Summary Of The British Consulate Is Moved From Bonny To Duke Town (Old Calabar
British Consulate Is Moved From Bonny To Duke Town ('Old Calabar'): 1888
The first determined action taken by the British Government to advance its interests in the Niger Coast was its decision in 1888 - barely 6 months after the deportation of King Jaja - to station a consul at Duke Town, Calabar. Despite the fact that the consul had no means of exercising any authority over any of the peoples of the area who did not care a thing about the powers of a foreign, uninvited, and therefore, unwelcome intruder, Britain pressed ahead. In 1889, it created the semblance of a 'Government' at 'Old Calabar' (Duke Town) in the estuary of the Cross River.
But this was no more than an attempt to gain a toe-hold on the mainland; a ploy to persuade the …show more content…
As recorded, supra, his disappearance and certain death had been procured by operatives of the British Government. Would it be beyond the hard and unconscionable men at the British Admiralty to attempt to procure a similar situation whereby King Jaja was made to "take his chance" in his solitary cell in the island of St Vincent, should his food or drink be spiked, when no trusted relatives were nearby to watch over his welfare? Perhaps there was, after all, some truth in the allegations levied by the people of Opobo against Jaja's servant, Pepple, in which they suggested that he was, 'somehow, responsible' for the King's death. This was their stated reason for declining to pay for his (Pepple's) passage home from the Caribbean islands - an altogether interesting issue that apparently has been neglected by Igbo historians of the last 100 …show more content…
Besides, the age in which they lived and exercised their authority, whatever of it that survived, had long since lost its relevance to the immediate needs of the people. The period that succeeded the age of the nobility had not been to the white man's favour; for democratisation of several aspects of Igbo administrative, judicial, and social institutions, had become firmly rooted and established over several generations before he made his appearance. When in 1891, therefore, the British consul, Major Claude Macdonald, held 'a meeting with some Calabar "chiefs" to agree the establishment of a protectorate' - the so-called 'Niger Coast Protectorate' - it was significant that no representatives of the more than 99 % of the people living in the hinterland of the Bight of Biafra were present or had previously been consulted. The 'meeting' having ended on a note of what was deemed to be a 'consensus after due process', with provision for later 'legal scrutiny' in London of the practical and political processes involved, and their implications for the region, Major Claude Macdonald (later Sir Claude Macdonald), was appointed the first Consul-general for the 'Niger Coast Protectorate', incorporating the hinterland of the Bight of Biafra, as his reward for midwifing the new
The first determined action taken by the British Government to advance its interests in the Niger Coast was its decision in 1888 - barely 6 months after the deportation of King Jaja - to station a consul at Duke Town, Calabar. Despite the fact that the consul had no means of exercising any authority over any of the peoples of the area who did not care a thing about the powers of a foreign, uninvited, and therefore, unwelcome intruder, Britain pressed ahead. In 1889, it created the semblance of a 'Government' at 'Old Calabar' (Duke Town) in the estuary of the Cross River.
But this was no more than an attempt to gain a toe-hold on the mainland; a ploy to persuade the …show more content…
As recorded, supra, his disappearance and certain death had been procured by operatives of the British Government. Would it be beyond the hard and unconscionable men at the British Admiralty to attempt to procure a similar situation whereby King Jaja was made to "take his chance" in his solitary cell in the island of St Vincent, should his food or drink be spiked, when no trusted relatives were nearby to watch over his welfare? Perhaps there was, after all, some truth in the allegations levied by the people of Opobo against Jaja's servant, Pepple, in which they suggested that he was, 'somehow, responsible' for the King's death. This was their stated reason for declining to pay for his (Pepple's) passage home from the Caribbean islands - an altogether interesting issue that apparently has been neglected by Igbo historians of the last 100 …show more content…
Besides, the age in which they lived and exercised their authority, whatever of it that survived, had long since lost its relevance to the immediate needs of the people. The period that succeeded the age of the nobility had not been to the white man's favour; for democratisation of several aspects of Igbo administrative, judicial, and social institutions, had become firmly rooted and established over several generations before he made his appearance. When in 1891, therefore, the British consul, Major Claude Macdonald, held 'a meeting with some Calabar "chiefs" to agree the establishment of a protectorate' - the so-called 'Niger Coast Protectorate' - it was significant that no representatives of the more than 99 % of the people living in the hinterland of the Bight of Biafra were present or had previously been consulted. The 'meeting' having ended on a note of what was deemed to be a 'consensus after due process', with provision for later 'legal scrutiny' in London of the practical and political processes involved, and their implications for the region, Major Claude Macdonald (later Sir Claude Macdonald), was appointed the first Consul-general for the 'Niger Coast Protectorate', incorporating the hinterland of the Bight of Biafra, as his reward for midwifing the new