He was sold into slavery at about twelve. He grew up to be a king so good at business that the British had to trick him onto a warship to stop him.
Jaja of Opobo started out paddling canoes for a trading house in Bonny, in the Niger Delta. He learned English, won the trust of inland suppliers and European captains, bought his freedom and took over a house deep in debt. When rivals pushed him into civil war, he moved east, founded the city-state of Opobo at the mouth of the Imo River and cut off Bonny's supply of palm oil. He shipped his oil straight to Liverpool, kept European traders out of the interior, and struck the free-trade clause out of Britain's "protection" treaty.
In 1887 a British consul promised him safe conduct to a meeting aboard a warship. He was arrested, tried and exiled to the Caribbean, and died on the voyage home.