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 Ethnic groups in Europe, Europeans on the coast, the Nembe kingdom became a trading state, but was relatively poor compared to Kingdom of Bonny, Bonny and Akwa Akpa, Calabar. The Nembe History of slavery, slave trade picked up in the second quarter of the 19th century when the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British attempted to suppress Slavery in Africa, slave-trading in Africa by Blockade of Africa, 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, 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 Niger Coast Protectorate, 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 Frederick William Koko Mingi VIII of Nembe, 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 Frederick Bedford, 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:Bassambiri
Later rulers of Bassambiri:Twon/Brass
References
{{Authority control History of Nigeria Nigerian traditional states Ijaw states