By Amb. Oladapo Firowa
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Jaja Saga: The West Indian End (1888-1891), by professor Gabriel Olusanya, Gilsper Publishers Ltd, Lagos, pp 87

This well researched monograph by Professor Gabriel Olusanya is an account of the three years (1888-1891) that the legendary King Jaja of Opobo was forced to spend in the far away Caribbean Island of St. Vincent, and Barbados, here he was exiled as a political prisoner by the British Imperial government. It is written in response to a comment in an old study by E.M Epelle, a Nigerian scholar, that Jaja’s exile to West Indies deserved more than a passing mention.

Previous studies on the subject have shown that, King Jaja was anxious to promote and establish friendly relations with British traders and the consul, in the area. But the British traders and officials in the Delta wanted much more than Jaja’s friendship and cooperation.

They did not want to go through commercial middle men, such as Jaja, preferring instead to deal directly with the natives. The British was also anxious to ward off the increasing presence in the Delta of French, Portuguese, and German traders, all seeking active participation and involvement in the highly profitable of Delta trade.

The Delta produce more palm oil more than all other West Africa combined. Trade in palm oil had proved even more valuable than slave trade that it had effectively replaced. Jaja himself was reputed to have earned from the trade some 50,000 pounds annually making him by far the richest of the middle men in the Delta area. It was this reason that King Jaja had to go. British commercial interests were involved.

The story of Jaja of Opobo, still regarded by the Ibo as the most outstanding Ibo political figure of the 19th century is most interesting. He was born at Amaigbo, the heart of Iboland in 1821, and was, himself, only 12 when he was sold as a slave to the house of Annie Pepple, in exchange for the debt owed to Annie house. The communities in the Niger Delta was organized as House, or city states, each pursuing its commercial activities in the area, and interacting with similar communities. The presence of British officials and traders in this volatile area heighten tensions among the several communities in the area. They exploited this tension brilliantly, playing off one community against the other.

By dint of hard work, Jaja not only regained his freedom from slavery but was able to gain control of the very House in which he had been a slave, after paying off the debt of 15,000 pounds owed to the foreign traders, including the British, by the Head of the Pepple House, Alali. This he did through his remarkable business acumen which made the House of Annie Pepple the most prosperous in the area of the city states.

However, when the House of Annie Pepple was defeated in 1869 by its rival, the House of Manilla Pepple, Jaja decided to move up the river where he established a new settlement in Opobo. It was here that he established and built highly successful city state based on trade in palm oil, now very much in demand by the European traders on the Niger Coast protectorate, established after the British Congress in 1885 as a British sphere of influence

But his relationship with British soon began to deteriorate over the insistence of British traders, back by British consul, Harry Johnston, that they should deal directly with native traders, and not through middle men handed by Opobo, and that the entire trade route be opened up without any hinderance. To concede to this British demand would have meant economic and financial suicide for Jaja of Opobo.

Jaja was forced into exile at St. Vincent, as a political prisoner, and placed on annual income of 800 pounds which was far below estimated at 50,000 pounds income per annum in Opobo, and where he enjoyed a lavish life style, in his three storey pre-fabricated house imported from Liverpool. He was to remain is St. Vincent, against his will, for three years, and for four additional month in Barbados, from where it was decided he should return home to Opobo from exile.

Meanwhile, Jaja’s health in exile began to deteriorate to the extent that his doctor in St. Vincent reported in 1899 that, “the more Jaja was retained in St. Vincent the nearer he would approach his grave”. Jaja report was threatening to commit suicide unless he was allowed to return.

It took another two years for Jaja to be evacuated from St. Vincent , from where in February, 1891, he was transferred to Barbados. He was to remain in Barbados for another three months before he was conveyed to Spanish colony of Teneriffe, instead of Sierra Lone, on May 11, 1891. The plan was for him to remain there until the arrival of the British consul, Macdonald who was to take him back to Opobo, but, due to an outbreak of epidemic in the island, Macdonald did not arrive in June as expected.

Consequently Jaja waited hopelessly and in abject misery, soon contracted dysentery from which he died on July 7, 1891, after nearly four years in exile. His body was buried at Teneriffe. But in October, 1892, his body was exhumed and taken to Opobo where on October 12, it was received by a fleet at 60 war canoes each carrying each of the old warriors of King Jaja.

Years after his exile in St. Vincent Jaja, is still remembered in anecdotes, today in the West Indies, as he stays there made the land favourable impact on the people of St. Vincent and Barbados. To them Jaja remained a legendary figure. He is remembered for upholding the diginity and self respect of the African even in the most difficult conditions in which he found himself while on exile in Caribbean.

Based on the illegal exile of King Jaja of Opobo in the Caribbean, the situation in the Delta today is not different. The same vicious struggle for the control of the oil resources in the Delta has continued in a post colonial and independent federal Nigeria. The British Buccaneers have been replaced by non-indigenous local predators, that in collusion with the big foreign-owned oil companies have seized control of vast oil resources in the Delta area in a manner that can not be said to serve the economic interest of the people of the Delta. Like Jaja, the people of the Delta want to control their own resources.

This is what is responsible for the rebellion of the people of Niger Delta and the continuing violence in the area. What the situation call for is some restitution with the people of the Delta through real fiscal federalism.

Professor Olusanya, a former professor of History at the University of Lagos, and a highly regarded academic, is well placed to write his study, based on primary source on Rublic Records Office, in London, as well as contemporary newspaper report on Jaja in the West Indies with which he has a very strong connection. He is married to a lady from West Indies, and both of them have often spent their vacations there. In fact, it was during a vacation in 1982 in St. Vincent with his wife that the idea of writing about Jaja’s years in St. Vincent occurred to him.

This monograph filled yawning gap in the study of the years which Jaja was exiled to West Indies, an episode that darken British colonial rule in West Africa. Jaja was symbol of early African nationalism and resistance to foreign rule. It is important that the memory be kept alive, as a constant reminder of the danger to Africa of foreign economic predators and domination.

Source:Sunonline