Very few humans in the history of humanity have risen from the status of a slave to a master, and then a king. The story of Jaja of Opobo, an Igbo slave sold to the riverine area of present-day Nigeria is one that inspires every African to strive for greatness and strength. It tells you that you can build an empire from the ashes in which we find ourselves as a people.

King Jaja of Opobo, was a merchant prince and the founder of Opobo, a city-state which is an area that is now known as Rivers state of Nigeria.

Born in Umuduruoha, Amaigbo, in Igboland, he was sold at about the age of twelve as a slave to Bonny, which shares a border with Igbo land and the riverine tribes of the Cross River.

Jaja's real name was Mbanaso Okwaraozurumbaa. He was born around 1821 at Úmuduruõha, Amaigbo village in the Orlu district, which is now Imo State of Eastern Nigeria. He was the third son of his parents, the Okwaraozurumba.

According to different oral sources, Jaja was sold into slavery in the Niger Delta region under circumstances that are far from clear. One version of the oral traditional accounts says that he was sold because, as a baby, he cut the upper teeth first, an abomination in some ancient Igbo societies.

Another version claims that he was captured and sold by the enemies of his father. He was then bought by Chief Iganipughuma Allison of Bonny. And then Bonny by far was the most powerful city-state on the Atlantic coast of Southeastern Nigeria.

The riverine people organized their society in Canoe Houses. K.O. Dike noted that their society comprised of "a cooperative trading unit and a local government institution."

The Canoe houses were usually composed of a wealthy merchant (its founder), his family, and numerous slaves owned by him.  A prosperous house could have several thousand members, both free and bonded, owning hundreds of trade canoes.

In this fiercely competitive society, leadership by merit and not by birth or ascriptions, was necessary if a house was to make headway in the competition that existed between the canoe houses. Any person with the charisma and proven ability, even if he was born of a slave, could rise to the leadership of a house, but could never become a king.

Chief Allison, finding young JaJa too stubborn for his liking, made a gift of him to his friend, Madu, a chief of the Anna Pepple House. The Anna Pepple house was one of the two houses of the royal family; the other being the Manilla Pepple House.

JaJa was placed at the lowest rung of the Bonny slave society ladder, that of an imported slave, distinct from that of someone who was of slave parentage but born in the Delta.

As a young man, he worked as a paddler on his owner's great trade canoes, traveling to and from the inland markets of the riverine region. Very early, Jaja demonstrated exceptional abilities and business sense, quickly acquainted himself with the Ijo custom of the Delta, and won the hearts of the local people as well as those of the European super traders.

It was rare for a slave of his status to make the transition from canoe paddling to trading, but JaJa, through his honesty, business sense, and pleasantness, soon became prosperous in the region.

Jaja, dealt with the British because he proved his aptitude for business at an early age, earning his way out of slavery. This was because, at that time in history, one can be a domestic slave to his Igbo (African) master and be free to earn money, marry, buy his way out of slavery, and even own land. Slavery was not vicious in Africa.

Jaja was brought up according to Ijaw (Ibani) rituals and eventually established himself as the leader of the Anna Pepple House. Under his leadership, Anna Pepple soon absorbed a couple of other trade houses from Bonny. This lasted for a while, till an ongoing dispute with the Manilla Pepple House, led by Oko Jumbo forced, Jaja to break away, forming his Opobo city-state in 1869.

The palm oil trade was very lucrative at the time, and the city of Opobo soon became the region’s biggest exporter of palm oil. Opobo then became home to fourteen out of the eighteen Bonny former trade houses.

Jaja then moved to block the access of British merchants to the interior of Okwa Ibom and Igbo, giving him an effective monopoly. On many occasions, Opobo even shipped palm oil directly to Liverpool, without the British middlemen. But his reign was soon to come under threat due to European greed for Africa’s resources.

At the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, the European powers present mapped out Opobo as British territory, and the British soon moved to claim it.

British imperialists began to assert the crown forcefully on Opobo and other sovereign houses. The British officials on the ground were increasingly ignoring indigenous authorities, while British traders had begun to insist on trading directly with the palm-oil producers in the hinterlands. JaJa tackled these formidable problems judiciously and with great restraint.

Jaja refused to stop taxing British traders and Henry Hamilton Johnston, a British vice-consul invited him for negotiations in 1887. When Jaja arrived, the British arrested him and tried him in Accra in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) then took him to London for some time, where he met Queen Victoria and was her guest in Buckingham Palace. After some other turbulent history, he was exiled to Saint Vincent in the West Indies. Plans were also made for him to be relocated to Barbados.

But the circumstances of Jaja's capture and removal left a sour taste in certain British mouths. Lord Salisbury, British prime minister, could not help criticizing Johnston, noting that in other places JaJa's forced deportation would be called "kidnapping." Michael Ajayi Crowder describes the event as "one of the shabbiest incidents in the history of Britain's relations with West Africa."

In 1891, Jaja was granted permission to return to Opobo, but died on his way home, allegedly poisoned with a cup of tea. Following his exile and death, the power of the Opobo state rapidly declined.

His people gladly paid the cost of repatriating his body and spent a fortune giving him a royal funeral.

Today, an imposing statue of JaJa stands in the center of Opobo with the inscription: "A king in title and in deed. Always just and generous."