Kizaro's Historical Trek: Jebba's Explorers

Day 2 (Jebba): Mungo Park & Richard Lander's Journeys.

Happy Independence Day from Kizaro’s Blog!

In the build up to our 54^th anniversary of nationhood, this writer tuned all the bad news out and with a little time on my hands accepted a short job to document certain key historical sites and imagery in a number of places in Nigeria. The Site List had Kizaro’s Blog hurtling through an average of three states a day across towns like Jebba, Lokoja, Zaria, Abuja, Jos, Minna, Zungeru and a couple more and saw firsthand, places I had heard about in history classes and books as a young boy.

Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914 was the culmination of centuries of voyages, journeys and the likes by European journeymen led by the British whose footprints across Nigeria are still part of our landscape.The Park-Lander Obelisk in Jebba, Niger State was erected by the British Government in 1929 upon strong request by the ubiquitous Sir George Taubman Goldie and Lord Scarborough, Chairman of the Royal Niger Company, though completed by Sir Hugh Clifford years later. It was in honour of the voyages of Mungo Park and Richard Lander though the voyages of both men were separated by more than three decades, together they traced the course of the River Niger from its source to the sea in the name of the King of England.

The Park-Lander Obelisk

The monument stands proud and tall on a hill on an island encircled by the rushing powerful current of the River Niger. Jebba is a quaint and beautiful place if not closed society where everyone seemed to know everyone and a strange like me in a t-shirt, khaki shorts, timberland boots and a big camera stuck out brightly. The climb to the top of the hill was a bit long and pretty steep and had me breathing hard by the time i got to the top and beheld the reason for my mission to Jebba. The obelisk has a majestic structure and an almost surreal presence

While trying to take photographs of it, this writer was challenged by some sword wielding, bow and arrow-pointing cattle herdsmen, that camping on top of the hill. It took a while to communicate through the language barrier in my limited Hausa vocabulary and convince the men that I was on an important assignment. Luckily they left me alone and let me take my shots after which I happily bounded down the beaten path down the hill.

From there my “driver” Ganiyu the Okada Man conveyed me on a long ride in the blazing sun to what was left of the wreckage of Mungo Park’s boat which was dashed to pieces at Jebba when it hit the rocks on the river bank by the hill where the monument was later erected.

With a temperature of 38 Degrees to contend with, this writer closed shop at 2pm and had Ganiyu take me to a “watering hole” with a big Gulder sign nestled between a thicket of trees to take a look at my hard earned pictures after which I retired to my hotel room. The next day I would take off for the hub of history that is Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State.