Bonny, Rivers

Bonny
Town
Bonny
Coordinates: 4°26′N 7°10′E / 4.433°N 7.167°E / 4.433; 7.167
Country  Nigeria
State Rivers State
Area
 • Total 249.27 sq mi (645.60 km2)
Population (2006)
 • Total 214,983[1]
Time zone WAT (UTC+1)

Bonny (or Ibani)[2] is an island town and a Local Government Area in Rivers State in southsouth Nigeria, on the Bight of Bonny. It was also the capital of the Kingdom of Bonny. Traditionally (especially between the 15th and 19th centuries) it was a major trading post of the eastern delta.[3] Bonny Island, is a major export point for oil.[4]

The region produces a type of crude oil known as Bonny Light oil. Much of the oil extracted onshore in Rivers State is piped to Bonny for export. It has the biggest LNG Gas Plant in Nigeria with six (6) trains.

Kingdom of Bonny

The Ancient Kingdom of Bonny was a sovereign state of the Niger-Delta.

The Kingdom, comprising virgin lands and territorial areas, was founded before or about 1,000 AD. The founding group of the Kingdom, from the Ebeni-toru area, precisely from Isedani Lineage of Kolokuma, in the present-day Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State (in Ancestral Ijawland in the Central Niger Delta), was led by three direct blood descendants of Ebeni. These are Opuamakuba, Alagbariye and Asimini. From these leaders and the entire founding generation of the Kingdom evolved the lineage/ward/house system of governance, as a result of which the welfarist institution of traditional rulership of the Kingdom came into place, with the exalted position of “Amanyanabo”, Monarch/King, meaning “owner of the land”; and the position of “Amadapu”, meaning component/subordinate traditional rulers of the Kingdom. The High-Priest of the Kingdom ruled the Kingdom with the “Amanyanabo”, and “Amadapu”. The first four Monarchs of the Kingdom were Founding Fathers of the Kingdom. These are namely Kings Ndoli, Opuamakuba, Alagbariya (Founder of Bonny: 'Okoloamakoromabo') and Asimini. After these initial Four Kings, their direct-blood descendants ruled the Kingdom as Kings until the era of King Awusa (Halliday). It was after King Halliday-Awusa, the Twelfth King of Bonny Kingdom, that King Perekule succeeded King Halliday-Awusa. Hence, King Perekule's descendants on the exalted throne of Kingship of the Kingdom are successors of the throne of Kingship established by the founding generation of Ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom. The continuing hereditary position, King/Monarch, who bears the title “Amanyanabo”, originated from the Founding Fathers and Premier Kings of the Ancient Kingdom.

Ancient Grand Bonny Kingdom was powerful beginning in the 15th Century with the advent of the Portuguese and the following Atlantic slave trade. In the 19th Century it came under increasing pressure from the British to end the slave trade. It collapsed in the civil war of 1869,[5] though a remnant of it continues to exist as a part of the aristocratic structure of Nigeria.

See also

References

  1. ↑ population at LGAs in geohive.com
  2. ↑ Dalby, Routledge (1971). African Language Review. Routledge. p. 251. ISBN 0-7146-2690-2.
  3. ↑ "Bonny". Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
  4. ↑ Frynas, Jedrzej Georg (2000). Oil in Nigeria: Community Rights and Corporate Dominance in Conflict. LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster. p. 79. ISBN 3-8258-3921-4.
  5. ↑ Alagoa, E. J. (1971). Nineteenth Century Revolutions in the Eastern Delta states and Calabar. Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria 5(4). pp. 565–570.
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Coordinates: 4°26′N 7°10′E / 4.433°N 7.167°E / 4.433; 7.167

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