Maybnee is known today because her name survived on a photograph. Preserved in the British Museum, a single image records her identity, her appearance, and her connection to one of the most powerful Itsekiri figures of the late nineteenth century. What remains is not a legend or a folktale, but a quiet historical presence anchored in a moment of profound change.
The British Museum catalogues a black and white photographic print captioned, “Maybnee [sp. ?] daughter of Nana Governor of Benin River deported.” The notation “sp. ?” reflects uncertainty in the spelling of her name, a common feature in colonial era records where African names were often written phonetically. The museum dates the photograph to between 1890 and 1900, placing Maybnee within a defined historical period shaped by trade, conflict, and imperial expansion.
The same record includes a curator’s note identifying her name as Mabimino, with a fuller form given as Esimabimino. These alternative forms provide a clearer sense of how her name may have existed within her own linguistic and cultural setting, beyond the simplified spelling preserved in the original caption.
A daughter of Nana and the Benin River world
The caption’s reference to “Nana” points to Chief Nana Olomu, a prominent Itsekiri leader whose authority extended along the Benin River through trade networks, diplomacy, and political influence. By the early 1890s, Nana Olomu was one of the most significant African power holders in the Niger Delta region.
Historical records held by Royal Museums Greenwich describe how tensions between Nana Olomu and British authorities escalated into armed conflict. In 1894, following an attack on a British naval cutter, a punitive expedition was launched against Nana’s town of Ebrohimi. The town was captured, and Nana Olomu fled before later surrendering.
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After his capture, Nana Olomu was tried and exiled to the Gold Coast, where he remained from 1894 until 1906. He later returned to Nigeria and lived at Koko until his death. This sequence of events explains why the British Museum caption links Nana with deportation, a defining moment in his life that reshaped the political landscape of the Benin River.
Within this setting, Maybnee’s recorded identity as Nana’s daughter places her inside an elite household whose fortunes were directly affected by British military action and colonial administration.
The photograph and what it shows
The museum description of the photograph records visible details of Maybnee’s appearance. She is shown wearing headgear, a necklace, finger rings, and bracelets. Scarification marks are visible on her arms. These details were carefully noted by the cataloguers and provide a tangible sense of how she appeared at the time the photograph was taken.
Jewellery and bodily markings such as scarification were deeply embedded in social identity, status, and cultural belonging within Itsekiri society and the wider Niger Delta. While the photograph does not explain their meanings, their presence reflects a lived cultural world rather than an abstract historical category.
The image itself was part of a larger photographic album. According to the British Museum, albums Af,A46 and Af,A47 were originally a single collection containing 176 photographs. These images documented indigenous and European settlements, trading posts, roads, Christian cemeteries, and portraits of people encountered along the Benin River and surrounding areas. Maybnee’s portrait sits among images that captured a region undergoing rapid political and economic transformation.
Life near a turning point in history
The years surrounding the photograph were among the most turbulent in the history of the Niger Delta. British authorities were increasingly using military force to secure control over trade routes and political power. The capture of Ebrohimi and the exile of Nana Olomu marked the collapse of an independent Itsekiri stronghold.
As Nana Olomu’s daughter, Maybnee lived at the edge of these events. Her name survives alongside the record of her father’s removal from power, suggesting a life shaped by circumstances far beyond the photograph itself. Yet the archive does not record her movements, her later life, or her fate after 1894.
What remains instead is a moment. A young woman, named and identified, standing within a household whose authority was being dismantled by imperial force. Her presence in the archive reflects how families connected to power were observed, recorded, and catalogued during this period.
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A name that endures
Maybnee, Mabimino, Esimabimino, the variations of her name tell a story of transmission across languages and record systems. The uncertainty of spelling, followed by later clarification, reflects the broader history of how African identities were preserved through colonial documentation.
Her photograph does not speak, but it insists on recognition. It confirms that she existed, that she was seen, and that her connection to Nana Olomu mattered enough to be written down. In a historical record dominated by administrators and military actions, that alone gives her lasting presence.
Author’s Note
Maybnee’s story survives not through long biography, but through a name, a portrait, and a connection to a turning point in Itsekiri history, the lasting meaning lies in what remains visible, her identity, her cultural presence, and her place within a family reshaped by exile and colonial power.
References
British Museum, Collection Online, photographic print titled “Maybnee [sp. ?] daughter of Nana”, museum number Af,A46.23, including curator comments identifying Mabimino and Esimabimino.
Royal Museums Greenwich, Collections, “Personal flag of Itsekiri chief Nana Olomu”, documenting the capture of Ebrohimi and Nana Olomu’s exile from 1894 to 1906.
Royal Historical Society blog, “Nigerian cultural heritage abroad, the case of an Itsekiri chief”, detailing the July to October 1894 punitive expedition against Ebrohimi.
