AMACHREE THE GREAT
How the Height of Amachree’s Greatness Affected Common Knowledge of His History
King Amachree I was the most famous of Kalabari Kings. Like Julius Caesar, he went; he saw; he conquered, to build up a more extensive Kalabari in the eighteenth century. Read what Dr. P. Amaury Talbot writes about him in Chapter 1 of his famous book, “Tribes of the Niger Delta”:
“The most famous of the Kalabari Kings was Amachree …. It was during his reign that Danish guns were introduced, and it was, no doubt, mostly through possession of these new weapons that Amachree became the greatest and most powerful King in this part of the world, reigning from New Calabar River, in the East, nearly to Brass in the West, and monopolised the entire trade with tribes of the interior …”
Amachree was so great that, according to Kalabari custom in the past, Kalabari people could not discuss him freely along the streets or at the playgrounds, nor would a parent find it a usual practice to assemble the family from time to time to narrate the anecdotes about him. This old custom is confirmed by Chief Nelson Gabriel Yellowe of Bakana, Kalabari, an old boy of King’s College, Lagos, as can be seen from the following extract of his article in the “Nigerian Observer” of 2nd July, 1932:
“It has always been a matter of hesitation for any Kalabari son to say anything about King Amachree whose name stands amongst the highly honoured deities of the country. He was one of Kalabari’s proud possessions. He was a King in reality, characteristic of the qualities worthy of the name. A brave soldier, he made his country feared and respected by other neighbouring tribes, and established its fame by his valour. Like William the Conqueror he conquered and colonised many towns along the lower shores of the Niger Delta and founded New Calabar the largest empire the like of which is yet to be seen in this part of the world”.
It was for the sole reason that Amachree’s “name stands amongst the highly honoured deities of the country” that Kalabari hesitated to discuss him freely. And it was because of this restriction or hesitation that people after his period had not the opportunity to know much about him. Thus, many things we of the present generation should know and learn of this God sent monarch to Kalabari are still hiding away from people like a subterranean treasure. This was why, Chapter 1, page 13, of my book, “A History of the Igodoame Polo, Later known as Iju Polo alias Jack Quarter”, I indicated my intention to publish a book entitled, “The Period of King Amachree I in Kalabari History.” I find it important to do this because I know that the news that the monarch lived up to, approximately, the 1820s will have the effect of a surprise packet in the hands of the Kalabari citizen who has yet studied the true history of Amachree and who, as a result of the lack of this knowledge, has been misled, by the hoax of persons interested in the matter, to think that Amachree came to the throne of Kalabari during the remotest days of our existence when no candle of civilisation had ever been lit at Elem Kalabari.
For example, a very elderly chief of approximately one hundred years of age, famous and much respected for his knowledge of the past, born at Elem Kalabari and died in the late 1940s, asked the following question in open conference:
“Did Manuel know Amachree?”
This indicates that the respectable elderly Chief was of the opinion that Owukori alias Manuel Barboy, the grandson of Amachree, did not know his grand-father as he was either not yet born or was an infant when King Amachree died round about the 1820s.
Owukori alias Manuel died in 1860. Of course, he knew Amachree I and was made a chief by his uncle, King Amachro (Amachree II), not long after the death of King Amachree I, because Amachro reigned for a short period. From this observation one can see clearly that even many elders born at Elem Kalabari (old Shipping) thought that Amachree lived and died in the remotest past when, in fact, he died, approximately, only 60 years before Kalabari began to abandon the old Shipping in 1879 for the new settlements.
Moreover, the dauntlessness and the complete absence of the thought of query with which H. Wenike Brown-West (now Chief Tienabeso) in “A Short Genealogical History of Amachree I of Kalabari” finds “present day tradition” parents for Amachree, approximately one and a half centuries after his death, gives a violent concussion to the average Kalabari citizen and straight away defeats entirely the genuine objects Brown-West lays down for his book.
Finally, Mr. Nwabufo Uwechia follows with his one-sided “Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Kalabari Chieftaincy Dispute” of 1959; this, in fact, was almost a repetition of the myths, legends and wilful distortions embodied in Mr. Brown-West’s pamphlet.
All the irregularities pointed out above, confirm the fact that not much is known about Amachree, particularly in certain quarters, mostly because the events of his reign were not recorded by the visiting European merchants of the eighteenth century and, consequently, a great deal of in the tradition must have been made up with the imaginary tales of over-zealous descendants who do not seem to realise the great harm they are doing to the hero, the community and themselves by publishing a history containing a false genealogy and distorted events of this demi-god of Kalabari.
The Need to write Realistically About Amachree The Great
Readers will admit readily that the history of such a great potentate as King Amachree I should present the true picture to the public. In the “Introduction of my Preface to “A History of the Igodoame Polo Later known as Iju Polo Alias Jack Quarter“, I defined History as “the true oral or written account or story of past events” and elaborated on this by saying that “unless the account or story is the truth, and nothing but the truth, it is no history“. Not only Kalabari but also the other tribes of Nigeria and the rest of the civilised world comprising students and professors of history, editors of famous newspapers and celebrated authors would read with no small interest the history of such a great man, and, as they do this, they would, of course, make a literary appreciation of each chapter and would easily sort out the truth from the falsehood and the other frivolous adjuncts that depreciate the value, and mar the beauty, of the historical work.
In such a case, the reputation of the particular author is also adversely affected. For this important reason I issued the following warning in my Preface to the “Intelligence Report Conferences at Abonnema, By the Royal House of Kalagbea (the Barboys) – 1935“, under the heading, “No Repair Work or Embellishments Necessary“:
“I re-iterate that Amachree was, and is still, great. He needs nothing to make him greater, and nothing can now make him small. The world would, therefore, shout the imprecations on any (wiseacre who would attempt to “repair or embellish the true biography or genealogical history of this most revered father of the Kalabari nation with mythical achievements and false parentages. It is for this reason that I am always inquisitive whenever and wherever I come across any information that appears to me somewhat ambiguous in the life of the great monarch.” By this I mean that it is important for writers of Kalabari history…