The Agbor Rising

Photo: "Mud figures of Chief and Attendants and Commissioner of Police. North Ika" – G. I. Jones, 1930s.

On 9 June 1906 the Ekumeku Society was in the news again, in connection with the killing of O.S. Crewe-Read [Iredi or Rédì], District Commissioner. Crewe-Read, together with an escort of fifty-three men, was on a visit to Uteh — a town in the Agbor district — and had halted for the day in Owa. [T]wo men, who were sent by Crewe-Read to summon the rest of the men of the town … returned late in the evening to report that the people refused to see him, … two policemen … sent to Agbor with telegrams … requesting assistance … were stopped … and the telegrams snatched from them. They barely escaped with their lives. With such a small force and no hope of immediate relief, Crewe-Read started back for Agbor on 9 June, but was ambushed at a place not far away from the town of Owa-Aliosimi. There he received two fatal gunshot wounds[.]

On receiving the news headquarters sent an army under Captain Rudkin to Agbor to ‘punish’ the killers, but in an encounter with the natives of Agbor, two European officers sustained serious wound, two soldiers were killed and twnety-six wounded. … A section of the column managed to reach Owa and did not encounter opposition immediately, and was therefore able to search for the body of Crewe-Read, which was found buried in the bush between the spot where he was killed and the town. It was exhumed and removed to Benin for burial. The battle that followed ended with the capture of the chiefs of Owa, Igbenoba, Inyibo, Ukute I, Ukute II, Ikaria, Ekuneme, Echenim, Tete and Ijioma. On 26 September 1906, these men were found guilty of murder and sentenced to execution by the judge of the supreme court of Nigeria, J.M.M. Dunlop.

– S. N. Nwabara (1978). “Iboland: a century of contact with Britain, 1860-1960”. p. 130–131.

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[E]vents show the lack of sympathy coupled with the resort to driving tactics which could characterise early British rule in new districts. ... It was Crewe- Read's practice too, according to Gilpin, to flog the boys of the different towns in Agbor 'for not turning up to work on the roads as a rule'. Crewe-Read's … end in the Agbor district was … foreshadowed by the events of the first quarer of 1906. When he was an acting District Commissioner, Benin City district, the poeple of Alidinma had refused to see him at Akuku while on tour to the area. … Crewe-Read was not pleased by [the British D. C. Asaba’s] letter in which the … officer expressed the view that it was ‘hard not to say cruel to take people away at this time of the year'. Without any special qualification for knowing the Agbor people better, Crewe-Read pompously asserted that he ‘was the best judge if it was hard and cruel.

– Philip A. Igbafe (1967). "The 'Benin Scare' of 1906". In: “The African Historian”. pp. 10–11.

Military Imposition of Christianity and the Attack on Igbo Culture

Photo: An elderly man of Igbuzo photographed in the early 20th century by Northcote Thomas.

[The] [...] Society of African Missions managed to open a mission at Issele-Ukwu in 1893 [...] The resentment of the local people for the mission, the missionaries, the converts and to the [Royal Niger] Company spilled over to an open rebellion against the traditional ruler of the town. The aggrieved populace contended that the latter had not followed the democratic practice of due consultation with the other chiefs and important individuals in the town before inviting the missionaries and before agreeing to the abolition of the slave trade and human sacrifice. [...] The local community therefore demanded the withdrawal of the missionaries from the town and the restoration of their traditional customs. A civil war broke out at Issele-Ukwu. The opponents to the 'erring' ruler had the strong support of [Igbuzo] [...] Otu Ochi-Chi, a secret or night society [...] and its military arm, Ekumeku [...]. Fr. Zappa [...] appealed to the Company for military action and in January 1898 under Major Arthur Festing, a Company force of 250 men laid siege on [Igbuzo] and after six weeks razed it to the ground. [...]

The HMS Flirt, used in the bombardment of Asaba in retaliation to the Ekumeku movement against the Royal Niger Company in 1898. The Royal Niger Company was later joined with the Niger Coast Protectorate and they became the Northern and Southern Nigeria Protectorates in 1900.

[The] Royal Niger Company attacked [Igbuzo] the head and heart of the Anioma communities because it was the strongest and most feared of the Anioma communities. It was also the center of the most indomitable resistance to the penetration of the missionary enterprise. Fr. Zappa, the leader of the SMA mission and the brain behind the invasion of the town, reasoned that the subjugation of the most feared and the strongest of the Ika communities would also easily and quickly bring the others to their knees. According to the missionary, the overbearing chiefs of [Igbuzo] needed to be humiliated and a military conquest of the evil people was inevitable [...] The Company's bombardment of all the towns within reach of gunfire brought considerable confusion and uncertainty among the people. The cultural resisters were dispersed [...] local chiefs were taken as captives to Asaba the Company's headquarters where they were put in jail.

[Igbuzo] was coerced to accept the presence of the missionaries in the town and the chiefs were forced to accept to protect the missionaries. [...]

– Augustine S. O. Okwu (2010). Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions, 1857-1957. pp. 120–121.