The New Calabar crisis of the late nineteenth century was one of the most consequential political upheavals in the history of the eastern Niger Delta. Beginning with a confrontation involving the powerful chief Will Braide and the ruling establishment of New Calabar, the dispute widened into warfare, regional intervention and British consular mediation. By the middle of the 1880s, the old concentration of Kalabari political life at Elem Kalabari had given way to new centres, most notably Bakana, Abonnema and Buguma.
The events were described vividly in West African Studies, published in 1899 under the name of the British traveller and writer Mary Henrietta Kingsley. The section dealing with New Calabar, however, was written by M. le Comte C. N. de Cardi. It appeared in Appendix I, A Short Description of the Natives of the Niger Coast Protectorate.
De Cardi had extensive experience in the Niger Delta and recorded the political figures, rivalries and movements associated with the upheaval that transformed Kalabari society at the end of the nineteenth century.
Elem Kalabari and the New Calabar Trading State
The name “New Calabar” can cause confusion today.
Nineteenth-century European records used New Calabar for the Kalabari state of the eastern Niger Delta, in the area that is now part of Rivers State. It should not be confused with the modern city of Calabar in Cross River State, associated historically with the Efik and commonly called Old Calabar in European records.
For much of the nineteenth century, Kalabari political and commercial life was centred at Elem Kalabari, also known in European accounts as Old Shipping.
Its location placed the Kalabari within the complicated commercial world of the Niger Delta. Trade depended upon waterways linking coastal communities with inland markets, while political authority was closely associated with powerful trading or canoe houses.
EXPLORE NOW: Biographies & Cultural Icons of Nigeria
As the palm oil trade expanded during the nineteenth century, successful houses could accumulate wealth, followers, canoes and influence. Economic power and political power were therefore closely connected.
It was within this competitive environment that the confrontation involving Will Braide developed.
Will Braide and the Barboy House
Will Braide, whose surname also appeared historically as Braid, was head of the powerful Barboy House.
De Cardi recorded a tradition that the Barboy House had once exercised considerable influence and possessed some claim to the kingship. He described Braide as having rebuilt the fortunes and standing of the house, bringing him into increasing conflict with the Amachree establishment.
Relations between Braide and King Amachree, supported by other chiefs of New Calabar, deteriorated severely. By 1879, the dispute had developed into armed conflict.
De Cardi described Braide as withdrawing with followers and taking refuge outside the immediate control of the king. The conflict then became entangled with New Calabar’s wider relations with neighbouring Niger Delta powers, particularly Bonny, Okrika and Opobo.
Those states were deeply involved in the commercial and political affairs of the eastern Niger Delta. Their interests were shaped by shifting alliances, access to waterways, markets and longstanding rivalries.
The struggle involving Braide therefore became larger than the original confrontation between him and the New Calabar leadership.
The Perpetual Treaty of Peace of 1879
On 19 November 1879, a formal agreement was concluded under the title Perpetual Treaty of Peace between Will Braide, the Head of the Barboy House, and the King and Chiefs of New Calabar.
The treaty declared peace between Will Braide and King Amachree and the chiefs of New Calabar.
Braide and his successors were permitted to return to New Calabar Town. Braide and his people were also granted access to New Calabar markets, an important provision in a society in which trade was closely connected with the strength and influence of political houses.
The agreement required Braide to leave his position at Ewaffa and choose another location subject to the approval of the arbitrators.
Property disputes were also addressed. Property held by Braide but shown to belong to New Calabar people was to be returned, while property held by New Calabar people and successfully claimed by Braide was likewise to be restored.
The treaty also dealt with followers associated with Braide and his house, reflecting the importance of dependants and political allegiance within the social organisation of the Delta.
Future disagreements between Braide and the New Calabar authorities were to be referred to the kings and chiefs of Bonny, Opobo and Okrika, with their decisions subject to the authority of the British consul.
The agreement therefore addressed some of the central issues dividing the parties: markets, property, residence, followers and political authority.
Fighting After the 1879 Treaty
The treaty did not immediately bring lasting peace.
De Cardi described warfare involving New Calabar and Bonny forces, including a bombardment of the old New Calabar settlement. According to his account, inhabitants moved valuables and people to safer locations while fighting men withdrew through the surrounding creeks.
Bonny forces subsequently found that much of the old settlement had been evacuated.
The fighting extended towards positions occupied by Kalabari groups elsewhere. De Cardi described an attack on Abonnema in which defenders under Chief Bob Manuel resisted Bonny forces.
Hostilities continued before further attempts were made to settle the conflict through arbitration.
Representatives of Okrika and Opobo became involved in efforts to resolve the dispute. King Jaja of Opobo was represented through his chiefs, while British naval and consular authority increasingly influenced the diplomacy surrounding the conflict.
The struggle had consequently developed into both an internal Kalabari crisis and a wider Niger Delta political confrontation.
British Intervention and Will Braide’s Move to Bakana
British involvement became increasingly important in determining the position of Will Braide.
A consular order dated 8 July 1881 directed him to move to Bakana. Under the accompanying arrangement, Braide’s establishment there was regarded as his return to New Calabar territory.
Bakana consequently became closely associated with Braide and the Barboy grouping.
The episode occurred during a period when British consular officers were becoming increasingly involved in disputes among Niger Delta trading states.
Before the imposition of formal colonial administration, British officials had already begun intervening in questions involving trade, navigation, markets and relations between competing political communities.
The New Calabar crisis therefore unfolded during a major transition in Niger Delta politics. Indigenous rulers and institutions remained powerful, but European consular authority was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
EXPLORE NOW: Democratic Nigeria
The Rise of Bakana, Abonnema and Buguma
The fragmentation of Elem Kalabari did not take place through one simultaneous migration.
It developed through warfare, political separation and relocation during the early 1880s.
Bakana became associated with Will Braide and his followers in 1881. Abonnema was established as another major Kalabari centre in 1882, while the movement associated with the Amachree establishment to Buguma was completed by 1884.
These developments fundamentally reorganised Kalabari political geography.
De Cardi later described Kalabari society as centred principally on “Bugama”, “Abonema” and “Backana”, historical spellings corresponding to Buguma, Abonnema and Bakana.
He associated Buguma with the king, Abonnema with Chief Bob Manuel and Bakana with the Barboy House.
The earlier concentration of political life at Elem Kalabari had therefore been replaced by several major centres, each carrying important elements of the older Kalabari political and social order.
Trade, Canoe Houses and Political Power
The conflict unfolded within a society in which trade and political influence were closely connected.
Nineteenth-century Niger Delta commerce depended upon relationships between coastal traders, European merchants and inland producers.
Control of waterways and access to markets could bring substantial economic power.
Powerful canoe houses were therefore much more than commercial organisations. They united leaders, dependants, traders and fighting men under recognised political authority.
A successful chief could use commercial strength to build a large following, while a powerful house could become an important political force.
Will Braide and the Barboy House operated within this system.
The 1879 treaty itself repeatedly addressed questions involving markets, property, followers and residence. These were fundamental elements of political and economic power within New Calabar.
Competition among influential houses therefore formed an important part of the political environment in which the crisis developed.
Bonny, Okrika and Opobo Enter the Conflict
The involvement of neighbouring states demonstrates how interconnected Niger Delta politics had become.
Bonny and New Calabar had a long history of commercial rivalry and conflict. Opobo had emerged as a major regional power after Jaja established his independent state following the Bonny civil war of 1869.
Okrika also possessed important political and commercial interests in the waterways surrounding Kalabari territory.
When the New Calabar crisis erupted, these neighbouring states became participants, allies or arbitrators.
The 1879 treaty formally gave Bonny, Opobo and Okrika roles in resolving future disputes between Braide and the New Calabar leadership.
Their involvement reflected a longstanding system of regional diplomacy in which neighbouring states could mediate disputes, form alliances or intervene when commercial and political interests were threatened.
By this period, however, British consular officials were also inserting themselves increasingly into these arrangements.
The struggle therefore illustrates a moment when older Niger Delta diplomacy and expanding British influence were operating alongside one another.
The Fragmentation of Elem Kalabari
The most enduring consequence of the crisis was the reorganisation of Kalabari settlement and political life.
Elem Kalabari ceased to function as the single dominant residential and political centre it had once been.
Bakana, Abonnema and Buguma emerged as major centres, while other Kalabari communities continued to develop across the eastern Niger Delta.
The dispersal did not end Kalabari identity.
Instead, political authority and community life became distributed across several settlements.
The new centres maintained connections with the older Kalabari political system while developing distinctive local institutions and histories.
Buguma became strongly associated with the Amachree kingship, Abonnema developed into an important political and commercial centre, while Bakana remained closely connected with the historical legacy of Will Braide and the Barboy House.
The settlement pattern created during this period remains central to the geography of Kalabari society.
C. N. de Cardi’s Account of the Crisis
The description published in West African Studies provides one of the most detailed nineteenth-century narratives of the upheaval.
C. N. de Cardi named Will Braide, Bob Manuel and other political figures, described the movements of competing groups and recorded episodes from the warfare surrounding New Calabar.
Mary Kingsley identified Appendix I as de Cardi’s contribution to her book. His long experience in the Niger Delta gave the account particular value as a contemporary European description of events and political relationships in the region.
His narrative also preserved historical spellings, local political divisions and memories of the movements that accompanied the fragmentation of Elem Kalabari.
De Cardi’s account became one of several important sources through which later historians examined the political development of New Calabar and the wider trading states of the Oil Rivers.
EXPLORE NOW: Military Era & Coups in Nigeria
Conclusion
The New Calabar crisis was a turning point in nineteenth-century Kalabari history.
What began as a struggle involving Will Braide and the established leadership of New Calabar became entangled with powerful neighbouring states, commercial interests and expanding British consular intervention.
The Perpetual Treaty of Peace of 19 November 1879 addressed some of the central disputes dividing Braide and the New Calabar authorities, including markets, property, followers, residence and political jurisdiction.
The agreement did not immediately end the conflict.
Further fighting and political rearrangement followed, while British intervention played an increasing role in determining the future positions of the competing factions.
Braide became established at Bakana in 1881, while the wider dispersal from Elem Kalabari contributed to the emergence of Abonnema and Buguma during the following years.
By 1884, the political geography of Kalabari society had been fundamentally transformed.
The old centre at Elem Kalabari had given way to several major settlements whose histories remain central to Kalabari identity and the history of Rivers State today.
Author’s Note
The New Calabar crisis demonstrates how closely political authority, commerce and geography were connected in the nineteenth-century Niger Delta. The struggle involving Will Braide unfolded within a trading system dominated by powerful houses, strategic waterways, regional alliances and growing British intervention. Its most important legacy was the transformation of Elem Kalabari from a single major political centre into a wider network in which Bakana, Abonnema and Buguma emerged as enduring centres of Kalabari life.
References
Kingsley, Mary H. West African Studies. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1899. Appendix I, “A Short Description of the Natives of the Niger Coast Protectorate”, by M. le Comte C. N. de Cardi.
Jones, G. I. The Trading States of the Oil Rivers: A Study of Political Development in Eastern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1963.
Nigeria, Commission of Enquiry into the Okrika-Kalabari Dispute. Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the Okrika-Kalabari Dispute. 1950.
