Nana Olomu

Nana Olomu was born about 1852 at Jakpa, in the Itsekiri country of the western Niger Delta, in what is now Delta State, Nigeria. He was the son of Olomu, the foremost Itsekiri merchant of the mid-nineteenth century, and he inherited both his father's wealth and his commercial genius. Rising through the world of the Benin River trade, Nana built a vast fortune in palm oil, becoming a merchant prince whose reach extended deep into the hinterland markets of the Urhobo and beyond.

In the era of the fourth Governor of the Benin River, Nana held that office and made himself the indispensable middleman between the European traders on the coast and the producers of the interior. From his fortified stronghold at Ebrohimi he controlled the flow of trade, commanding a private fleet and a formidable following. He signed treaties with the British in 1884, yet guarded his people's independence and his own monopoly with unyielding resolve.

As the Scramble for Africa advanced, Britain sought to break the coastal middlemen and trade directly with the interior. Tensions hardened until, in 1894, a British punitive force mounted the Ebrohimi Expedition against him. After fierce resistance his stronghold fell; he surrendered at Lagos, was tried, and was deported into exile — first to Calabar, then to Accra on the Gold Coast.

His exile endured until 1906, when the British at last permitted his return; he resettled at Koko, where he lived until his death in 1916. Today his palace stands as the Nana Living History Museum, and his name endures among the Itsekiri as a byword for defiance and dignity. May the memory of Nana Olomu, merchant prince of the Benin River, be honored across the generations.