JANUARY 29 every year has been declared as King Koko Day in Nembe. The date was formally set apart to commemorate the confrontation between Great Nembe and Great Britain in what the history books has since recorded as the Akassa Raid.
That fateful dawn, King Frederick William Koko, Mingi VIII, Amanyanabo of Nembe, was reported to have led an armada of war canoes on a surprise mission to raid the trading post of the Royal Niger Company, which dominated the trade in palm kernel in the lower Niger, with headquarters at Akassa.
Koko consulted widely, and rallied all the chieftaincy houses in the entire Nembe speaking clan, enlisting the support of Chief Benwari and Chief Ebifa at the Bassambiri axis, as well as the paramount rulers of Okpoama, Odioama and Twon-Brass. The dawn raid left scores of British merchants and missionaries dead. Their graves are still to be seen at Brass in an exclusive area designated as the Whiteman’s Graveyard.
Reprisal attack from the British was swift and extensive, leaving a trail of casualties and burnt settlements. King Koko, fearing that he might be captured and exiled like his contemporary, King Jaja of Opobo, fled Nembe and went into hiding in the hinterland at Etiema where he is reported to have taken his life when word reached him about the advancing troop of British soldiers.
Government patronage of the King Koko Day project has been loud but without much result. The first major pledge by government to help promote cultural events around the 1895 confrontation was made on Saturday April 29, 2006, when Dr Goodluck Jonathan served as Governor of Bayelsa State, at the second edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards, AMAA, in the main bowl of the Gabriel Okara Cultural Center, Yenagoa.
It came as a refreshing piece of good news, said Jonathan, that a body of actors had come into being in Bayelsa State with a mandate to put into film the historic encounter, in 1895, between the white man and the Nembe kingdom under King Frederick William Koko, Mingi VIII. He was hopeful that a film production of the historic Nembe-British War would revitalize the film industry in Nigeria, and pledged his government’s readiness to support the project, if at all it came on stream.
Film projects on the historic event have been contemplated by a number of actors in the past. The Sylva government is known to have taken a step further to encourage a young, ambitious actor, Henry Opuene, but the project came to naught, in spite of all the noise about it.
In recent times, another young and hopeful actor, Timipre Azikiwe Sylva-Olali has done well to reach out for sponsorship, and is reported to be making great progress, having received a donation of film making equipment from Chief Timipre Sylva, former Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Olali is going all around the Niger Delta, trying to recruit some of the nation's best actors and actresses to identify with his pet project in a bid to bring it to fruition. His big dream is to ensure that the heroic face-off of 1895 is recorded on celluloid for generations to appreciate and posterity to applaud.
His pluses and endorsements are increasing by the day. While he waits for his sponsors to awake to the enduring cultural and economic value of the King Koko film project, Timipre Olali is marking time with the production of two supporting films, one entitled The City Of Yenagoa, the other entitled The Sons of Sosei.
Indeed the exploits of King Koko marked an awakening in the communal spirit of the Nembe people, and still resounds till date as a historic milestone indicating the first major agitation for resource control and self-determination among the people of the Niger Delta swamp land. The event is equally marked by annual symposia, boat regatta, dance festivals, football tournaments and a parade of music artistes announcing their talents.
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