CALABAR OR IKOT ABASI: WHERE WAS OBA OVONRAMWEN NOGBAISI OF BENIN EXILED?

 

CALABAR OR IKOT ABASI: WHERE WAS OBA OVONRAMWEN NOGBAISI OF BENIN EXILED?

124 YEARS AFTER HISTORIANS CANNOT TELL THE PLACE OF EXILE OF OBA OVONRAMWEN

By Emeka Esogbue

“Emeka Esogbue, of course, you are aware that majorly, Nigerian historians are theorists and not research-oriented.”

-       Olaniyi Johnson

Nigerian students of history are still debating the actual particular place of exile of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi. In the year 1897, His Royal Majesty Oba Ovonramwem Nogbaisi, the 38^th Oba of Benin was exiled to the defunct Eastern part of what later became Nigeria but 124 years after his death, arguments over the actual community is still hotly debated. Although the British had after the sad incident recorded that Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi was exiled to Calabar in present day Cross-River State, a historical information that has stuck in historical documents, indigenes of the area insist that he was rather exiled to Ikot Abasi which is found in Akwa Ibom State of today.

A historical submission was made to a popular history forum with the following lines:

Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, 1897 original caption on photograph by Captain Maschmann (?): The King of Benin on board H.M. Yatch, ivy, after the sentence, his life being spared, made a promise that he would become a Christian. He received penal servitude for life, but was allowed to have his family and wife with him. He is at present imprisoned at Old Calabar.

Weltmuseum Wien 6185.

Shortly afterwards, a commentator and enthusiast in Nigerian history, Sameegreg Effiong countered Calabar as the place of the King’s exile. He followed it up with a more interesting place he identified as Ikot Abasi in Etinan in Akwa Ibom.

Effiong wrote:

The story is always erroneously stated to have been Calabar. It was Etinan, Ikot Abasi.

However, in an interesting stimulating manner, Kelvin Nosa Osemwekha, another commentator who was to maintain the Calabar theory submitted:

He lived in Calabar please. I personally visited the house which is located at the Old Calabar quarters and the premises was acquired by the late Oba Erediauwa from the family it fell to after he (Ovonremwen) died with the intention to make it a museum.

The historical discourse outside the history classroom continued with interesting shades of opinions it offered and this author, Emeka Esogbue would then respond with:

Etinan or Calabar: Sometimes, I think we, historians have not done enough in the documentation of our past events. It sounds funny to scholarship that Nigerians whom their indigenous king was imperially exiled only yesterday are still confused where the historical figure spent his last years of his exiled life. It is an indictment on Nigerian career and professional historians.

As the desire to gain upper hand in the argument over where the unfortunate Oba was exiled by the imperialist British peaked and Sameegreg Efiong who had by now attempted to invite Aniete Okon Edem, his regarded secondary school mate to the interesting debate insisted:

When we were in Etinan Institute, Etinan, in the early 80s, some Bini chieftains came from Benin in search of the relics left by Oba Ovonramwen. I still remember vividly; it was a glorious outing. Aniete Okon Edem’s father presented the relics from beads, chains, books, loin clothes and gold, silver and other jewelry outright artefacts. The story was told of the Oba’s sojourn to Etinan. So much happened… rituals wholesome and fetish… incantations, manipulations etc. Aniete’s father presented a book on that story, “Oba Ovoramwen and His Ibibio friends”. We were young and came from boarding house to witness that event.

On the other side of the argument was Osi Obuekwe who claimed:

Unfortunately, I have seen a more distressed photograph of the Oba on NNP posted in 2020 as he was awaiting to be transported to Calabar on exile in 1897 after the British incursion. (The photograph was quite disturbing).

It was Andrew Sisan O. Sagay who introduced another angle. Relying on the well-known British argument, he presented:

The caption under, is just nonsense… there are detailed account in the British archives. See: “Ovonramwen was exiled to Calabar with two of his wives, Queen Egbe and Queen Aighobahi. He was received and hosted in Calabar in a small town called “Essien Town” by Etinin Essien Etim Offiong, the progenitor of Essien Town. He died in Calabar around the turn of the new year in 1914. Ovonramwen was eventually buried in the grounds of the royal palace in Benin city. He was succeeded by his first son and legitimate heir, Prince Aguobasimwin, who ruled as Eweka II.

The question trained Nigerian historians should answer is was Ovonramwen Nogbaisi exiled to Calabar or Ikot Abasi? There is no basis why historians should not have by now established the actual community of exile of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi Surely, a deeper research in modern times would reveal this. There is also no reason why the government at any level shouldn’t have identified the spot of home with a view to making it a tourist centre even for the citizens of the British citizens to pay visit. It would seem that students of history in Nigeria in the course of their training rarely make excursions to historical sites of study neither do they sight archived historical documents such as treaties.

Calabar also known in history as “Callabar”, “Calabari”, “Calbari”, “Kalbari” and “Kalabar” is today’s capital of Cross River State in Nigeria. The area was originally named “Akwa Akpa” after the Kwa River or “Atakpa” in Efik language. On September 10 1884, the British acquired the territory by the Treaty of Protection signed by Queen Victoria with the King and chiefs of Akwa Akpa as leaders of the territory. Akwa Akpa was later changed by the British colonialists to Old Calabar (the name it is known till date, or colonially, Duke Town).

Ikot Abasi, on the other hand, is located in the South West corner of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. According to the information provided by Wikipedia, it is bounded by Oruk Anam Local Government Area in the north, Mkpat Enin and Eastern Obolo local Government Areas in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. The Imo River forms the natural boundary in the west separating it from Rivers State.

As the claims and counter-claims on the exact community Ovonramwen Nogbaisi was exiled rages between Calabar and Ikot Abasi, the confusion persists. The indigenes of this area may just be accurate with Ikot Abasi judging from the similarities shared by both communities culturally, historically, colonially and administratively. One may also historically consider that Ikot Abasi was a community in the then Calabar Province and to the British, the whole of the area by this administrative reason was known and identified as “Calabar” Province. It never mattered to them whether the identities of the people were separate or not but was labeled “Province” or “Division” and it was so applicable to areas outside the Calabar Province.

Consider that the same Ikot Abasi was also once part of the Opobo Kingdom and was also one of the towns in both Calabar and Owerri Provinces whose women bravely stood against the British imperial exploitation, resulting in what was known as “Aba Women Riot”. The riot was rising of generality of peoples coming together to fight the exploitative tendency of the colonialists.

The same can be said of Mary Slessor who lived and died in Use Ikot Oku in present day Ibiono Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. She factually traveled the length and breadth of the Old Calabar but it was Use Ikot Oku that she lived, died and was buried as against the usual “Mary Slessor Stopped the Killing of Twins in Calabar”. Nkenete Tom Akpan Efo has provided evidences of the Cairn established and unveiled in her honour in 1946 in Use Ikot Oku in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. The name, “Calabar” became tagged to her because the whole area was at the time known administratively as “Calabar Province”, something that extends to other Nigerian areas still occasioning confusion.

Perhaps, it was Femi Durojaiye who helped to conclude the burning argument with the below lines beautifully submitted by him:

Only a thin line separates Calabar (Efik) people of Cross Rivers State and Ikot Abasi (Ibibio) of Akwa Ibom State. They share same ancestry, same language but dialectical differences (like between the Egba or Ijesha and Ogbomosho). They share same culture, tradition. Our argument is exactitude as at the time of death of Oba Ovoramwen Nogbaisi. I have journeyed the entire region and even spent most time in the Efik town of Okoyong.

Such is the fate of the people Efik, Ibibio and similar groups in Nigeria. The British had categorized groups and sometimes societies that they found in present Nigeria into ethnic nationalities by naming them provinces and divisions. The provinces of Nigeria put together by them being former administrative division of Nigeria were in use in colonial times from 1900 to 1967. They were altered several times on colonial whims and caprices and at a point subdivided into native authorities but were useful administratively. It was on the basis of this administrative policies that a good number of ethnic groups emerged as they exist today.