Story of an African boy- Jaja of Opobo
Mbanaso Okwaraozurumbaa is the real name of the Jaja of Opobo, born in the southeast of Nigeria, in 1821. During the 'West African' Holocaust, the Holocaust of Enslavement, 'the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The oil-rich Bonny region played a significant role in commercial activities in the sub-Saharan region, in which they practice all forms of trade with the Europeans. Bonny and the European relationship dated back to the 12th Century. the European merchants brought goods like Weapons, mirrors, clothes, etc. which were exchanged with cocoa, palm oil, slaves.
Mbanaso who is from Igboland was sold as a slave to a bonny trader at the age of twelve, he was given a new name 'Jubo Jubogha' by his master.
According to indigenous sources, Jaja was kidnapped from his family and sold as a slave, he was sold to Chief Iganipughuma Allison of Bonny. His primary job was to assist with the trade and general homework, he gets fed and knowledge of trading which is part of the ways some Africans acquired Knowledge of living. The kind of slave trade that existed among Africans is more like a housemaid, which is still common in southeast Nigeria till today.
After his graduation with his master, Jubo used what he learned to develop his skills in trading. Jubo left Bonny and settled in a place he called Opobo after an irreconcilable supremacy contest between the Anna Pepple House to which Jubo belonged and Manilla Pepple House.
Anna Pepple house refused to accept the new religion introduced by the British missionaries while Manilla Pepple house accepted the religion which led to Anna Pepple house led by Jubo to move and settled to Opobo land
He trades in so many things including palm oil which was what his former master trade-in and acts as a middleman between traders and the European as an experienced man in the business. He extended his influence all over the world, exporting palm oil directly to Europe.
He refused to be dictated to by the rules of the British traders which at that point controlled most of the region. he was a strict businessman and only obey his own rules, popularly known as JaJa first by the European then later by most people.
He became so powerful that in 1883 he sent his guards to help the British during the 3rd Anglo-Ashanti wars on the gold coast. Jaja made his territory Opobo land one of West Africa's trading routes with Europe and America within a short period, playing a significant role in the development of commerce in West Africa.
In 1873, he was recognized as the king of independent Opobo land by the British government, in 1875, he was awarded the sword of honor by the queen of England, Queen Victoria.
George Goldie, A British government representative combined all the British interest in the River Niger and formed the United African Company which gave the British an upper hand among her competitors (French and Germany).
Sir George Dashwood Taubman Goldie by Sir Hubert von Herkomer
The British got the area that the UAC operated in, included in their sphere of influence after the Berlin Conference.
However, things didn't go as one would hope as the British government deceitfully lured all the local chiefs in the region to sign an agreement to allow free trade zone, this contract was written in English without any translator.
At the 1884 Berlin conference, France and Germany designated Opobo as British territory. At this stage, Jaja a fearless businessman continues taxing the British traders as they agreed verbally and exporting palm oil to Liverpool independently without European middlemen.
Queen of England, Queen Victoria
In 1887, Henry Hamilton Johnston, a British vice-consul invited JaJa for a discussion in Gold coast, which is now (Ghana) on how to resolve the Opobo-British trading crisis. upon his arrival in Accra, He was arrested for Obstructing commerce and was sent to England for a while then was deported to Saint Vincent in the West Indies. In 1891, Jaja's request was granted to return home but was allegedly poisoned with a cup of tea and died on the Island of Tenerife en route to Opobo.
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