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 / 4.533°N 6.417°E / 4.533; 6.417
Country Nigeria
StateBayelsa State

History

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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

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Ogbolomabiri

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Rulers of Ogbolomabiri:[14]

Start End Ruler
1745 1766 Mingi I
1766 1788 Ikata Mingi II
1788 1800 Gboro Mingi III
1800 1832 Kuko Mingi IV "King Forday"
1832 1846 Amain Mingi V "King Boy"
1846 1846 Kuki
1846 1863 Kien Mingi VI
1863 1879 Joshua Constantine Ockiya Mingi VII
1879 1889 vacant
1889 1896 Frederick William Koko Mingi VIII (d. 1898)
1896 1926 vacant
1926 1939 Joshua Anthony O. Ockiya Mingi IX (c.1873 – 1939
1939 1954 vacant
1954 1979 Francis O. Joseph Allagoa Mingi X (d. 1979)
1979 2007 Ambrose Ezeolisa Allagoa Mingi XI (1914–2003)
2008 Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, Mingi XII (b. 1943)

Bassambiri

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Later rulers of Bassambiri:[14]

Start End Ruler
1870 Arisimo "King Peter"
1870 1894 Ebifa
1894 1924 vacant
1924 1927 Albert Oguara
1928 Ben I. Warri
1978 1993 King Collins Festus Amaegbe-Eremienyo Ogbodo VII (1930–1993)
1996 2013 Ralph Michael Iwowari (1930–2013)

References

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  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. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b "Traditional States of Nigeria". WorldStatesmen.org. Retrieved 14 September 2010.