Nembe Kingdom
{{Short description|Former kingdom in Nigeria}}
{{Use Nigerian English|date=June 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name = Nembe Kingdom
|settlement_type = Traditional state
|image_skyline =
|imagesize =
|image_caption =
|image_map = IjawHistory.jpeg
|mapsize =
|map_caption = Ijaw States, including Nembe
|subdivision_type = Country
|subdivision_name ={{flag|Nigeria}}
|subdivision_type1 = State
|subdivision_name1 =Bayelsa State
|government_footnotes =
|government_type =
|leader_title = Amanyanabo
|leader_name =
|established_title =
|established_date =
|coordinates = {{coord|4|32|N|6|25|E|display=inline,title}}
|website =
|footnotes =
}}The Nembe Kingdom is a traditional state in Niger Delta. It includes the Nembe and Brass Local Government Areas{{Cite web |title=Nigeria: Administrative Division (States and Local Government Areas) - Population Statistics, Charts and Map |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/php/nigeria-admin.php |access-date=2022-03-09 |website=www.citypopulation.de}} of Bayelsa State,{{Cite web |title=Bayelsa State Government – The Glory of all Lands |url=https://bayelsastate.gov.ng/ |access-date=2022-03-10 |language=en-US}} Nigeria. The traditional rulers take the title "Amanyanabo". Today, leadership{{Cite web |title=leadership - Google Search |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=leadership&oq=leadership&aqs=chrome..69i57.868j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=www.google.com}} is split between the Amanyanabos of Ogbolomabiri, Bassambiri, Okpoama, Odioama and Twon Brass.{{cite web |title=Nembe Bassambiri |url=http://nembeibeusa.com/Bassambiri.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714163054/http://nembeibeusa.com/Bassambiri.html |archivedate=14 July 2011 |accessdate=17 September 2010 |work=Nembe Ibe USA}}
History
The Nembes are an Izon people of the Niger Delta region, settled in the region that now includes the Edumanom Forest Reserve.{{Cite web |title=The Niger Delta – Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group |url=https://www.nigerdeltabudget.org/the-niger-delta/ |access-date=2021-09-17 |language=en-US}}
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.{{cite book
|page=534
|title=A comparative study of thirty city-state cultures: an investigation
|author=Mogens Herman Hansen
|publisher=Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
|year=2000
|ISBN=87-7876-177-8}}
With the arrival of Europeans on the coast, the Nembe kingdom became a trading state, but was relatively poor compared to Bonny and Calabar.{{cite book
|page=85ff
|title=The trading states of the oil rivers: a study of political development in Eastern Nigeria
|author=G. I. Jones
|publisher=James Currey Publishers
|year=2001
|ISBN=0-85255-918-6}}{{cite book
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dressethnicitych0000unse/page/168 168–169]
|title=Dress and ethnicity: change across space and time
|author=Joanne Bubolz Eicher
|author-link= Joanne Eicher
|publisher=Berg Publishers
|year=1995
|ISBN=1-85973-003-5
|url=https://archive.org/details/dressethnicitych0000unse/page/168
}}
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.{{Cite web |title=Circumstances - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/circumstances |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=Vocabulary.com |language=en-US}} 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. In the later 19th century, Christian missionaries{{Cite web |title=Missionary - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/missionary |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=Vocabulary.com |language=en-US}} contributed to the existing factional tensions among the Nembe. Ogbolomabiri acquired a Christian mission in 1867, while Bassambiri remained "heathen".
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. 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{{Cite web |title=Expeditionary - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/expeditionary |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Vocabulary.com |language=en-US}} force led by Sir Frederick Bedford captured and sacked Nembe, occurring concurrently with a devastating{{Cite web |title=Devastating - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms |url=https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/devastating |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Vocabulary.com |language=en-US}} outbreak of smallpox in the Kingdom. 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.{{cite web
|url=http://www.bayelsa.org.uk/main/tourism/
|title=Tourism in Bayelsa State
|publisher=Bayelsa State Union of Great Britain and Ireland
|accessdate=5 March 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301233949/http://www.bayelsa.org.uk/main/tourism/
|archive-date=1 March 2010
|url-status=dead
}}
Rulers
=Ogbolomabiri=
Rulers of Ogbolomabiri:{{cite web
|url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Nigeria_native.html
|title=Traditional States of Nigeria
|work=WorldStatesmen.org
|accessdate=14 September 2010}}
| class=wikitable style="text-align:right;" | ||
| style="width:8em;"|Start | style="width:8em;"| End | Ruler |
|---|---|---|
| 1745 | 1766 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Mingi I |
| 1766 | 1788 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Ikata Mingi II |
| 1788 | 1800 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Gboro Mingi III |
| 1800 | 1832 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Kuko Mingi IV "King Forday" |
| 1832 | 1846 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Amain Mingi V "King Boy" |
| 1846 | 1846 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Kuki |
| 1846 | 1863 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Kien Mingi VI |
| 1863 | 1879 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Joshua Constantine Ockiya Mingi VII |
| 1879 | 1889 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| vacant |
| 1889 | 1896 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Frederick William Koko Mingi VIII (d. 1898) |
| 1896 | 1926 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| vacant |
| 1926 | 1939 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Joshua Anthony O. Ockiya Mingi IX (c.1873 – 1939 |
| 1939 | 1954 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| vacant |
| 1954 | 1979 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Francis O. Joseph Allagoa Mingi X (d. 1979) |
| 1979 | 2007 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Ambrose Ezeolisa Allagoa Mingi XI ( |
| 2008 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Edmund Maduabebe Daukoru, Mingi XII (b. 1943) |
=Bassambiri=
| class=wikitable style="text-align:right;" | ||
| style="width:8em;"|Start | style="width:8em;"| End | Ruler |
|---|---|---|
| 1870 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Arisimo "King Peter" | |
| 1870 | 1894 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Ebifa |
| 1894 | 1924 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| vacant |
| 1924 | 1927 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Albert Oguara |
| 1928 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Ben I. Warri | |
| 1978 | 1993 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| King Collins Festus Amaegbe-Eremienyo Ogbodo VII (1930–1993) |
| 1996 | 2013 | style="text-align:left;padding-left:1em;"| Ralph Michael Iwowari (1930–2013) |
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Ijo States}}
{{Nigerian traditional states}}
{{Authority control}}