Jaja founds Opobo

In 1870 Jaja of Bonny—a former enslaved man who had risen to become head of the Anna Pepple trading house—left Bonny with his followers after the second civil war and founded the new city-state of Opobo at the mouth of the Imo River. Opobo rapidly became the dominant palm-oil exporting state of the eastern Delta, intercepting trade routes previously controlled by Bonny. Jaja's success represented the ultimate triumph of the ex-slave commercial class over the old Pepple monarchy.