Last updated 2nd August 2024: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. As we resolve the issues resulting from this, we are also experiencing some delays to publication. We are working hard to restore services as soon as possible and apologise for the inconvenience. For further updates please visit our website https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
The Gulf of Guinea, home to numerous ethnic nationalities, stretches from the Republic of Senegal in the west to Nigeria in the east. There have been population movements and socio-economic interactions within and across the coastal belt over the past millennium. In response to their environment, the people have been engaged in fishing, salt-making, commerce and boat making. Fishing, the pivot of their economy, has taken the leading fishing groups – the Fante and Ewe (Keta) of the Republic of Ghana, and the Izon (Ijaw), Itsekiri and Ilaje of Nigeria – all over the entire West African coastline, where they have established many settlements.
1 See, for example, Alagoa, E.J., ‘The Niger Delta States and their Neighbours to 1800’ in: Ajayi, J.F. Ade and Crowder, Michael eds, History of West Africa I (Harlow, Essex 1976) 331–373.Google Scholar
2 Henri Berron, ‘Ghanaan Fishermen in Ivory Coast: Their Implantation in Abidjan’, Maritime Policy and Management IV (1977) 209–214, discusses developments in the region to the west of the zone covered in this paper.
3 Alagoa, E.J., ‘Long-Distance Trade and States in the Niger Delta’, Journal of African History, XI (1970) 319–329CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Campbell, J.G., A Short History of the llajes (London 1970)Google Scholar; Alagoa, E.J., A History of the Niger Delta (Ibadan 1972)Google Scholar; and Ikime, Obaro, ‘The Peoples and Kingdoms of the Delta Province’ in: Ikime, Obaro ed., Groundwork of Nigerian History (Ibadan 1980) 89–108.Google Scholar
4 White, H.P., ‘The Morphological Development of West African Seaports’ in: Hoyle, B.S. and Hilling, D. eds, Seaports and Development in Tropical Africa (London 1970) 11–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Wasiu, Jimoh Folorunso, ‘A History of the Ilaje Settlement of Bariga, 1930–1989: A Sociopolitical and Economic Survey’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1993) 16Google Scholar. An informative discussion of the indigenous fishing techniques and tools is in Ehinmore, Omolere M., ‘A History of Fishing in Ondo State, 1950–1997: A Case Study of the Ilaje Coastal Area’ (M.A. thesis, University of Lagos, 1998) 32–35.Google Scholar
6 Ola, Meduoye Adebanjo, ‘A History of Ugbo Kingdom from the Earliest Times to 1958’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1995) 72.Google Scholar
7 Ehinmore, ‘Fishing in Ondo State’, 1.
8 Meduoye, ‘Ugbo Kingdom’, 99.
9 Sanwo, Adeola Abiodun, ‘The History of Fishing Co-operatives in Badagry’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1991) 80, 82.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., 86; and Berron, ‘Ghanaan Fishermen’.
11 Wasiu, ‘Ilaje Setdement’, 11–13.
12 Two studies of communities produced by this phenomenon are Loto, G.O., ‘“Ayetoro”: Growth, Economic and Socio-Political Development (1947–1977)’, (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1982)Google Scholar, and Sehindemi, O., ‘History of Zion-Pepe Community’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1989).Google Scholar
13 Loto, ‘Ayetoro’, iii.
14 Ibid., 35–36.
15 Wasiu, ‘Ilaje Settlement’, 17–20.
16 Ehinmore, ‘Fishing in Ondo State’, 30.
17 Sanwo, ‘Fishing Co-operatives’, 86.
18 Ehinmore, ‘Fishing in Ondo State’, 13, 33, 37.
19 Ibid., 41.
20 Ojogo, Donald Kimikanboh, ‘A Political History of the Arogbo-Izon of Ondo State: Pre-Colonial Period to Present Times’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1995) 13Google Scholar; Alagoa, ‘Long Distance Trade’, 325.
21 Alagoa, ‘Long Distance Trade’, 327.
22 Ibid., 328.
23 Ibid., 327.
24 Ryder, A.F.C., ‘Dutch Trade on the Nigerian Coast During the Seventeenth Century’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria III (1965) 197–198.Google Scholar
25 Alagoa, ‘Long Distance Trade’, 327.
26 Sanwo, ‘Fishing Co-operatives’, 28.
27 Ojogo, ‘History of the Arogbo-Izon’, 5.
28 The standard work on this subject is Ikime, Obaro, Niger Delta Rivalry: Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the British Impact, 1891–1936 (London 1969)Google Scholar. See also, Olueh, C.A., ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations, 1500–1900’ (B.A. Original Essay, University of Lagos, 1982)Google Scholar, and Edremoda, Eyesan Kehinde, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations: A Boundary Perspective, 1891–1960’ (M.A. thesis, University of Lagos, 1996).Google Scholar
29 Edremoda, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 40. The authoritative study of this is Ikime, Obaro, Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta: The Rise and Fall of Nana Olomu, Last Governor of the Benin River (London 1968).Google Scholar
30 Olueh, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 27.
31 Edremoda, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 41.
32 Olueh, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 27.
33 Ibid., 19, 23, 30.
34 Ibid., 19.
35 Ibid., 23. See, also, Ikime, Obaro, ‘Chief Dogho: The Lugardian System in Warri, 1917–1932’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria III (1965) 313’333.Google Scholar
36 Olueh, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations,’ 35.
37 Edremoda, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 41, 42.
38 Olueh, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 37.
39 Ibid., 43.
40 Ibid.
41 The protracted battles necessitated the despatch of military and naval forces before order was restored. But to date, only an uneasy peace subsists in Warri following the recent relocation of the headquarters of the Warri Southwest Local Government to Ogbe-Ijo, as originally announced in 1997.
42 Edremoda, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 65, 66.
43 Ibid., 58.
44 Ojogo, ‘History of the Arogbo-Izon’, 1. This statement reflects the assertion of the Arogbo's cultural distinctiveness vis-à-vis the Yoruba and Edo.
45 Ibid., 26. The Arogbo and Ilaje were subsequendy locked in territorial disputes following the local government creation exercise of 1997. But the conflict has since degenerated into physical combat and blood-letting.
46 Sanwo, ‘Fishing Co-operatives’, 83.
47 Ibid., 80.
48 Wasiu, ‘Ilaje Setdement’, 19, 22.
49 Ibid., 24.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid., 27.
52 Ibid., 37, 41.
53 See, among others, Naanen, Ben, ‘Oil Producing Minorities and the Restructuring of Nigerian Federalism: The Case of the Ogoni People’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 33/1 (1995) 46–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Obi, Cyril I., ‘Globalisation and Local Resistance: The Case of Ogoni versus Shell’, New Political Economy 2/1 (1997) 137–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54 Adebayo, A.G., Embattled Federalism: History of Revenue Allocation in Nigeria, 1946–1990 (New York 1993).Google Scholar
55 Olarewaju, Tolu, ‘Ijaw-Ilaje Crisis, Bloody Tango Over Oil’, The Guardian (Lagos), 30 September 1998, 15.Google Scholar
56 Olarewaju, Tolu, ‘Tension Heightens Between Ilajes and Ijaws in Ondo’, The Guardian on Sunday (Lagos), 27 September 1998, 1.Google Scholar
57 Olarewaju, ‘Ijaw-Ilaje Crisis’, 15.
58 The position of the Arogbo is forcefully articulated in Ojogo, ‘History of the Arogbo-Izon’.
59 This view is challenged by Olueh, ‘Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations’, 13–14, but it has empirical basis in Akinkugbe, Olufemi, ‘A Comparative Phonology of Yoruba Dialects, Igala and Itsekiri’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Ibadan, 1978).Google Scholar
60 Williamson, Kay, ‘Languages of the Niger Delta’, Nigeria Magazine 97 (June/August 1968) 129–130.Google Scholar
