Oba Ovoranmwen died on January 1914 having lived in exile in Calabar for sixteen years. It became necessary for the British to banish this tower of strength of a King when he would not sign over his ancestral kingdom to them at a time when they were expanding their empire at the West Coast of Africa in the late 1800s.
We know from accounts that
King Ovoranmwen much regretted not learning the ‘magic ‘which the Whiteman used
to defeat him and which they had used to take away the ancient throne and kingdom
which his ancestors had assiduously built over thousands of years.
Had His Majesty not died in
the January of that year (1914), he would have had news of how the Whiteman
used the same magic to cause similar devastation elsewhere around the world and
perhaps he would not have judged himself so harshly.
In the middle of the year in which
His Majesty died, the world super powers embarked on the great global war that
began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. During this time, over
nine million people lost their lives with four imperial powers losing their
empires: Germany and Russia lost vast amounts of territory and Austro-Hungarian
and the Ottoman empires were dismantled completely resulting in the map of
Central Europe redrawn into smaller states. As if this was not bad enough, 21 years later,
they were at it again, this time resulting in the deadliest conflict in human history.
The Second World War started
on 1st September 1939 ending on 15th August 1945. The war
began as a result of Germany invading Poland with Britain and France declaring
war on her two days later. Devoting their entire economic, industrial, and
scientific capabilities to the service of the war effort, the world super
powers brought about the deaths of up to 70 million people through use of new
weapons and technology including U boats which used new tactics to sink ships.
In the Battle of the Atlantic alone, over 140 British naval ships were torpedoed
by the Germans with over a hundred people dying on each ship. German U boats also
attacked merchant ships (source BBC histories). Nuclear weapons and holocausts
were also used to bring the opponent to submission. Countless civilians died
from resultant starvation, malnutrition, disease, massacres, bombing and genocide.
The United Kingdom was bankrupted as a result of this war leading to the
eventual collapse of its empire which spanned over a quarter of the world’s
population.
Returning to the question
again of whether His Majesty Omo’N’Oba N’Edo King Ovoranmwen should have been
so hard on himself about not doing enough to hold on to his ancestral Kingdom.
It could be argued that Great empires come and go just as the British did after
WW2 and like others before it. The empire
building and the World Wars one can argue led to the making of the modern
world.
1.
There was a
great advancement in technology e.g. in the air and on the sea.
2.
The United Nations
was established 24 October 1945 to avoid such future world conflicts. Its peace
keeping does a lot to avoid full scale wars these days.
3.
Lessons
learned from both experiences resulted in the creation of universal human
rights in 1948.
4.
Trying to
spy on the USSR led to the development of the internet by the US army.
5.
The internet
is advancing all the time to embrace all peoples in a global collaboration for
world advancement e.g. in communications and education.
This goes to show that from
something strong comes something sweet; a mother does not remember the pains of
labor during child birth. However, this may not be enough consolation for all
the peoples worldwide who suffered loss of territory, dignity , family and friends
and in some cases deliberate twisting of facts to suit the victor’s purpose .e.g.
those who suffered the holocausts, the Blackman who was reclassified in genealogy
and in particular His Majesty and his people losing their ancestral kingdom.
Perhaps we should not speak further
on this.
Oba Ghato, Okpere!
Ise!
Long Live the King!
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