Fubara Manilla Pepple, otherwise known as Fubara I Agbaa Pepple II, was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

. He was the ruler of the

Kingdom of Bonny The Kingdom of Bonny, otherwise known as Grand Bonny, is a traditional state based on the town of Bonny in Rivers State, Nigeria. In the pre-colonial period, it was an important slave trading port, later trading palm oil products. During the 19t ...

from 1754 to 1792. Both his lineal and adoptive descendants - who are all collectively known today as the House of Fubara Manilla Pepple - serve by tradition as one of Bonny's most powerful

chieftaincy A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribe The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia. Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...

families.

Succession

The second son of King Perekule I Pepple, Fubara wasn't initially expected to succeed him as ruler. His elder brother, Ibulu Best Pepple, was their father's acknowledged heir, but in the lead up to his death he was found to be somewhat weak-willed. As a result, upon Perekule's death, Ibulu was sidelined by the elders and Fubara was called upon to take up the kingship thereafter. He was crowned in 1754.

Reign

In emulation of what was customary amongst the lower classes, Fubara's own position as a chief prior to his accession was only recognized because of his prior rule of the Fubara Manilla Pepples - a clan corporation that was partly based on kinship, and partly on initiatory fealty. Each independent elder in Bonny aspired to the headship of such an entity - termed a ''House'' - and by the end of the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

of 1869, Bonny was composed of no fewer than eighteen of them. Each house existed almost solely for profit, and each house chief was therefore in an almost constant state of competition with his titled rivals. Perekule had seen to it that each of his sons had been provided with a house of his own during his reign. By the point when Fubara himself died in 1792, the Fubara Manilla Pepples were the largest and most successful of these

cadet branch In history and heraldry, a cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets— realm, tit ...

es of the wider Perekule Pepple dynasty. This was largely due to the fact that Fubara left the stewardship of his house in the hands of an able

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, the

Igbo Igbo may refer to: * Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria * Igbo language, their language * anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria See also * Ibo (disambiguation) * Igbo mythology * Igbo music * Igbo art * * Igbo-Ukwu, a ...

ex- slave Ibanibufuria. Chief Ibanibufuria used the king's patronage to consolidate the gains made in the time of Perekule I. He established a virtual

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the kingdom, and subsequently founded satellite sub-houses that were to be headed by men like him: Igbo freed slaves that had risen through the ranks of Bonny society due to hard work and ability. While this was going on, Fubara - who operated in business dealings with visiting European traders under the

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

''Manilla Pepple'' - worked to balance trade and maintain order in the state. This latter aim wasn't always achieved, partly due to the fact that the king - far from being a neutral arbitrator in the house chiefs' squabbles - was himself an active participant in the trade that invariably caused them. This loss of royal neutrality had begun under Perekule, and had been compounded by his establishment of both the Fubara Manilla Pepple house and the Opubo Annie Pepple house of Fubara's younger brother (and eventual successor) Opubo.

Death and legacy

Fubara I died in 1792, and was succeeded by Opubo in the same year. The new king continued the official policy of bolstering his own position that had been the hallmark of his brother's reign, consolidating the twin powers of both the kingship and the Opubo Annie Pepple house in the process. He used the glory of his reign - something of a golden age in Bonny - to radically undermine the ascendancy of the other houses. By the time that the Fubara Manilla Pepple regent Ibanibufuria was succeeded by his adopted son Chief Iringeresibo, a civil rupture seemed guaranteed. Upon Opubo's death, it was only averted by the declaration of war by the

Andoni people The Obolo people (also called Andoni or Idoni) are an ethnic group in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Obolo people are found in Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State. They have historical relations with the Oron people, Ohafia, Igbo Ogoloma, Ido, ...

in 1843. Iringeresibo led the Bonny forces as a war chief in that engagement, and ultimately lost his life during the fighting. The personalization of power in the royal houses in this way by the first three Pepple kings would ultimately lead to the civil war between the Fubara Manilla Pepples - led at the time by the famous chief

Oko Jumbo Chief Oko Jumbo (died 1891) was an important chief in the Kingdom of Bonny, a state in the Niger Delta, now part of Rivers State, Nigeria. For many years in the 19th century he was the effective ruler of Bonny. Background The Kingdom of Bonny, ...

- and the Opubo Annie Pepples, who were themselves then led by the even more famous Chief Jaja. Upon losing the war, Jaja would lead his supporters in seceding from Bonny. The independent settlement that they founded eventually became known as Opobo. Pètrè-Grenouilleau, Olivier (2004), ''From Slave Trade To Empire: Europe and the colonisation of Black Africa 1780s-1880s'', p. 60.

References

{{Reflist 18th-century Nigerian people Nigerian royalty 1792 deaths Year of birth unknown African royal families Nigerian noble families Ijaw people 18th-century monarchs in Africa