Library and Archive Niger-Delta

“The casualties are not only those who are dead.

They are well out of it.

The casualties are not only those who are dead.

Though they await burial by installment.

The casualties are not only those who are lost

Persons or property, hard as it is

To grope for a touch that some

May not know is not there.

The casualties are not only those led away by night.

The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a haven.

No where as absolute as the grave.

The casualties are not only those who started

A fire and now cannot put out. Thousands

Are are burning that have no say in the matter.

The casualties are not only those who are escaping.

The shattered shall become prisoners in

A fortress of falling walls”

― John Pepper Clark, Casualties; Poems 1966 68

The Kingdom of Bonny, otherwise known as Grand Bonny, is a traditional state based on the town of Bonny in Rivers State, Nigeria.

In the pre-colonial period, it was an important slave trading port, later trading palm oil products. During the 19th century the British became increasingly involved in the internal affairs of the kingdom, in 1886 assuming control under a protectorate treaty.

Today the Kingdom of Bonny (in Nigeria) is ruled by King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, Perekule XI


Photo: Bonny Chiefs with a Naval Commandant in 1896 and the current King of Bonny
Photo Credit - wikipedia

The daughter of one of the ancient Chiefs of Bonny Kingdom in Nigeria’s delta region, Chief William Brown in her wedding dress made from Igbo cloth from the Ndoki town of Akwete in present day Abia State. (Photo credits: Jonathan Adagogo Green, c. 1890s/1900s)

Book Recommendation

When The World Was Black, Part One: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations Prehistoric Culture When The World Was Black, Part One: The Untold History of the World's First Civilizations Prehistoric Culture

Ancient Benin Empire or Edo Kingdom interacted with the Portuguese and sent emissaries to Portugal in the 1400. They ended slavery long before the British and the rest of Europe did.

The Benin Kingdom was "one of the oldest and most developed states in the coastal hinterland of West Africa". It was formed around the 11th century AD, and lasted until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897.

The 'walls' of Benin City and surrounding areas were described as "the world's largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era" by the Guinness book of Records was constructed in the 13-15th century.

The British expeditionary force, under the command of Sir Harry Rawson, sacked and burned the city, while looting the palace art. The looted portrait figures, busts, and groups created in iron, carved ivory, and especially in brass (conventionally termed the "Benin Bronzes") were removed by the British expeditionary force. Some were sold to soldiers to defray the cost of the expedition and some were accessioned to the British Museum; most were sold, and are now displayed in various museums around the world. In March 2021, institutions in Berlin, Germany and Aberdeen, Scotland announced decisions to return Benin artwork in their possession to their place of origin.

Photo of the Newly crowned Oba of Benin Kingdom Eheneden Erediauwa (Ewuare II) is guided through a symbolic bridge by the palace chiefs during his coronation in Benin city, Nigeria in 2016.

*Photo Credit: Quartz Africa
*Wikipedia

"Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger" Ben Okri, Writer, Poet

Happy new year from all of us at LANG

Goodnight Prof. John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo @ 85 😢😢😢

At 77 Literary giant and one of Nigeria’s most celebrated poets and playwright, Professor John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo does not plan to quit writing. Some of his poetry works include...

1) Poems (Mbari, 1961),
2) A Reed in the Tide (Longmans, 1965)
3) Casualties: Poems 1966-68
4) A Decade of Tongues (Longmans, Drumbeat series, 1981),
5) State of the Union (1981),
6) Mandela and Other Poems (1988),


John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo born 6 April 1935 in Kiagbodo, Delta State, Nigeria, to Ijaw parents.

We begin a series of the Niger Delta Ancient Kingdoms and her illustrious sons and daughters before the arrival of the Portuguese and British.
King Frederick William Koko, Mingi VIII of Nembe (1853–1898), was a great ruler of Ancient Nembe Kingdom (also known as Nembe-Brass) in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. His support for the economic liberation and sovereignty of the Ijaw nation can never be forgotten.
A Christian (though later recanted) when chosen as king of Nembe in 1889, Koko's attack on a Royal Niger Company (RNC) trading post in January 1895. He led 22 war canoes and 1,500-foot soldiers from different parts of the Ijaw nation to attack the explotative and repressive RNC’s depot in Akassa.
They destroyed the warehouses and offices, official and industrial machines, and burnt down the entire depot. While about 70 men were said to have been captured, 25 were killed, and 32 white men were taken hostage as part of the spoils of war to Nembe and 13 were not accounted for.
This led to reprisals by the British in which his poor protected capital was sacked. Following a report on the Nembe uprising by Sir John Kirk which was published in March 1896, finding that forty-three of Koko's hostages had been murdered and ceremoniously eaten, Koko was offered a settlement of his grievances but found the terms unacceptable. He was deposed by the British and died in exile in 1898.
We salute their boldness and sacrifice in standing up to the tyrannical rule of the colonizers.

King Koko in His War Canoe on His Way down the River, from The Daily Graphic of March 30, 1895 (picture source Wikipedia)