markets and we will not interfere in theirs. Therefore, Her Majesty will see exactly what problems he is trying to cause us. The consul decides to get rid of King Jaja of Opobo and thus convinces the King of Bonna to renounce him.He isolated King Jaja politically and asked permission to “temporarily” relocate him to the Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. Before King Jaja was exiled from Opobo to Accra on the Gold Coast, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought the advice of third parties but was unable to stop the exile on September 30, 1887. An investigation was carried out into King Jaja’s activities in Accra under the command of a senior naval officer, the Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. It turned out that King Jai’s actions against free trade were due to his ignorance, misinterpretations and resulting opposition to the Treaty of Berlin. The Foreign Ministry was not aware of this. However, the Admiralty found no proven evidence against King Jaja, as the defendant posed a serious threat of “invading only that part of the country worth exploiting.” King Egg is sent into exile in the name of free trade in the country. Although King Jaja asked in a letter to be exiled to Acre, he was denied as it was believed he could consolidate his power from such a “close” location. House of Jaja Death of King Jaja of Opobo King Jaja spent the rest of his life on the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies. However, in 1891, the British decided that King Jaja could return to his kingdom, but on the way back, King Jaja of Opobo died from what many believed was poisoning. Two decades later, JaJa’s death was followed by the Aro War, which opened the entire Igbo hinterland to colonial rule.