The Nembe Kingdom is a traditional state in Niger Delta. It includes the Nembe and Brass Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The traditional rulers take the title "Amanyanabo". Today, leadership is split between the Amanyanabos of Ogbolomabiri, Bassambiri, Okpoama, Odioama and Twon Brass. History The Nembes are an Izon people of the Niger Delta region, settled in the region that now includes the Edumanom Forest Reserve.
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.
With the arrival of Europeans on the coast, the Nembe kingdom became a trading state, but was relatively poor compared to Bonny and Calabar.
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. 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 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 force led by Sir Frederick Bedford captured and sacked Nembe, occurring concurrently with a devastating 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.
Rulers
Ogbolomabiri Rulers of Ogbolomabiri:
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
Later rulers of Bassambiri:
Start End Ruler 1870 Arisimo "King Peter" 1870 1894 Ebifa 1894 1924 vacant 1924 1927 Albert Oguara 1928 Ben I. Warri1978 1993 King Collins Festus Amaegbe-Eremienyo Ogbodo VII (1930–1993)1996 2013 Ralph Michael Iwowari (1930–2013)
References