Kingdom of Warri

The Kingdom of Warri, Warri Kingdom or Iwere Kingdom, (Itsekiri: Oye Iwere) was established in 1480, and is part of the Nigerian traditional states. Its ancestral capital is based in Ode-Itsekiri, Warri South LGA, Delta State, Nigeria with a palace erected in 1950s in the heart of the city of Warri, Warri South LGA, Delta State, Nigeria. History Foundation The Kingdom of Warri was founded around c. 1480 by Prince Ginuwa, the eldest son of Oba Olua of the Kingdom of Benin (r. 1473–1480), himself a son of Oba Ewuare (r. 1440–1473). Born around 1445 and raised in the Benin royal court, Ginuwa’s assertive nature, shown through his strong opposition to certain traditional practices of the Benin chiefs and people, created tensions with the chiefs, who feared that as Oba, he would threaten their cherished customs. To secure his son’s future Oba Olua consulted Ogifa, the Chief Oracle Diviner of Benin, who after consulting his oracle, advised that an Iroko wood ark be crafted to house Ginuwa, the firstborn sons of the seventy chiefs, their attendants, and possessions. Oba Olua summoned a council of seventy chiefs, announcing his intent to send a sacrifice in the Iroko box to the water via Ugharegin and requesting their firstborn sons to accompany it. The chiefs agreed, and the box was conveyed to Ugharegin over three days. There, Ginuwa emerged from the box in regalia, proclaiming his sovereignty, and drifted to the Warri region to establish his kingdom. The migration of Ginuwa began around 1470 with seventy Benin chiefs. At Ugharegin, pursued by Benin warriors, Ginuwa prayed to Umalokun, God of the Sea, promising annual sacrifices. The waters rose, enabling his escape, marking the origin of the Umalokun Olaja festival, with its priest at Ureju. The party drifted to Efurokpe on the Jamieson River, where Ginuwa’s sister Oyeifo stayed due to impending childbirth. They moved through Arun-owun to the Escravos River, settling at Amatu (Aleodiaja) for several years. Due to sandy, infertile soil, Ginuwa relocated to Oruselemo, marrying Derumo, an Ijaw. During his prolonged stay at Oruselemo, a conflict arose between him and the Ijaws of Gulani, triggered by the death of Derumo. She was killed by him due to her sharp-tongued remarks against Ginuwa. This incident made the Ijaws to declare war on him, leading them to set up an ambush in preparation for the ensuing confrontation. Ginuwa had his people mourn her publicly, convincing the Ijaws her death was accidental, avoiding war. Prince Ginuwa decided to relocate due to the risk of renewed conflict with the Ijaws of Gulani, who might uncover his involvement in Derumo's death. By then, he was joined by Idibie, a renowned diviner. Guided by Idibie, Ginuwa migrated to Ijala, where he met Itsekiri people. Crowned the first Olu of Iwere, Ginuwa I ruled until his death around 1510 and was buried in Ijala. His son, Olu Ijijen (Ogbowuru), later moved the capital from ijala to Ode-Itsekiri and unified the indigenous Itsekiri communities, including Omadino, Ureju, Ugborodo, and Inorin, forming the Kingdom of Iwere, now known as Warri. Ijijen’s reign followed the itsekiri maxim Igbo mini, mini igbo (“the people belong to the king, and the king belongs to the people”). He was succeeded by his brother Olu Irame, who ruled until around 1570. European contact and Christianisation (c. 1506–1900) The kingdom’s location in the Niger Delta made it a hub for early European contact. The first recorded interaction with Europeans occurred in 1475, with another documented encounter in 1500 by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who noted in his work, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, that there is a place of barter…. cotton cloths, with some panther skins, palm-oil and some blue shells with red stripes which they call ‘coris’ These and other things we buy there for brass and copper bracelets; they are all valuable at the castle of S. Jorze da Mina, where the King’s factor sells them to the negro merchants for gold. The inhabitants along this river are called Huela This has been confirmed by multiple scholars and historians, including J. D. Fage, P. E. H. Hair, and A. F. C. Ryder, who noted that Pereira’s “Huela” was a variant of the native name of the kingdom, “Iwere,” which is known today as Warri. When commenting on it; JD Fage wrote Kimble did not identify the "Huela;" Mauny's note 289 reads "Les Huela modernes, "which may not be very helpful. In fact, "Huela" is a variant spelling of "Ouere" or warri, whose people are the Itsekiri, and the state of warri became a major trading. and missionary center for the Portuguese when they became disenchanted with Benin and abandoned their factory at Ughoton in 1506. P.E.H Hair wrote To the south of Benin, Pacheco Pereira around 1500 knew two peoples on the Forcados River, the Huela on the lower part, the Subou farther inland: these we take to be the Iwere/Itsekiri and Sobo/urhobo who occupy roughly these positions today. The Iwere kingdom of Oeri/Overo/Overy/Ouwerre or WARRI on the Forcados was well known from the 1590s on: but its exact limits were never described and no vocabularies were collected AFC Ryder Wrote Huela—a word which may be related to Iwere, the name by which the Itsekiri know themselves; the area indicated corresponds to what is believed to be the early centre of Itsekiri settlement. A major turning point came in 1570 with the coronation of Olu Atorongboye (Sebastian I), the first Christian Olu, who cultivated ties with Portuguese missionaries and traders. This connection deepened under Olu Atuwatse I (Dom Domingos), the 7th Olu, who was educated in Portugal and returned in 1611 as one of the earliest university educated African monarchs. He married a Portuguese woman and strengthened Warri’s Christian identity and access to European firearms. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Warri prospered as an intermediary in the trans-Atlantic trade, exporting palm oil, ivory, and slaves, and extending influence over surrounding creeks and islands. Under Olu Erejuwa (c. 1760–1795), the kingdom expanded its commercial and political reach, leveraging Portuguese alliances to reinforce its hold on the region. Warri became a more important port city during the late 19th century, when it became a centre for the palm oil trade and other major items such as rubber, palm products, cocoa, groundnuts, hides, and skins. Warri was established as a provincial headquarters by the British in the early 20th century. Independence From its foundation until the late 19th century, the Kingdom of Warri remained sovereign, never under the direct rule of another kingdom or empire before British colonisation. Contemporary European observers consistently described Warri as independent. In 1705, Willem Bosman noted that the Portuguese have a lodge and church at the Town of Awerri which is governed by its particular and independent king, who doth not treat the king of Great Benin any otherwise than as his neighbour and ally In 1682, John Barbot wrote that the people of “Awerri” had “always kept themselves free from the jurisdiction of the king of Benin” A mid-19th-century traveller likewise reported that Wari—also called Warri, Owari, Owerree, Awerri, Owheyre, and many other names—is known to the people as ‘Jakri.’ The town, once the capital of a powerful kingdom, has ever claimed independence. Another late 1890s European records describe the Kingdom of Warri (referred to as Owarie by the author) as a distinct and independent political entity in the sixteenth century. According to British explorer and ethnographer Mary H. Kingsley: Nevertheless, the adjacent kingdom of Owarie (Warri), even in the sixteenth century, was an independent kingdom. So different was its fetish from that of Benin that Warri had not then, and has not to this day, human sacrifice in its religious observances, only judicial and funeral killings. Kingsley’s observation highlights both the political autonomy of Warri and the cultural divergence between its traditional religious practices and those of neighboring Benin. Her account provides one of the clearest contemporary records distinguishing Warri’s independent identity and governance structure. Interregnum and British conquest (1848–1900) The death of Olu Akengbuwa in 1848, followed shortly by the deaths of his designated successors, Prince Omateye and Prince Ejo, triggered an 88-year interregnum in the Warri Kingdom. During this period, merchant-governors (’‘Gofine’’) administered the affairs of the kingdom: Diare (1851–1869) Chaninomi (1870–1879) Olomu (1880–1883) Nana (1884–1894) Nana’s tenure coincided with the kingdom’s final years of independence. On 16 July 1884, Warri chiefs signed a protectorate treaty aboard HMS Flirt with British officials, supplemented by an addendum on 6 August, granting British traders and missionaries access to Itsekiri territory, including the Benin, Warri, and Escravos rivers. In 1894, a dispute with the British led to Nana’s defeat by the Royal Navy, ending Warri’s autonomy and integrating it into the Lagos Colony. By 1900, Chief Dore Numa was appointed paramount chief under the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, marking full colonial incorporation. The Size Of The Kingdom Of Warri In the work of Jean-François Landolphe published from his diary described the size of Warri Kingdom: The sovereign of this state owns not only both banks of the Benin river but also all the rivers of these parts as far as the tributaries of the Calabar or are near to it. Military In 1656, the equipment of the Warri military was dominated by arrows and javelins with the use of few muskets. By the following century, Warri forces became accustomed to firearms. In the late 18th century, the naval vessels of Warri were equipped with simple sails and primary sources documented that such vessels could carry some personnel of about 100. According to historian Thornton, the Warri navy was unfamiliar with tacking. Shields were built onto the vessels to provide protection for the personnel. Warri vessels may have utilized artillery. Jean-François Landolphe provided a description of the King's canoes in the early 19th century which he mentions to have mounted 7 blunderbusses arranged in series on a swivel. As a result, these guns could fire simultaneously and Landolphe states they were rarely used. Warri's military was largely naval as its armed forces seldom fought on land. A traveller estimated its naval and marine forces to number 60,000. Itsekiris and the Europeans The Itsekiri people were among the first ethnic groups in present-day Nigeria to come into contact with Europeans. Their earliest recorded interaction occurred along the Benin River, which the Itsekiri call Odo-Okun. The first Itsekiri settlement to be documented was Tebu, around the year 1500, by the Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira. In his work Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, Pereira wrote: By this channel towards the sea is a village called Teebuu and on the other side are some more villages. The Itsekiri acted as middlemen between European traders and the various communities of the hinterland. This role brought them significant wealth and influence, and many European visitors remarked on their intelligence, trade skill, and sophistication. The British explorer Mary Henrietta Kingsley described the Itsekiri (whom she referred to as the "Jakri") in highly favorable terms: The Jakri tribe are, without doubt, one of the finest in the Niger Coast Protectorate; many of their present chiefs are very honest and intelligent men, also excellent traders. Their women are noted as being the finest and best looking for miles round. The Jakri women have already made great strides towards their complete emancipation from the low state in which the women of neighbouring tribes still find themselves, many of them being very rich and great traders. Also, Major Arthur Glyn Leonard, a British soldier and ethnographer who visited the Niger Delta in the early 1900s, wrote: On the Warri and Benin rivers we find the Jekri middle-men, who are not only the most intelligent and tractable, but quite the best mannered of all the tribes. Another European traveler and scholar, Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston, also commented on the Itsekiri in his account The Niger Delta: The people of the Jekri country are in some respects superior in local indigenous civilisation to the inhabitants of the rest of the delta, and have a considerable show of wealth, which is manifested especially upon their persons…. they wear the most magnificent silks, which are specially ordered for them from Europe, and they are also especially fond of coral. Trade The early trade between the Itsekiri people and the Europeans brought several cultural and economic influences to the kingdom of Warri. Among these was a transformation in dressing styles and the introduction of new agricultural products such as cassava. The Europeans are credited with teaching the Itsekiri methods of processing cassava into products like starch and garri. In turn, the Itsekiri traded cassava and its derivatives with neighboring tribes across southern Nigeria. Through these exchanges, cassava gradually spread across other parts of the country. Documentation of cassava cultivation in the Itsekiri region dates back to the 17th century. The Dutch geographer Olfert Dapper recorded the presence and use of cassava in 1668 in his work Description of Africa, noting that: The inhabitants also cultivate Mandihoka [manioc] (cassava) from which they make flour in order to bake bread. John (Jean) Barbot likewise recorded cassava among local products, writing: They have store of palm-trees, lemons, oranges and Guinea pepper, or maleguetta, and an infinite number of banana trees, as also of magnoc bushes, which they call Mandi-boka in their language, of which they make the Cassava, or Farinha de Pao, that is in Portuguese wood-meal, which is the bread they commonly feed on. These early European records highlight the role of the Itsekiri in the spread and trade of cassava and its products within the Niger Delta and beyond. The Crowns There are multiple crowns of the Warri Kingdom, many of which hold significant historical importance, with origins tied to the Kingdom of Benin and the empire of ife. The primary crown, introduced by Ginuwa I from udo, resembles the Yoruba "Adé-Ń𝗹á". Historical accounts by European visitors provide detailed descriptions of its appearance. Lieutenant John King of the Royal Navy, who visited the Warri Kingdom between 1815 and 1820, described the original crown as: "At Warri the actual crown of the sovereign is a sort of large cap in the shape of a cone three feet high, covered with coral beads and with a couple of birds' heads on top." A later crown was documented during the reign of Olu Akengbuwa. Another European observer described this crown as follows: "Coral beads were sometimes threaded in the hair or attached to the hat; the 'crown' of the King of Warri was of the latter kind, and 3 feet high. In the manufacture of caps, the skins of leopards and other animals were used, and leopards' skins were also worn on the body." The ancient crown, originally brought by Ginuwa, was used by seven Olu monarchs of the Warri Kingdom until it was replaced during the reigns of Christian Olu monarchs. Starting with Olu Atuwatse I in 1611, a European-style silver crown from Portugal was introduced to the royal jewels. His son, Olu Oyenakpagha, further added a European diamond crown adorned with a cross in 1645. Both crowns, along with other royal jewels, were stolen by two princes of Olu Ikenwoli during a succession dispute in 2021 over the next Olu to the throne of Warri. Despite the theft, the coronation of the subsequent Olu proceeded without disruption. On August 21, 2021, Olu Atuwatse III CFR, the current Olu of Warri, introduced new Crown Jewels, including silver and pure gold crowns, to replace those that were stolen. The Olu of Warri Title The title of the Olu of Warri has been the subject of historical discussion and scholarly debate. Some have claimed that the traditional title was always “Olu of itsekiri” and that the title “Olu of Warri” was created in 1952 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, while other historians and Itsekiri sources dispute this interpretation and argue that the title predates the colonial period. According to historical records, the title was changed from “Olu of Warri” to “Olu of Itsekiri” in 1934 during the colonial period, after a long interregnum of 88years with no king. This change has been attributed to administrative considerations, as the name “Warri” had come to refer not only to the kingdom but also to the wider Warri Province, whose boundaries extended beyond the traditional domain of the Olu. And so Olu Ginuwa II was crowned Olu of itsekiri in 1936, the itsekiri people were displeased by the title as it is not the historical title of their ruler, and so continue to protest against it. After the Coronation of another Olu Erejuwa II on March 24, 1951 using same Olu of itsekiri title the itsekiri people could not allow for it to continue, they were numerous protests and petitions from Itsekiri groups, the title was restored to “Olu of Warri” in 1952, while Warri Province was subsequently renamed Delta Province. Commenting on the debate surrounding the royal title, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe after much research expressed support for the use of “Olu of Warri”, which he regarded as the more historical designation. In his words His Highness Ginuwa II is Olu of Itsekiri speaking people, who live on Itsekiri land, on a section of Warri Township. If the matter is discussed in detail, it will be found that definite title is necessary; in which case, the Olu of Warri seems to be more historical and correct. When we speak of the Oba of Lagos, we refer to the paramount Native ruler of Lagos Township, although Lagos is peopled mainly by the yoruba speaking peoples and Lagos is part of Yorubaland. So too, in the case of His Highness, Ginuwa II, the Olu of Warri is paramount Native ruler of Warri, although Warri Township is peopled mainly by the Itsekiri speaking people and Warri is part of Itsekiri land. The kingdom was historically known as the Kingdom of Iwere, an Itsekiri name used to refer both to the capital and to the wider kingdom. Over time, European traders, cartographers, and travellers recorded several variants of the name, including Ouwere, Owhere, Awerri, Oere, Warree, Wari, and eventually Warri, which became the modern form. The capital town Ouwere, which gives its name to the whole country, lies on the river Forcado, about thirty six or seven leagues up from its mouth, and is near two miles about, being encompass’d on the land-side with groves and thickets, the ordinary residence of the king of Ouwere. A number of European accounts from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries referred to the ruler of the kingdom using variants of “Warri” or “Iwere/Ouwere”. These references have been cited by historians in discussions of the historical development of the royal title. The earliest known example appears in the work of Olfert Dapper: The King of Ouwerre….governs his land with absolute power notwithstanding, and is in alliance with the King of Benin. In 1849, Frederick Edwyn Forbes wrote: the king of Warree having died, and his throne being disputed, the Jackwaw people, under their chief, Jibuffu, held neutral, and will, if they have not already, declare themselves independent of the new sovereign of Warree. Further references appear in later nineteenth-century publications: the ‘crown’ of the King of Warri was of the latter kind, and 3 feet high. In the manufacture of caps, the skins of leopards and other animals were used, and leopards’ skins were also worn on the body. At Warri the actual crown of the sovereign is a sort of large cap in the shape of a cone three feet high, covered with coral beads and with a couple of birds’ heads on top. In ‘‘Wanderings in West Africa from Liverpool to Fernando Po’’, published in 1863, Richard Francis Burton wrote: Elusa, son of Rejo or Reggio, king of Wari and of Lower Benin—which has been settled from Wari—died in June, 1848, leaving, as usual, a large family. The elder sons, Iteyá and Ajoprú, followed their sire within the week. These accounts demonstrate that European writers employed a variety of spellings, including Ouwerre, Ouwere, Warree, Wari, and Warri, when referring to the kingdom and its ruler. Historians have used these records as evidence in discussions concerning the historical evolution of the title of the Olu and the nomenclature of the kingdom. Warri Crisis Kings of Warri Kingdom, 1480 to present The Kingdom of Warri has remained predominantly Christian since the coronation of its first Christian King/Olu Atorongboye also known as King Sebastian I in 1570, within a century of the foundation of the Iwere Kingdom. Below is a list of the rulers of the Warri Kingdom from inception. Note that written records began with the coronation of Olu Atorongboye Sebastian I in 1570. References Thornton, John Kelly (1999). Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500–1800. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781857283921. http://itsekiricanada.com/olu.php Archived 26 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine