Portal:Nigeria/Selected biography/6

King Jaja of Opobo (full name: Jubo Jubogha; c. 1821–1891) belonging to the Igbo ethnicity, was the founder and first king (amanyanabo) of the Opobo Kingdom in present-day Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria.

In his youth, Jaja was kidnapped from Igboland possibly by Aro's and sold into slavery. He was then brought to Ijawland thereafter. As was customary amongst the Ijaw, Jaja earned his way out of slavery after serving his master for a number of years. At the death of his master, he took charge of the trade and went on to head the Anna Pepple House merchant faction of Bonny. Under him, Annie Pepple absorbed other trade houses until a war with the Manilla Pepple House led by Oko Jumbo compelled Jaja to break away to establish Opobo Kingdom (26 miles east of Bonny) in 1869. "Oko Jumbo and Ja Ja were looked upon by every one as being the rulers of Bonny."

Opobo came to be a prominent trading post in the region's palm oil trade. Jaja barred entry to European and African middlemen, effectively monopolizing trade, and by 1870 was selling eight thousand tons of palm oil directly to the British. Opobo also shipped palm oil directly to Liverpool. Despite his trade rivalry with the Europeans, Jaja sent his children to schools in Glasgow and enlisted whites to staff the secular school he built in Opobo. He barred any missionaries from entering Opobo.