Brass River Brass River The Brass River is one of the branches of the Nun River, which in turn is a branch of the Niger River, in the Niger Delta in Nigeria. In the 19th century the river was an important trading route, first for slaves and later for palm oil. Brass River Crude Oil is named for a refinery on the river. The name "Brass" is European, said to have been given to the Nembe coastal villages because they traded for brass pans and neptunes to use for salt boiling. The "Brass Ijo" were all the Ijaw people from Cape Formosa
Brass River new trade. The prominent Nigerian journalist and nationalist John Payne Jackson at first wanted to be a merchant. After traveling throughout West Africa, in the late 1860s he found work with the prominent Lagos merchant J. S. Leigh. He was sent to the Brass River in the 1870s to manage Leigh's station there. Jackson branched out into trading palm products on his own account, but was forced out of business by European competitors, an experience that may have affected his outlook towards Europeans. S. A. Crowther, Bishop of Niger Territory, reported in 1885 that the native converts at Nembe, Brass