I have already released the following publications in connection with Captain Kelsey’s Intelligence Report of 1935 on the Kalabari District of the then Degema Division:-
Kalabari Clan Conferences At Abalama on the Intelligence Report 1935. Volume I.
Kalabari Clan Conferences At Degema on the Intelligence Report 1935. Volume II.
Intelligence Report Conferences At Abonnema By the Royal House of Kalagbea (the Barboys)-1935.
A History of the Igodoame Polo, Later Known as Iju Polo (Alias Jack Quarter).
On page I of my Preface to “Volume I” I pointed out that the chiefs who held their historic conferences at Abalama in April and May, 1935, were divided into three political groups, namely:-
- The Amachrees – Buguma
- The Kalagbeas (the Barboys) – Abonnema and Bakana
- The Jacks/Briggs Affiliation) – Abonnema An independent contingent of the Barboys
In going through the publications quoted above one will see that every group except that of Oruwari (Briggs) has been represented.
The Origin of the Oruwari (Briggs) Document.
I know very well (and it can be seen clearly by the reader later) that this was not a report officially submit- ted to Captain Kelsey by the Oruwari (Briggs) House as a whole, because it was neither seen nor approved by Chief Frank Young Briggs, the overall head of the Oruwari (Briggs) Group of Houses, and his chiefs.
From this it is obvious that the document entitled,
“Dweinala as the Head of the Dweinala’s House (including Ikata and Asukein) Alias Briggs House”
which several people now hold, and which I am now going to reproduce in this work, was, in fact, the work of one single member of a branch or sub-house of the group, Frank Amakiri Bestman, a Kalabari aristocrat and erstwhile chief of the Bestman Briggs house. He was maternally a lineal descendant of chief Dweinala and left behind his footsteps on the sands of time. 4524
Frank Amakiri Bestman was my step-father whom I assisted clerically during my early days at Abonnema and it was I who drafted the report from his oral dictation and typed it later for him for submission to the Divisional Office, Degema. No one was in the room in which we were to contribute to his narration, nor did he give me any reference books to copy from. In any case, Chief Frank Young Briggs, the overall head of the Oruwari (Briggs) House, and Frank Amakiri Bestman of the Bestman branch or sub-house could not have worked harmoniously together because the two Franks almost lived like perpetual foes and were not in speaking terms in the nine teen thirties for well-known reasons. From what has been
explained so far, the reader will admit that it would be misleading to give Frank Amakiri Bestman’s account the title, “The Intelligence Report of the Oruwari (Briggs) House” because it is definitely not. It cannot commit the Oruwari (Briggs) House as several statements of its author will not be accepted by the majority of the Oruwari (Briggs) House; such statements will be pointed out at their appropriate headings. For these important reasons, I have given Frank Amakiri Bestman’s account the title of
“An Intelligence Report Document
On The Oruwari (Briggs) House – 1935
As Submitted by Frank Amakiri Bestman”.
And so it is not an official document from the Oruwari (Briggs) House.
Reporter’s Comments:
In order that the reader might correctly appraise the value of Frank Amakiri Bestman’s account, I have added my comments against any item of his history which is inconsistent with those contained in recorded works of celebrated authors.
The Appendices.
In August, 1976, the Kalabari National Assembly compiled for the Government, lists of Chieftaincy Stools as at 30th August, 1976, on which the Dweinala House was included as a “Second Class” chieftaincy stool, that is, a house founded at Abonnema before 1916. A summary of this classification is contained in “APPENDIX I”. Another document, a letter from the Abonnema Council of Chiefs dated 2nd December, 1971, attached to a List of Abonnema Chiefs, is marked “APPENDIX 2”.