King Charles Jaja VI, ‘God Save the King’ and the curious spectacle of an African coronation that evokes Britain
By Amah Alphonsus Amaonye, Director General, African Writers Centre, AWC.
There are moments in history when a celebration becomes more than a celebration.
It becomes a question.
The ongoing coronation festivities in Opobo Kingdom, Rivers State, for His Majesty King Charles Douglas MacPepple Jaja, Jeki VI, Amanyanabo and Treaty King of Opobo Kingdom, have produced precisely such a moment.
For many Nigerians watching from outside Opobo—and particularly those in the diaspora—the spectacle raises an intriguing question:
WHY DOES THIS AFRICAN CORONATION LOOK, SOUND AND FEEL SO MUCH LIKE A BRITISH ROYAL CEREMONY?
The colourful procession.
The royal titles.
The formal choreography.
The ceremonial music.
The elaborate attire.
The presence of bishops and Christian clergy.
And, most strikingly, the apparent leading of the gathering in the familiar refrain:
“GOD SAVE THE KING.”
Watching the spectacle without knowing where it was taking place, one could easily be forgiven for wondering whether the ceremony was occurring in Britain rather than in the historic Niger Delta kingdom of Opobo.
And then comes the extraordinary visual contrast.
The people are African.
The kingdom is African.
The history is African.
The throne is African.
Yet portions of the ceremonial vocabulary evoke the British monarchy so strongly that the question becomes unavoidable:
How much of this is Opobo’s indigenous royal tradition, and how much is the legacy of British colonial influence?
THE KING WHOSE NAME ITSELF ECHOES BRITAIN
There is another striking coincidence.
The new monarch is King Charles Douglas MacPepple Jaja, Jeki VI.
And across the Atlantic, the reigning British monarch is also King Charles III.
But the resemblance ends there.
The Opobo throne predates the modern Nigerian state and has its own nineteenth-century history.
King Jaja of Opobo established Opobo as a major political and commercial power in the Niger Delta following the Bonny conflicts of the late 1860s. His kingdom became an important centre of the palm-oil trade, and Britain eventually dealt with him as a recognised political authority. A treaty concluded in 1873 formally recognised Jaja as King of Opobo.
The relationship between Jaja and Britain, however, was never simply one of admiration or submission.
It eventually became a struggle over trade, sovereignty and political control.
Jaja resisted British commercial penetration into territories under his influence. In 1887, he was arrested and exiled after his confrontation with British imperial and commercial interests. He died in 1891 while attempting to return to his kingdom.
That history makes today’s visual resemblance to British royalty particularly fascinating.
THE KINGDOM THAT FOUGHT BRITISH IMPERIALISM NOW HAS A CEREMONY THAT LOOKS BRITISH
That is the paradox.
King Jaja was not a passive recipient of British authority.
He was a formidable African ruler who defended his commercial and political autonomy against British expansion.
Historical accounts describe him as retaining indigenous political and cultural institutions while selectively adopting elements of Western education and technology. He sent his sons to school in Scotland, for example, while maintaining indigenous institutions and practices within Opobo.
So the history does not fit neatly into the argument that Britain simply imposed everything on Opobo.
It was more complicated.
There was resistance.
There was adaptation.
There was negotiation.
There was Christianity.
There was Western education.
There was trade.
There was diplomacy.
And, eventually, colonial rule.
The result was a society in which indigenous and European influences interacted over generations.
BUT WHERE IS THE OPOBO CULTURE?
This may be the most important question raised by the spectacle.
Does Opobo have an indigenous royal and ceremonial culture?
Absolutely.
The historical record documents a rich Ibani cultural system, including traditional titles, royal institutions, age-grade organisations, masquerades, drums, dances and ceremonial practices.
One scholarly study of Christianity and traditional institutions in Opobo records that traditional royal drum names remained in use, while annual masquerade festivals—including Egbelegbe, Ofrima, Owu Asara, Ijuruma, Aba Ofuruma, Taria and Owu Igbila—continued alongside Christian practice.
And the evidence is visible even in the present coronation.
On September 25, the eve of the coronation, the Owu Egbelegbe, featuring the King’s and Queen’s masquerades, was reported as a major traditional rite preceding the coronation. Traditional drums and dances accompanied the display through Opobo.
So the indigenous culture has certainly not disappeared.
IT IS THERE.
The question is whether it occupies the same visual prominence in the coronation ceremony that Western-style royal and Christian symbolism appears to occupy.
And that is a legitimate cultural question.
THE BISHOP, THE KING AND “GOD SAVE THE KING”
The participation of Christian clergy adds another layer.
If, as the circulating video appears to show, the Bishop of the Niger Delta played a central role in the coronation ceremony and subsequently led the gathering in the refrain “God Save the King,” then the ceremony represents a remarkable convergence of African traditional kingship, Christianity and British-derived royal symbolism.
But it is important to understand how such a convergence developed.
Christianity has had a long history in the Niger Delta.
It is therefore possible for an Opobo royal ceremony to be simultaneously:
Christian, African, Ibani, modern and historically influenced by Britain.
Those identities are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Indeed, historical research on Opobo describes the Ibani as a society that incorporated Christianity while retaining important traditional institutions and practices.
The interesting question is therefore not simply:
“Why are they copying Britain?”
It is:
“At what point does cultural adaptation become cultural displacement?”
A KINGDOM WITH ITS OWN ROYAL LANGUAGE
There is also something important in the title itself.
King Charles Douglas MacPepple Jaja is not simply being presented as a generic Nigerian traditional ruler.
He is being crowned Amanyanabo and Treaty King of Opobo Kingdom.
The institution has its own history and terminology.
The current coronation follows the death of King Dandeson Douglas Jaja, Jeki V, in December 2025. King Charles Jaja was elected as the new monarch in December 2025 and is now being formally crowned.
The Opobo Council of Chiefs has itself described the coronation as a celebration of the kingdom’s heritage, culture, history and traditional institutions.
So the official intention is clearly not to abandon Opobo identity.
Rather, the question is whether the ceremonial form chosen to express that identity has become heavily shaped by the kingdom’s historical relationship with Britain and Christianity.
THE COLONIAL SHADOW
There is a deeper historical irony here.
Britain did not merely influence Opobo through cultural contact.
British imperial policy eventually undermined the political independence of the kingdom.
King Jaja’s confrontation with British commercial interests culminated in his removal and exile.
Yet more than a century later, elements of the British royal vocabulary appear remarkably comfortable within the public ceremonial presentation of Opobo royalty.
This is what makes the spectacle intellectually fascinating.
Colonialism does not always disappear when colonial rule ends.
Sometimes its influence survives in:
language,
institutions,
dress,
religion,
education,
titles,
ceremonial practices,
architecture,
music
and even in the way societies imagine royalty itself.
But influence is not the same thing as total replacement.
And Opobo’s own history demonstrates that distinction.
THE OBI OF ONITSHA, THE WARRI KING AND AFRICAN ROYALTY
The presence of other traditional rulers makes the occasion even more significant.
The new Opobo monarch had undertaken a diplomatic visit to the palace of the Obi of Onitsha, His Majesty Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, ahead of the coronation. The encounter was described as a meeting between two historic African royal institutions.
Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan also accepted the invitation to attend the coronation, describing Opobo as a historic institution with an important place in Nigeria’s history and the Niger Delta.
The presence of royal institutions from different parts of Nigeria creates another interesting contrast.
Nigeria possesses numerous indigenous systems of kingship.
The ceremonies of the Oba of Benin, Ooni of Ife, Obi of Onitsha, Emirate institutions, Yoruba obaship systems, Igbo traditional institutions and Niger Delta kingdoms all demonstrate different historical approaches to royalty.
There is therefore no single African model of kingship.
Which raises another question:
WHY DOES OPOBO’S CEREMONIAL PRESENTATION CARRY SUCH A DISTINCTLY ANGLO-ROYAL FLAVOUR?
IS IT IMPOSED CULTURE OR ADOPTED CULTURE?
That question requires caution.
There is no evidence from the sources reviewed that Britain dictated the format of this 2026 coronation.
Nor is there evidence that the Opobo people have abandoned their indigenous culture.
Indeed, the opposite is visible in the traditional rites accompanying the coronation.
What can reasonably be said is that Opobo’s long historical engagement with Britain, Christianity, Western education and international commerce has helped produce a cultural landscape in which indigenous Ibani traditions coexist with Western-derived forms.
The 2026 coronation appears to bring those layers together dramatically.
Whether that represents cultural evolution, cultural hybridity, deliberate modernisation, historical adaptation or excessive Westernisation is a matter for Opobo historians, cultural scholars and, most importantly, Opobo people themselves to debate.
THE QUESTION BLOWING IN THE WIND
And perhaps that is where this story should end.
Not with condemnation.
Not with ridicule.
But with a question.
WHEN AN AFRICAN KING IS CROWNED IN AFRICA, WHAT SHOULD AN AFRICAN CORONATION LOOK LIKE?
Must African royalty imitate European royalty to appear modern?
Can Christian faith and indigenous culture coexist without one overwhelming the other?
How much British influence should remain in the ceremonial institutions of a kingdom whose founding monarch once resisted British commercial and imperial domination?
And when an African gathering sings “God Save the King,” are we hearing a Christian expression of loyalty, a historical remnant of colonial influence, an adopted royal tradition—or simply a new cultural synthesis created by generations of contact between Opobo and the wider world?
These are questions worth asking.
Because Opobo is not an ordinary kingdom.
Its founding king confronted one of the most powerful imperial systems of his time.
Its people developed a distinctive political and commercial civilisation.
Its traditional institutions survived colonialism, Christianity, civil war and modern statehood.
And today, as King Charles Douglas MacPepple Jaja, Jeki VI, ascends the throne, Opobo is presenting its royalty to Nigeria and the world in a ceremony where African tradition and European-derived symbolism appear to stand side by side.
Perhaps the real story of Opobo is not that its culture has disappeared.
Perhaps the real story is that Opobo culture has survived by adapting—and today’s coronation gives Nigeria a rare opportunity to ask exactly what has been preserved, what has been borrowed, what has been transformed, and what should be reclaimed.
The questions are blowing in the wind.
And Opobo, with its extraordinary history, deserves the conversation.
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