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The 1858–1859 Gbebe Journal of CMS Missionary James Thomas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
James Thomas, whose journal is transcribed and appended to this introduction, was a ‘native agent’ of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) at Gbebe and Lokoja at the confluence of the Niger-Benue rivers between 1858 and 1879. A liberated slave who had been converted to Christianity in Sierra Leone, he enlisted in the service of the CMS Niger Mission headed by Rev. Samuel A. Crowther. Thomas was kidnapped around 1832 from Ikudon in northeast Yoruba, near the Niger-Benue confluence. He lived in Sierra Leone for twenty-five years before returning as a missionary to his homeland.
Gbebe was an important mid-nineteenth-century river port on the Lower Niger. It was located on the east bank of the Niger, a mile below its confluence with the Benue, and about 300 miles from the Atlantic. Aboh, Onitsha, Ossomari, Asaba, Idah, and Lokoja were other famous mid-nineteenth century Lower Niger towns. From an 1841 estimated base of about 1,500, its population rose to about 10,000 by 1859. Contemporary exploration and trading reports by W. B. Baikie, S. Crowther, T. Hutchinson, and J. Whitford indicate that the town occupied an important place in the commercial life of the region.
However, little is known about the town's sociopolitical structures and processes, and still less is known about its relationship with its neighbors. Hence the internal sociopolitical and economic basis for the settlement's economic role in the region is largely unresearched. The reports of James Thomas, Simon Benson Priddy, and Charles Paul, CMS missionaries resident in the town for several years, contain evidence that would be useful for such an endeavor.
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References
1 See entry for 29 July 29 in the appended manuscript.
2 Hutchinson, Thomas J., Impressions of Western Africa with Remarks on the Diseases of the Climate and a Report on the Peculiarities of Trade up Rivers in the Bight of Biafra, (London, 1970), 92.Google Scholar
3 Whitford, John, Trading Life in Western and Central Africa, ed. Hopkins, A. G., (London, 1967), 190.Google Scholar
4 Allen, W., and Thomson, T. R. H., A Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger in 1841 under the Command of Captain H. D. Trotter (2 vols.: London, 1968), 1:340.Google Scholar James Thoinns to Henry Venn, 2 September 1859 Gbebe, CMS Niger Mission C A 3/ O 38 James Thomas. Letters & Journals 1858-79.
5 Baikie, W. B., Narrative of an Exploring Voyage Up the Rivers Kwora and Binue Commonly Known as the Niger and Tsadda in 1854 (London, 1966)Google Scholar; and Crowther, S. and Taylor, J. C., The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger. Journals and Notices of the Native Missionaries Accompanying the Niger Expedition of 1857-1859. By the Rev, Samuel Crowther and the Rev. John Christopher Taylor, Native Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (London 1968).Google Scholar
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7 These are two letters dated, 2 March and 10 April 1862, Bida, in CMS Niger Mission CA3/O 4(a) Rev. Samuel Adjai Crowther. Letters & Papers 1857-63.
8 Baikie, , Narrative, 278Google Scholar; and James Thomas to Rev. Henry Venn, 2 September 1859, CA3/O 38.
9 Crowther to Venn, “Steamer Rainbow” Bonny, December 3 1859, CMS Niger Mission. CA3/O 4(a)
10 Entry for 12 July 1859.
11 Ibid.; and also entry for 12 April 1859.
12 Reports of Rev. T. C. John, in overall charge of the Confluence CMS mission, was more official, generalized, and rather thematic. For instance, his reports for over a decade do not mention a single identifiable slave, neither by name nor by description. In contrast to James Thomas, John was a second-generation Sierra Leonean returnee of Hausa parentage, was never a slave, never knew his parents as slaves, and met no kin and relations at the Confluence.
13 F. J. Kolapo, “CMS Missionaries of African Origin and Extra-Religious Encounters At the Nigcr-Bcnuc Confluence, 1858-1880,” African Studies Review, forthcoming.
14 Several studies of the Niger-Benue Confluence area whose subject matter would have benefited from availability of James Thomas's documents include Boston, J., The Igala Kingom, (Ibadan, 1968)Google Scholar; Pedraza, H. J., Borrioboola-Gaa: The Story of Lokoja the first British Settlement in Nigeria, (London, 1960)Google Scholar; Ohiare, J. A., “Slavery, Slave Trade and the States of the Niger-benue Confluence: The Case of Igti and Opanda up to the 19th Century,” unpublished paper presented to the World Conference organised by Arewa House, Centre for Research and Historical Documenttion, Ahmadu Bello University, Kaduna, 26-30 March 1990Google Scholar; Obayemi, Ade, “The Sokoto Jihad and the O-kun Yoruba: A Review,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 9, 2(1978), 61–87Google Scholar; idem., “States and Peoples of the Niger-Benue Confluence Area” in Obaro Ikime, ed., Ground-work of Nigerian History, (Ibadan, 1980); and Mohammed, A. A., “The Sokoto Jihad and its Aftermath on the Confluence Area and Afenmai,” State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate, (Zaria, 1990).Google Scholar
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16 The word is difficult to read. It could have been “two” (the most likely), “the,” or “to.”
17 In other cases, the “K” in Koach looked like an “R,” such that it is not clear whether the name is Koach or Roach. Koach is adopted.
18 The Idah capital of the Igara kingdom is about 50 miles below the confluence of the Niger-Beuue and probably under 200 miles away from where Thomas met this man, yet he had “lost his language.”
19 This is a reference to the Eki-Bunu people of Northeast Yorubaland.
20 Dasaba or Masaba was tlic Emir of Nupe. For an analysis of his wars in northeast Yoruba before 1857 see Kolapo, “Military Turbulence,” 272–90.Google Scholar
21 Age or Aje, son of late Obi Ossai of Aboh. A close but partial portrait of Aje was painted by Cole, W. in his Life in the Niger or, The Journal of an African Trader (London, 1862).Google Scholar
22 They were distributed into three separate accommodations.
23 “half of the party” was probably meant rather than “have party.”
24 Camwood is a local cosmetic powder.
25 The Nupe Bassa and the Igala are all Niger-Benue confluence peoples. See Forde, Daryll, Brown, Paula, and Armstrong, Robert G., Peoples of the Niger-Benue Confluence (London, 1970).Google Scholar
26 “Thick lie,” i.e., a big lie.
27 The local cultural-religious practices that European missionaries and educated African agents like Bishop Crowther or Rev. Charles Paul would refer to as paganism, James Thomas and other freed African agents, often referred ro as “country-fashion.” In the local rendition, this seems to he synonymous with idol objects, together with associated related cultural-religious practices. See also “Unexpected Meeting of a Mother and Son in Sierra Leone, and its Happy Results,” Church Missionary Gleaner 4(1844), 135–36Google Scholar, for the use of this term by a Sierra Leonean missionary.
28 For short descriptions of the Ifa divination system, see Hallgren, Roland, The Good things in Life. A Study of the Traditional Religious culture of the Yoruba people. (Loherod, 1988), 100–26Google Scholar; and Abimbola, Wande “Ifa: A West African Cosmological System” in van Beek, E. A. and Thomson, Dennis L., eds., Religion in Africa (Portsmouth, 1994), 101–16.Google Scholar
29 Charms or amulets.
30 He could not have knelt on the Ifa divination board. He probably meant that he knelt beside the Ifa board. “Tape” seems to be “table” misspelled.
31 He was the founding ruler of Gbebe. As the Onoja of Idah, he was among the titled nobility of the Igala kingdom, but as the Onoja of Gbebe, the effective ruler of that town. See, F. J. Kolapo, “Post-Abolition Niger River Commerce and the 19th Century Igala Political Crisis,” African Economic History, forthcoming.
32 It is noteworthy that James Thomas, in this journal and others, differentiated between Eki-Bunu and Yoruba. Note the entry for 17 July 1859 where he explained that “…I teach them with Yoruba testament the reason [being that] Yoruba language and Eki [are] almost alike.” See also Dandeson C. Crowther's “A Visit to the Hanks of the Niger in the Year 1862,” where he noted that “these persons baptised are from different places. There was Gbari, Igbira, Igara, Eki, &c and even a Yoruba” in CMS Niger Mission CA3/O 13. Archdeacon Dandcson C. Crowther Letter, Journals & Reports. 1862-80. The Eki are today referred to as O-kuu Yoruba. See Obayemi, “Sokoto Jihad.” Robin Law discussed Yoruba identity and ethnicity in “Local Amateur Scholarship in the Construction of Yoruba Ethnicity, 1880-1914” in Gorgondiere, Louise de la, King, Kenneth, and Vaughan, Sara, eds., Ethnicity in Africa: Routs, Meanings and Interpretations, (Edinburgh, 1996), 55–90Google Scholar; and in his “Ethnicity and the Slave Trade: “Lucumi” and “Nago” as Ethnouyms in West Africa,” HA 24 (1997), 205–06.Google Scholar
33 An illegible word; “pain”, “sain”, or “chain”?
34 It is not clear whether “Kacy” or “Hary” was meant.
35 For the sack of Rabbah in 1843/44 see, Kolapo, “Military Turbulence,” 254–59Google Scholar, and Baikie, , Narrative, 270.Google Scholar
36 Baikie reported the wreck on 7 October 1859 of the Expedition Steamer Dayspring on a rocky stretch of the River Niger in Baikie to Earl of Clarendon, 29 October 1857, No. 23 of 1857 P.R.O. F.O. 2/23. Its passengers were rescued a year latter by the Sunbeam. Another account of the voyage and wreck of the steamer is Hastings, A. C. G., The Voyage of the Dayspring. Being the Journal of the late Sir John Hawley Glover, R.N., G.C.M.G., together with some account of the Expedition up the Niger River in 1857 (London, 1926).Google Scholar
37 They packed their belongings in bundles in readiness to emigrate.
38 Matthew 9:37-38.
39 According to Crowther this was “a small village of about one hundred huts, which goes by the name of the old town [old Rabha].” It was built on the opposite bank to the ruin of the old town. Crowther, /Taylor, , Gospel on the Banks of the Niger, 94Google Scholar, entry for 21 September.
40 For a study of social and cultural aspects of the Eki cloth and cloth industry See Renne, Elisha P, Cloth That-Does not Die: the Meaning of Cloth in Bùnú Social Life (Seattle, 1995).Google Scholar
41 Mahama is the local Nupe name of (or given to) Mr. Cline.
42 i.e., thatched.
43 Simon Jonah was the Ibo interpreter on the 1841/42 Niger Exploration. He eventually signed up with the CMS Niger Mission us a missionary. See Allen, /Thomson, , Narrative, 1:221.Google Scholar
44 Eki section or quarter in Ghebe.
45 Reference here is to fee payment for consulting with a Nupe mallam (Muslim cleric) either for prayers or for charms.
46 i.e., today is the second time.