Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa, Emeritus Professor of History, defined the prime place of the traditional institution in the governance of the Nembe people, even in the following short genealogy of the Mingi dynasty…
Kingship is an old institution in Nembe. Estimates of its age through the genealogy of the kings give a time around 1200 A.D. as the time in which the first kings remembered in the oral traditions reigned. But prior to this period, there had been up to seven independent settlements scattered around the present metropolis. The best known of the ancestral settlements were Oboloma, Olodiama and Onyoma. Excavations carried out at Onyoma give radiocarbon dates of 1275 – 1960 A.D.
These early settlements were ruled by the priest-kings titled Onyoma Pere and Olodiama Pere. At the Onyoma site, a fine terracotta figurine representing an important personage wearing a tall priestly headgear was found. This figure which resembles the famous Nok figurines of Central Nigeria may turn out to be the oldest picture of an Amanyanabo or Pere of Nembe.
The early settlements all gave place to a unified kingship adjacent to Oboloma under Ekule or Kala (Ekule Junior). But the name of the kingdom was, apparently, derived from his grandson, Nembe, the name of the founder, Kala Ekule, being preserved in the drum praise poem:
Kala Ekulema Nembe (twice)
Kala Ekule’s city, Nembe
Ama doko doko biokpo
the small brave city-state.
The kings of the United Kingdom may be divided into two dynastic periods. The first covers the period from Kala Ekule to the period of Peresuo and his sons Obia and Basuo. The second period began from about 1700, when the sons of Obia and Basuo, Ogbodo and Mingi, fell into dispute, and Ogbodo moved across the river to found his parallel dynasty close to Olodiama in Bassambiri, leaving Mingi in control of the central polity at Ogbolomabiri.
According to the traditions, migrants from the Itsekiri Kingdom, which was then a principality of the Benin Empire, came to Nembe during the period of Kala Ekule. To prevent their competing for political power with the existing rulers, they were isolated in the village of Oromabiri where they served as religious specialists in the cult of Ogidiga, the god that became the tutelary deity of the Nembe people. The political history may be summarized as follows, concentrating on the rulers of the Mingi dynasty.
Ogio, who derived from the Ogbia/Mini country to the north of Nembe, introduced additional innovations. In the open square which came to be known as Ogio-polotiri (Ogio Square), he conducted post mortem operations to discover evidence of witchcraft. It came to rival in importance, the other two public squares, since the dead came to be laid in it routinely, to prove the purity of the dead, until recent times. Opu-polotiri (Great Town Square), remains the major traditional political public space in Nembe. It is ringed around by the ancestral houses built over the graves of former kings.
The principally cultural institution to which all the elite belong, the Sekiapu or Masquerade Society, is built within its precincts, and does all its performances within it. Owusegipolo (or Spirit Possession Dance Square), has been transformed into the modern community location for public activities, including funeral wake-keeping and the final place for the presentation of the dead to the community for communal contributions etc. The new space in front of the City Hall, where many of the current funeral ceremonies for Mingi XI took place threatens to take over from the above traditional squares as the primary space for community activities.
Mingi I, founder of the present ruling dynasty, is also referred to as Mingi the Great. He was a stern disciplinarian, who executed any of his slaves caught in the escape attempt. Ikata, Mingi II, introduced the war canoe with cannon lashed to its bow. In spite of his reputation for success at war, he was kind-hearted, and did not carry out the execution of war prisoners in the rite of war heroes, Peri-pele, even after his successful war against Bille/Bila.
Gboro, Mingi III. There is no record of his reign recounted in the regular traditions. Kulo, Mingi IV (Circa 1800-1832) lived to a great old age. The European traders he invited to settle at the estuary of the Brass River knew him as King Forday.
King Boy Amain, Mingi V, son of King Forday Kulo, took over from his aged father the effective running of public affairs in 1830, in the presence of the explorers, Richard and John Lander, whom he had ransomed from King Ossai of Aboh. The European traders and explorers called him King Boy, because he was then still deputizing for his father. He amassed great wealth through the palm oil trade up the River Niger.
Kien, Mingi VI (1846-1863), son of Ambule, became king after two other candidates died in the selection process, which included a delegation to the Aro Oracle. Kien was a strict traditionalist, who refused to admit Christian missionaries into the kingdom during his reign.
Josiah Constantine Ockiya, Mingi VII (1863-1879) invited the Church Missionary Society, just then beginning its Niger Delta mission at Bonny, into the Nembe Kingdom. It is for this reason that the Cathedral Church of St Luke, Nembe, is the official headquarters of the Diocese of Niger Delta West, Anglican Communion, in Bayelsa State. King Ockiya was also very active in protecting the trade areas of the kingdom, and fought several wars to do so.
Frederick William Koko, Mingi VIII (1889 – 1898) started as a Christian, but changed to the traditional religion when the Royal Niger Company, from the source of Christianity in the Niger Delta, began to enforce a monopoly of trade along the Niger from its depots at Akassa and Asaba.
He eventually fought the Akassa War of 1895 against the British, the first successful hot war for resource control in the eastern Niger Delta. Unlike other fighters against British rule, he was never apprehended to be tried or exiled. The monopoly of the Royal Niger Company was eventually abrogated in 1900.
Anthony Ofieyefate Ockiya, Mingi IX (1926-1936), son of King Constantine Ockiya, Mingi VII, was a Christian priest of the Niger Delta Pastorate Church. Being the first amanyanabo in the colonial period, he faced many challenges adjusting traditions to fit into the new dispensation created by Christianity and colonial rule.
Francis Osamade Joseph Allagoa, Mingi X (1954-1967) was a very well loved monarch. A devout Christian of the Roman Catholic faith, he invited the Church to open the Nembe National Grammar School in 1956, the first post primary educational institution in the Nembe District.
Ambrose Ezeolisa Allagoa, Mingi XI (1976 – 2003). Born on 24 August 1914, His Majesty was called to the throne vacated by his father almost ten years previously, on 31 December 1976. At his formal coronation on Saturday, 12 April 1980, he set out his hopes for a future of peace, unity and prosperity.
His Majesty called on the Shell Company operating at Nembe Creek, as well as the federal and state governments to work in peaceful cooperation to build the long proposed road to Nembe and through it to other parts of the area. He extended hands of friendship to all neighbouring people: the Ogbia, Kalabari, Abua and through the Niger Delta, and to Edo and the other peoples of the current South-South movement as well as other Nigerians.
At the local level, he saw Nembe as a bridge between the current Rivers and Bayelsa States. He proposed swamp reclamation projects to expand the residential and development areas of towns, the development of holiday resorts at the coastal settlements, and a faithful execution of the Master Plan for Nembe prepared by the first government of River State. He enjoined the people to adopt his personal motto:
Laborare Est Orare
To work is to pray
He foresaw a future of goodwill and friendship between Nembe and other communities and governments, expanding educational facilities, and encouraged a “virile growth of population.”
We must acknowledge that he worked hard to make these hopes come true in the face of daunting problems. The oil blight on the Niger Delta, and the national political instability took their toll on Nembe society. These problems put a limit to what His Majesty could achieve. But all must admit that he made a tremendous difference. Yet the long delayed funeral from the date of his death on 17 February 2003 remains a reminder of the new internal crises that threaten many of the city states of the Niger Delta.
Through his agency, the Oba of Benin made a historic visit to Nembe. The Federal Government awarded him the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger, CON, in 1978. In 1977, Pope Paul VI made him Grand Knight of St. Sylvester, following the award in 1958 by Pope John XXIII of Knight of St Gregory.
His Majesty also received international recognition. On 3 August 1972, Governor Preston Smith made him Honorary Citizen of Texas, and on i August 1978, Governor Blair Lee made him Honorary Citizen of Maryland, United States of America. He was a Mayor of the city of Port Harcourt.
