Calabar is a city in
Cross River StateCross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
, southeastern
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. The original name for Calabar was
Atakpa, from the
Jukun languageJukun or Djugun is an Australian Aboriginal language of Western Australia. There are no longer any fluent speakers of Jukun, but some people may remember it to some degree....
.
The city is watered by the
CalabarThe Calabar River in Cross River State, Nigeria flows from the north past the city of Calabar, joining the larger Cross River about to the south. The river at Calabar forms a natural harbor deep enough for vessels with a draft of ....
and
Great KwaThe Great Kwa River flows through Cross River State, Nigeria, draining the east side of the city of Calabar...
Rivers and creeks of the
Cross RiverCross River is the main river in southeastern Nigeria and gives its name to Cross River State.It originates in Cameroon, where it takes the name of the Manyu River....
(from its inland delta).
Calabar is the capital of
Cross River StateCross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
. For the purpose of administration, the city is divided into
Calabar MunicipalCalabar Municipal is a Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the city of Calabar.It has an area of 142 km² and a population of 179,392 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 540....
and
Calabar SouthCalabar South is a Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Anantigha.It has an area of 264 km² and a population of 191,630 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 540....
LGAs. It has an area of 406 km² and a population of 371,022 at the 2006 census.
History
The original town was known as Atakpa from the
JukunJukun are an ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in West Africa. The Jukun are traditionally located in Taraba State, Nigeria and parts of northwestern Cameroon. They are descendants of the people of the Kwararafa kingdom. most of the tribes in the north central of Nigeria trace their origin to...
words
Ata and
Akpa. The spelling
Calabar remained till the British came and pronounced Calabar as
Calabah. The neighboring town of
Ataba took over the name and its Efik /Qua/Efut indigenes became known as Calabar pronounced Calabah till this day. Calabar is a large metroplis today with several towns like Akim, Ikot Ansa, Ikot Ishie, Kasuk, Duke Town, Henshaw Town, Ikot Omin, Obutong etc.
Sea-port city
As far back as the 16th century, Calabar had been a recognized international sea
portA port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....
, shipping out goods such as
palm oilPalm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
. During the era of the
Atlantic slave tradeThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
It subsequently became a major port in the transportation of African slaves. Most slave ships that transported slaves from Calabar were
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, at around 85% of these ships being from
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and
LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
merchants.
Old Calabar (Duke Town) and Creek Town, 10 miles northeast, were crucial towns in the
trade of slavesThe Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trans-atlantic slave trade, refers to the trade in slaves that took place across the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth centuries...
in that era. The first British warship to sail as far as Duke Town, where she captured seven Spanish and Portuguese slavers, may have been in 1815.
The main ethnic group taken out of Calabar as slaves were the
IgboIgbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
, from the neighboring Igbo land. African-American writer and slave
John JeaJohn Jea was an African-American slave, best known for his 1811 autobiography, The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the African Preacher.-Biography:...
was from the area. There was also a small
MulattoMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
community of merchants with links to missionary and other merchant colonies in Igboland and Lagos, and across the Atlantic to Britain's colonies in the Americas.
First Nigerian capital city
The city once served as the seat of Government of the
Niger Coast ProtectorateThe Niger Coast Protectorate was a British protectorate in the Oil Rivers area of present-day Nigeria, originally established as the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1891 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the following year, renamed on 12 May 1893, and merged with the chartered territories of the...
, Southern Protectorate and Oil River Protectorate. It is thus effectively the first Nigerian capital city.
Landmarks
As a social centre the city boasts of the first social club in Nigeria, The Africa Club, and hosted the first competitive
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
,
cricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
and
field hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
games in Nigeria. Among the city's firsts includes the first Roman Catholic Mass (held at 19 Bocco Street, Calabar – 1903) and the oldest secondary school (Hope Waddell Training Institution – 1895) in eastern Nigeria. The School later produced the first
President of NigeriaThe President of Nigeria is the Head of State and head of the national executive. Officially styled President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The current President of Nigeria is Goodluck Jonathan.-History:On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained...
,
Nnamdi AzikiweBenjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe , usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe and popularly known as "Zik", was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism who became the first President of Nigeria after Nigeria secured its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960; holding the...
.
The city boasts of an International
MuseumA museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
, a Botanical Garden, a
Free Trade ZoneA free trade zone or export processing zone , also called foreign-trade zone, formerly free port is an area within which goods may be landed, handled, manufactured or reconfigured, and reexported without the intervention of the customs authorities...
/Port, an International Airport and Seaport, an integrated
sports stadiumSports Stadium was an Irish television sport programme on Raidió Teilifís Éireann . Broadcast between 1973 and 1997, it was RTÉ's flagship sports programme and one of its longest-running shows....
complex, a cultural centre, one of the most prominent universities in the country the
University of CalabarThe University of Calabar - also known as UNICAL - is a university situated in Calabar, Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. It is one of Nigerian's second generation universities. The University of Calabar was a campus of the University of Nigeria until 1975...
, a slave history park and several historical and cultural landmarks. It also boasts of several standard
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, resorts and
amusement parkthumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
s. The former Liberian warlord Charles Taylor lived in the old colonial palace in the city under an agreement which led to the end of his country's civil war before fleeing extradition to Liberia in March 2006.
The
Tinapa ResortTinapa is a business and leisure resort just north of Calabar, south eastern Nigeria associated with the Calabar Free Trade Zone. It is being developed in four phases under a Private Public Partnership promoted by the Government of Cross River State...
, a development by the Cross River State government, lies to the north of the city beside the
Calabar Free Trade ZoneThe Calabar Free Trade Zone is an area just north of the port of Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria that is occupied by companies engaged in manufacturing, trading, provision of services and oil and gas related activities...
.
The Cross River State Annual
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
FestivalA festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
held every year attracts thousands within and beyond Nigeria. The Festival which include music performance from both local and international artists, the annual
Calabar CarnivalCalabar Carnival festival in Nigeria, also tagged " Africa's Biggest Street Party", was created as part of the vision of making the Cross River State in Nigeria, the number one tourist destination for Nigerians and tourist all over the world...
, Boat regatta, Fashion shows, Christmas Village, traditional dances and the annual Ekpe Festival is a yearly events that bring in thousands of tourists at the time of the year. The official website of the Cross River Festival has more information on the upcoming 2007 Christmas Festival in Cross River State.
Political authority
Calabar has three principal landlord kingdom, namely The Qua Kingdom of ejagham (
Ekoi"Ekoi" or "Ejagham" may refer to:* Ekoi people, a group of people found in south-eastern Nigeria, also known as Ejagham* Ekoid languages, the language spoken by the Ekoi people of south-eastern Nigeria* Ekoi mythology...
)/bantu origin, The Efut and the Efik Kingdoms. The Qua Kingdom has the Ndidem of the Qua nation as the Grand patriach,The Efut have the Muri munene as the grand patriarch while the Efik Kingdom partriarch is knowns as the Obong. The Efik political authority as it concerns the Obong is hinged on a political tripod, Creek Town, made up of
AmboAmbo may refer to:* Ambo Village in Kiribati where the parliament of Kiribati sits, also known for the Ambo declaration issued at the Tarawa Climate Change Conference, an international diplomatic conference held in Kiribati in November 2010...
,
Cobham- Towns or districts :* Cobham, Kent, England* Cobham, Surrey, England* Cobham, Virginia , multiple places- Other place names :* Cobham Intermediate School* Cobham Sports and Social Club...
and
EyoEyo is an eponymous novel, written by Abidemi Sanusi and published by WordAlive Publishers. In this novel, the author brings out the twin issues of child trafficking and sex slavery, painfully living through the experiences of the many children that are trafficked to Europe each year...
;
Old TownOld Town is the typical designation of a historic or original core of a city or town. Although the city may be larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations...
made up of Obutong; and, Duke Town or Atakpa made up of Duke/Archibong, Eyamba, Ntiero,
HenshawHenshaw may refer to:* Henshaw, Northumberland, a village in England* USS Henshaw , a destroyer in the United States Navy* Henshaw, Kentucky, hometown of Ralph O'Brien* Lake Henshaw, a lake on the San Luis Rey River in California...
and
Cobham- Towns or districts :* Cobham, Kent, England* Cobham, Surrey, England* Cobham, Virginia , multiple places- Other place names :* Cobham Intermediate School* Cobham Sports and Social Club...
. Each leg of this tripod at one time or the other was ruled by a separate Obong. Within the last 100 years, a gentleman’s agreement to merge these three zones into one, with a single titular head as the Obong, and the distribution or opening up of the title to all Efik wards, was arrived at. It is the attempt to do away or dishonor this ‘contract of understanding’ that is at the root of the Obong of Calabar crises. Each of the aspirants to the throne is eminently qualified, none no more so, than the other. The title of the Obong of Calabar had been held by Nsa Effiom and Ekpo Nsa in the 17th century, these two gentlemen were from the
HenshawHenshaw may refer to:* Henshaw, Northumberland, a village in England* USS Henshaw , a destroyer in the United States Navy* Henshaw, Kentucky, hometown of Ralph O'Brien* Lake Henshaw, a lake on the San Luis Rey River in California...
ward. Attempts by the Henshaw to have an Obong resulted in a war in 1870. The Henshaws did not attain this title again until the last 50 years when David Henshaw became Obong. Cobham Town where
Bassey Ekpo BasseyObong Bassey Ekpo Bassey II is a Nigerian journalist and politician who was crowned as the Obong or traditional ruler of the Efik people of the Akwa Akpa kingdom on 6 April 2008.-Early career:...
hails from had their first and only Obong recently. All these were made possible because of ‘the contract’.
Calabar Kingdom
Before colonial period, Calabar, originally known as
Akwa AkpaAkwa Akpa, known to colonialists as Old Calabar or Duke Town was an Efik city-state that flourished in the 19th century in what is now southeastern Nigeria.Although absorbed into Nigeria, traditional rulers of the state are still recognized....
, was a Kingdom with the City of Calabar as the site of government, the Obong of Calabar as the ruler and the Ekpe Secrete Society, Ekpe, as the stool on which the Obong of Calabar sat.
Calabar people
As used in Nigeria, the term Calabar People refers to both the indigenes of Calabar City as well as the people of the original South Eastern State of Nigeria which is at present the people of Akwa Ibom State and
Cross River StateCross River State is a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria, bordering Cameroon to the east. Its capital is at Calabar, and it is named for the Cross River , which passes through the state...
.
Nigerian Navy
Calabar is also the Headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command. The City has a new model school, Nigerian Navy Secondary School, situated in a serene part of Akpabuyo, about 10 minutes drive from the Airport. This new school complements favourably the existing Nigerian Navy Primary School and Naval Officers Wives Association Primary School both situated at Ikot Ansa Calabar to provide quality education.