In 1935, Captain Kelsey, the then District officer, Degema, was instructed by his superiors to compile an Intelligent Report on Kalabari. To get the information required he, in turn, ordered the Kalabari chiefs to meet with a view to furnishing him with the necessary details which included such topics as the Origin of Kalabari, Ancient Judicial System, who were Judges and How did they hold their posts, Crimes and their respective punishments, power of jujus, Contact with Europeans, The Advent of Christianity, Main Houses, Wars and Civil Fights, The Evacuation the Nyankpo people via Bonny to Tombia in Kalabari, The Great Exodus and the new towns of Buguma, Abonnema and Bakana.
Two stenographers were employed for the report. Mr. A O Charles Horsfall (now late) was sent from the District Office, Degema, to take down, officially, the gist of what discussed for the District Officer to examine and accept what passed muster, and ignore what was frivolous for his purpose. Mr. Alaye Quaker-Manuel (now Chief Alaye Fubara-Manuel) who first came in regular contact with the Kalabari chiefs when he was in the Native Administration Treasury, Degema, as a stenographer to the District Officer, Degema, was requested by the chiefs to preserve for posterity, virtually, verbatim speeches as far as this could be done. It was, doubtless, a difficult task to listen to speeches in vernacular and then speedily write them down in English in shorthand and transcribe them later in longhand, get them to be edited by the speakers and reproduced on the typewriter. But it was a job well done and copies were distributed to many chiefs and gentlemen.
In 1935 my reading was, of course, comparatively small, and, consequently, my knowledge of the English language not high as well. With a higher standard of education today coupled with long years of office experience, I have thought it wise to retouch the English used in my original work, leaving the facts, of course, as they were.
The chiefs who held their historic conferences on 16th April 1935, 18th April 1935, 14th May 1935, 16th May 1935, and 19th May 1935, were divided into three political groups, namely:
The Amachrees, Buguma.
The Kalagbeas – Abonnema and Bakana
(The Kalagbeas are the Barboys. Kalagbea was the father of Barboy, Awo).
The Jacks/Briggs Affiliation (Iju na Oruwari), Abonnema.
It is noteworthy here that the Jacks and the Briggs have been shown by me as a distinct group because that was how I saw them operate at the Abalama conferences although in the diagram on page 200 of his 1964 edition of “The Trading States of the Oil Rivers”, Mr. G.1. Jones clearly showed that there were only two political groups in Kalabari – Amachree and Barboy (AWO), and classified Standfast Jack and Briggs under Barboy (Awo), asserting that they were supporters of this group.
Obviously, this position has long changed and, although The Jacks and the Briggs shall ever remain relations of the Barboy (AWO), they are, by convention, now a separate and distinct powerful political group. This was confirmed by Chief Gladstone Bob-Manuel at the Abalama Conference on 16th may, 1935, when he asserted “Kalabari is of three divisions” which statement was also supported by Chief Mac. Jaja Amachree in the course of the argument that day.
In the period of the 1930s, there was no recognised “Amayanabo of Kalabari”. The District officer, Degema, at the meeting of 20th August, 1935 (please refer to Clan Kalabari Conferences at Degema on the Intelligence Report – 1935 VOL. II), openly declared to the chiefs to understand and inform their subjects on their return home that there was no Amayanabo of Kalabari at that time, and that the Government would not recognise anyone unless he was unanimously presented by the Clan to the Government. And so Chief J.T. Princewill as the head of the Amachree House and Chief John Georgewill was the head of the Kalagbea House. The Jacks were led by Chief Kio Young Jack and Frank Young Briggs was head of the Briggs house.
Chief Walter Okorocha Princewill Amachree was sole spokesman for Buguma, who gave account of the great works of King Amachree I. When he intimated that he had ended his narrations, Chief Gladstone Bob-Manuel of Abonnema announced the intention of the Kalagbeas to begin with great works of their ancestors at the next conference. This resulted in some disagreement between the Amachrees and the Kalagbeas. The Amachrees argued that they thought Chief Walter Okorocha Princewill Amachree was speaking for all sections and observed that the conferences would not speedily come to an end if everyone was allowed to give their own account. Chief Gladstone Bob-Manuel then pointed out that Kalabari is made up of three political groups, and the fact that Chief Walter Okorocha Princewill Amachree, during the course of his speech, had frequent consultations with the Amachrees alone, clearly showed that he did not represent the other groups. Finally, it was agreed that during the next meeting the Kalagbeas should begin with the deeds of their ancestors and, after them, the Jacks and the Briggs if they so desired. All the statements would then be examined and sorted out with a view to accepting only those which were unanimously agreed to.
The next and last conference of chiefs at Abalama was scheduled for May 19, 1935, but the Kalagbeas did not attend for they said that they were not advised that a meeting would be held on that date. A meeting was, however, held that day without the Kalagbeas who, later, held their conferences at Abonnema and compiled their own report which they forwarded direct to the District Officer.
After the meeting at Abalama, the District Officer held another meeting with the Chiefs in his office at Degema to discuss “Main House Chieftaincies”. This was a very crowded meeting as the office was not commodious enough for the attendants and so it was not convenient for me to take notes. At this meeting, however, the District Officer recorded names of main houses, some of which had only one chief, while others had a chief with one or more sub chiefs. It was, indeed, a confused meeting and the District Officer was, no doubt, misled because he took down the names of many not qualified and omitted the names of those in the same category as the others. Consequently, a stream of petitions followed the District Officer.
I do not know, up to the moment of writing, which houses are now on the District Officer’s report as main houses, but it was understood later that a main house was defined as one which had a head chief with one or more other chiefs (sub-chiefs) under him. In the light of this definition, some chiefs called into the towns, from several walks of life, several of their relatives who were installed chiefs. Moreover, many houses that had not been represented for many years elected their chiefs and presented them to the town. In this way, some communities augmented their numbers in the period under review. The final conferences on the Intelligence Report were held in the Native Court Hall, Degema, from 20th August, 1935 to 22nd August, 1935, between the District Officer, Degema 1935, and the chiefs. At these meetings they discussed the Kings of Kalabari, How the Population later Increased, the goddess Owoame Akaso, the Juju Owukolo, Political and Social Institutions e.g. Chieftaincy, Ekine, Sekiapu; Judicial System, war, Inheritance of Property at Death, Land Possession, Marriage System, How Degema and Tombia were Possessed, The Humiliation of unrecognised chiefs of Tombia, the Independence of Bille, The Ambiguity of the term “Main House”, List of Chiefs as at 22nd August, 1935, etc. The meetings served as a finishing touch to the conferences held at Abalama. They are published under separate cover under the title,