Nembe Kingdom

The Nembe Kingdom is a traditional state in Niger Delta. It includes the Nembe and Brass Local Government Areas[1] of Bayelsa State,[2] Nigeria. The traditional rulers take the title "Amanyanabo". Today, leadership[3] is split between the Amanyanabos of Ogbolomabiri, Bassambiri, Okpoama, Odioama and Twon Brass.[4]

Nembe Kingdom
Ijaw States, including Nembe
Ijaw States, including Nembe
Coordinates: 4°32′N 6°25′E
Country Nigeria
StateBayelsa State

History

The Nembes are an Izon people of the Niger Delta region, settled in the region that now includes the Edumanom Forest Reserve.[5] The date of foundation of the old Nembe kingdom is unknown. Tradition says that the tenth king was called Ogio, ruling around 1639, the ancestor of all subsequent kings. A civil war later split the city into two factions. At the start of the 19th century, king Ogbodo and his followers moved to a new settlement at Bassimibiri, while king Mingi remained at Nembe city.[6]

With the arrival of Europeans on the coast, the Nembe kingdom became a trading state, but was relatively poor compared to Bonny and Calabar.[7] [8]

The Nembe slave trade picked up in the second quarter of the 19th century when the British attempted to suppress slave-trading in Africa by blockading the ports of Bonny and Calabar. The position of Nembe town 30 miles up the Brass River became an advantage in these circumstances.[9] However, with dwindling demand for slaves, by 1856 the palm-oil trade had become more important and trade had moved to the town of Twon-Brass on the coast.[8] In the later 19th century, Christian missionaries[10] contributed to the existing factional tensions among the Nembe. Ogbolomabiri acquired a Christian mission in 1867, while Bassambiri remained "heathen".[7]

After 1884, the Nembe kingdom was included in the area over which the British claimed sovereignty as part of the Oil Rivers Protectorate. The Nembe, who by now controlled the palm oil trade, at first refused to sign a treaty, and sought to prevent the Royal Niger Company obtaining a trade monopoly.[6] In January 1895 the Nembe King William Koko led a dawn attack of more than a thousand warriors on the company's headquarters at Akassa. This triggered a retaliatory raid in which an expeditionary[11] force led by Sir Frederick Bedford captured and sacked Nembe, occurring concurrently with a devastating[12] outbreak of smallpox in the Kingdom.[6] The British later established a consulate in Twon-Brass, from where they administered the area. Traditional rulers were reinstalled in the 1920s, but with an essentially symbolic role which they retain today.[13]

Rulers

Ogbolomabiri

Rulers of Ogbolomabiri:[14]

StartEndRuler
17451766Mingi I
17661788Ikata Mingi II
17881800Gboro Mingi III
18001832Kuko Mingi IV "King Forday"
18321846Amain Mingi V "King Boy"
18461846Kuki
18461863Kien Mingi VI
18631879Joshua Constantine Ockiya Mingi VII
18791889(vacant)
18891896Frederick William Koko Mingi VIII (d. 1898)
18961926(vacant)
19261939Joshua Anthony O. Ockiya Mingi IX (b. c.1873 – d. 1939
19391954(vacant)
19541979Francis O. Joseph Allagoa Mingi X (d. 1979)
19792007Ambrose Ezeolisa Allagoa Mingi XI (b. 1914 – d.
23 February 2008Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, Mingi XII (b. 1943)

Bassambiri

Later rulers of Bassambiri:[14]

StartEndRuler
1870Arisimo "King Peter"
18701894Ebifa
18941924(vacant)
19241927Albert Oguara
1928Ben I. Warri
19781993King Collins Festus Amaegbe-Eremienyo Ogbodo VII Born 29 November 1930 died July 1993 and buried in 1994
19962013Ralph Michael Iwowari, Mein VII B1930 buried November 2014

Twon/Brass

StartEndRuler

References

  1. "Nigeria: Administrative Division (States and Local Government Areas) - Population Statistics, Charts and Map". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  2. "Bayelsa State Government – The Glory of all Lands". Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  3. "leadership - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  4. "Nembe Bassambiri". Nembe Ibe USA. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
  5. "The Niger Delta – Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group". Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  6. Mogens Herman Hansen (2000). A comparative study of thirty city-state cultures: an investigation. Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab. p. 534. ISBN 87-7876-177-8.
  7. G. I. Jones (2001). The trading states of the oil rivers: a study of political development in Eastern Nigeria. James Currey Publishers. p. 85ff. ISBN 0-85255-918-6.
  8. Joanne Bubolz Eicher (1995). Dress and ethnicity: change across space and time. Berg Publishers. pp. 168–169. ISBN 1-85973-003-5.
  9. "Circumstances - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms". Vocabulary.com. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  10. "Missionary - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms". Vocabulary.com. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  11. "Expeditionary - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms". Vocabulary.com. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  12. "Devastating - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms". Vocabulary.com. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  13. "Tourism in Bayelsa State". Bayelsa State Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original on 1 March 2010. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
  14. "Traditional States of Nigeria". WorldStatesmen.org. Retrieved 14 September 2010.
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