“To hell [with the slavers]”
Africa’s palm oil in the spotlight
Jubo Jubogha, who shortened his name to Jaja was born in the village of Umuduruoha in the Niger Delta (modern day Nigeria). After being sent to Nkwerre to be educated, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave. Jaja, would live to make the equivalent of £6 million a year in today’s money and to establish a city-state from scratch.
Oil franchise
The palm oil business in Africa was franchised by city-states called ‘bonnys’. The chiefs controlled everything. They owned hundreds of trading-boats and numerous (non-chattel) slaves. Employed as a slave oarsman he rose swiftly to trader out selling all his peers.
The whole business of palm oil worked on the system of trust often accompanied by debt. When the incumbent Chief died Jaja was eventually offered the leadership of the Anna Pepple House in 1862. Many saw the post as a poisoned chalice because of the burgeoning debt accrued by the King: the equivalent of £15,000 (£1 million). Jaja took it and didn’t look back. By 1864 he had added 15 houses to the original five that made up the Anna Pepple group. He gave incentives to younger men, providing debt write-offs, generous loans and trading concessions for increased productivity and performance.
From entrepreneur to King
Jaja’s success and rise to power upset the status quo among competitors. He was crowned King after a number of political skirmishes and plots. ‘King’ Jaja’s business was constantly harried by rival chiefs, who he consistently outmanoeuvred. Now having a near-monopoly on the palm oil trade, he clashed with the British over broken agreements and resisted them militarily. His hold on the palm-oil business and local economy was such that he was able to secure the power to tax British traders (ratified by a treaty signed with the British government permiting right to arrest and hold European detainees for tax avasion and going beyond trade boundaries).
Too good to compete with
The traders, unable to compete on level ground, persuaded the British vice consul, Henry Hamilton (Sir Harry) Johnston to remove the entreprneur king a thorn in their side. In 1887 the King was invited into a business meeting with British traders, who promptly kidnapped him.
Exiled to the Caribbean
Jaja was exiled to Accra, Ghana and then to Fort Charlotte, at St. Vincent in the Caribbean, on June 9th 1888, where the black populous greeted him as a cause célèbre. There he contracted pneumonia and was moved on February 28th 1890 to Barbados. After being released by the British from exile he boarded HMS Comus on May 11th 1890 for the trip to Tenerife, homeward bound to Opobo. At 6am on July 7th 1891 he died at the Camacho Hotel, Santa Cruz, Tenerife. He arrived home on August 12th 1891. Rituals were performed for 32 days and then the kingdom began a year of mourning.
Even in captivity the British recognised Jaja as a King, allowing him to receive £800 (£15,000) a quarter. This allowed him to maintain his servants and household. However, it was well short of the £300,000 (£6 million) a year he was used to. Jaja was born a captive and died a King, but he lived as an entrepreneur.
By Ron Shabazz Shillingford
Author of : The History of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs
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