Oil: The City States of the Niger Delta, South-South and Nigeria

THE slave trade had made a number of states and towns on the coast extremely wealthy; these include many Ijaw towns – Bonny, Buguma, Okrika, Brass, Sapele, Koko, Calabar and so forth. The kings and chiefs were warriors, jealously protecting their privileged position as the principle market places where Africans did business with Europeans. As primary products – timber, palm oil, rubber and a host of other products their middle man status between them and the Europeans continued to foster trade that had started centuries before. Nigerian in the hinterland of the Ijaw towns had course to be on good terms with the Ijaw chiefs and kings who were their intermediaries with the merchant vessels from Germany, Portugal, England Denmark, France, etc. The Europeans had officers which were known as factors with huge warehouses awaiting ships to carry the goods to Europe. For ease of reference many of these chiefs and kings had alliances and names their counterparts gave them – Pepple, Jaja, Horsfall, Amakiri, Jack, Briggs, Member, Black Duke, Blue Jack, Blue Bird, Harry, Graham- Douglas, Yellow, Braide and so on. It would be a mistake to think of these men as subordinate to any of their colleagues since the rise of the individual was closely tied to whether these men, warriors that they are, could outfit war canoes with men and canons. Each trader had his customer to whom he called upon on arrival to collect goods which the “factors” had kept for them – the factors were the Europeans who had warehouses and accumulated goods awaiting shipment. These factors were known by various names – Thomas Walsh, G.B Olivant, John Holt, Winberg, etc. The ships could be loaded in Bonny, Abonnema, Brass, Koko, Nembe, Warri etc. The captains of the merchant vessels were protected by the Consuls, and Vice Consuls who had gun boats and are ready. Disputes were settled not always amicably, but all knew that was costly and unprofitable. No doubt some jealousy would inevitably arise but the aim was not superiority but commerce. Each chief had his own “boys” up and coming young men who, when they could, would marry the chief’s daughters and rig out his own warship. To do that he would have his own land in the town and a gate where he and his people lived. No doubt a lot of organisation in the part of the chiefs while awaiting the merchant vessel would be undertaken. To ensure a continuity of supply many of the chiefs had farms in the interior to grow the export crops needed. It is true that anyone who could rig up a war boat may become a chief. He must do that and he must also have chiefly boats (alali aru) fastened with his own flag and fitted out like a boat befitting a king or chief. He may have several of these, complete with a high stool, dancers and drummers singing his praises. The Consul or Vice Consul is a frequent visitor or guests at the sumptuous dinners the chiefs organised. To be an Ijaw chief was to be a man of means and character. He must be a soldier of considerable courage and powers, quick to anger, ready always to fight to maintain his honour. At the ceremony, making an individual a chief, he is asked to choose between a canon ball and a yam tuber. The chief would choose a canon ball signifying that above all else he would defend his town with his life rather than eat a good meal when duty calls. The chief would live in a quadrangle with a Northern gate, in front of his house. The gate is at the extreme of his living quarters. Between the gate and his house is a large space, a square, devoted for various activities – dancing, meeting, etc. At the end of the square is the main building of the chief, usually a two or three storey affair cutting right across the square. His building consists of a ground floor, stores, pantry (to keep all the various imported foods and spirits, part of his treasury, etc. There would be sometimes two flights of stairs leading to a balcony on the first floor. Behind the balcony is an enormous dining room/cum Council Chambers. Running off the dining room are other rooms – one or two may be his bedroom and inner parlour where he may receive guests. The chief has a suite of rooms – a smaller outer room, a larger bedroom with facilities. The outer smaller room is where someone always sleeps for he is not allowed to sleep alone, in case of anything he might need at night or if he falls ill. An Ijaw chief does not marry a woman unless he has built her a house. Consequently on either side of the square, left and right, are the terraced quarters or houses of each of the wives. The wives apartment is made up of a reception from which two rooms run on either side. There are other rooms behind these rooms – children rooms, private rooms and an essential small room (kalabio) where the wife can hold confidential meetings. There is also a treasury room – to keep her wealth – expensive clothes, coral beads, gold and other jewelry. This structure of wife A is replicated down the line to the end of the square and gate as in a terrace; after the gate, a similar terraced wire building runs down to the chief’s main building straddling the square. The effect is like the quadrangle or cloisters of an Oxford or Cambridge College. This structure is replicated on a smaller scale by the brothers of the chief who may well be chiefs in their own right but not accorded the title of Main House Chief (Polodabo) Bonny has 22 Houses that make up the town and what is described above more or less obtains. Okrika has 12 Houses, Bakana 5, Buguma 22, and Abonnema 13. These Houses are recognised as the original houses making up the towns – especially if they were chiefs in the “old shipping” before arriving at the newest settlements. The nexus of wealth surrounds the relationship between the trading Houses (chiefs) and the European “factors” on the one hand, and the ability of these chiefs, through intricate diplomacy, to maintain good relations with producers in the hinterland. Many of them were men of considerable wealth and panache; maybe held themselves too seriously. They were aware of the aura of swagger around them. The relationship with the merchants was not always a matter of trust but rather one of healthy guarded suspicion but reinforced by an underlying honesty. One Consul used to be a regular guest at the table of king Pepple – whole roasted hogs or goats or cows, various fishes, shrimps, crabs and a multitude of other aquatic delicacies. The Consul lived in Beua; he also visited old Calabar where he frequently invited the Obong – Iyamba – to his table on the gun boat. But each time the Consul went to Bonny he would invite king Pepple who would politely decline. The Consul decided to take the bull by the horn and asked king Pepple why would he not dine with him aborad the schooner; after all the king of Calabar regularly did so. King Pepple looked at the hapless Captain and said that the captain was wrong to compare him to the Calabar king. When king Pepple went to the UK he was usually entertained by Queen Victoria. The Consul got the message. King Pepple during one of his trip to London brought himself a steamer fully loaded; he employed staff to run the steamer which brought him home to Bonny. On getting to Bonny, the captain seems to have nothing to do; the king could not think of what else he could ask the Captain to do. He gave the boat to the captain and crew who sail off to England. Chief Tom Brown Big Harry imported a Railway Engine Coaches, rails and sleepers intending to run it from Degema to Harry’s town. The crates arrived carrying various parts of the trains but he died before affecting the plan. The chief’s household was run almost like a barrack: the wives had a roster of who was to do what but the interesting thing daily was when the chief was going to eat. A town crier would go round the compound “the House” announcing that the chief would eat at 7 p.m. Every child in that compound, including the children of his brothers, his sisters would carry a small bowl and report to the dining room. The chief would dish out portions to each and every child, calling them by their names or the special names he had given them. He would wait until all the children have eaten and left before he would eat. In the old days it is almost impossible to see an Ijaw chief eat outside his house. Today, the chiefs dressed in their long robes, are followed by their wards carrying plastic bags; not only would they eat and drink outside, they would take food and drinks in bags which their boys take home. Obviously hard times have come to these chief and they can no longer live like their fathers ad forefathers. Nowadays they would only come to a function at a fee, and would seek every opportunity to extort money from people inviting them for funerals, weddings etc. Enough had been said about the peoples, their tradition etc to provide a fertile ground for the querulous to have plenty to quarrel about. There is no comparable role for the chiefs to play to-day; no comparable income, no comparable influence. Chieftaincy has now become unfortunately a means of making money for the holders of the title who cannot live to the standard accustomed to their parents. The chief’s house would at least be one or two storey’s high with a ground floor for storage, treasury and so forth. The first floor would be a large saloon and dining room, smaller room to entertain special guest, his bed chamber and a servant’s room. If he has a second floor, these may have other rooms for various purposes. The wives terraces may contain as many as twenty houses around the quadrangle. The Ibibios, Efiks, Egenis, Ikwerres, Ikpayas etc. in the Rivers State organized themselves differently because they are farming communities. These brush strokes do not do justices to the other ethnic groups comprising the South political zone. The Edos are the dominant influence in most of the South South – stretching to Niger to the East Agbor, the Ikas, Ikwales to Asaba and even Onitsha to the West, the Edos influence Urhobos, Isokos, Itsekiris etc; to the North – Ishan, Etsako, Auchi, Ogenebode etc. the Edo influence reached the Yorubas especially Ife and Lagos and beyond, maintaining a cultural similarity especially in the tradition of kingship and sometimes linguists. The South-South geopolitical zone the home of home- is a polyglot of several ethnic groups. It is difficult to see how this group, apart from a shared senses of injustice about their treatment by other Nigerians especially as far as oil is concerned. It is in this mix that oil and its corrosive influence descended. I will try to explain why the Niger Delta is the way it is since the advent of oil and modern politics. Dr.Patrick Cole, OFR, a former ambassador, wrote from Lagos.