Biography of Ja Ja of Opobo

Name: Ja Ja of Opobo
Birth Date: c. 1820
Death Date: 1891
Place of Birth: N/A
Nationality: Nigerian
Gender: Male
Occupations: politician, nationalist, slave

Ja Ja of Opobo

JaJa of Opobo (ca. 1820-1891) was a political and military strategist, brought to the Bonny Kingdom as a slave, who was perhaps the most troublesome thorn in the flesh of 19th-century British imperial ambition in southern Nigeria.The story of Ja Ja recounts a man of servile status hurdling intimidating odds to attain wealth and power, and founding in the latter half of the 19th century the most prosperous city-state in the Delta area of Nigeria. Information regarding his parentage and early childhood, derived from uncertain and speculative oral tradition, is scanty and unsatisfactory. According to informed guesstimates, Ja Ja was born in 1820 or 1821, in the lineage of Umuduruoha of Amaigbo village group in the heartland of Igboland, Southeastern Nigeria. He was sold into slavery in the Niger Delta under circumstances which are far from clear. One version of the oral traditions says that he was sold because, as a baby, …showed first 150 words…

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…showed last 150 words…the area all but ceased.In exile, Ja Ja is said to have borne himself with kingly dignity. He made repeated appeals to Britain to allow him to return to Opobo. In 1891, his request was granted, belatedly as it turned out: Ja Ja died on the Island of Teneriffe en route to Opobo, the kingdom built with his sweat and devotion. His people gladly paid the cost of repatriating his body and spent a fortune celebrating his royal funeral.Today, an imposing statue of Ja Ja stands in the center of Opobo with the inscription:A king in title and in deed. Always just and generous. Further Reading Burn, Alarn. History of Nigeria. George Allen & Unwin, 1929.Dike, Kenneth O. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830-1885. Oxford University Press, 1956.Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of the Igbo People. Macmillan, 1976.Ogonagoro, Walter I. Trade and Imperialism in Southern Nigeria, 1881-1929. Nok Publishers, 1979.

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