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16-628: The Kalabari Kingdom , also called Elem Kalabari ( Kalabari : New Shipping Port ), is the independent traditional state of the Kalabari people , a sub-group of the Ijaw tribe, eastern ijo, in the Niger River Delta . It is recognized as a traditional state in what is now Rivers State , in southern region of Nigeria. The Kingdom was founded by the great Amachree I, forefather of the Amachree dynasty, which

32-814: Is governed by the principle of “primus inter pares”, meaning first among equals. Precedence in Abonnema’s affairs is by date of chieftaincy creation and goes in the following order. All these chieftaincies were created at Elem-Kalabari before the 1879 Kalabari civil war, which led to the issuance of the 1881 decretal order by HM Queen Victoria and consequently led to the fragmentation of Elem Kalabari into three (3) new city-states. Bakana 1881, Abonnema 1882, and Buguma 1883. The following chieftaincy houses were created in Abonnema postmortems by their children after they passed away. They are NOT war canoe houses. The four chieftaincy stools created in Abonnema can not take precedence over

48-619: Is now headed by the Princewill family. According to Alagoa (2009) King Amachree I, the first king of modern Kalabari kingdom (1669-1757) came from Emakalakala in Ogbia . King Amachree XI (Professor Theophilus Princewill CFR), passed on and was buried in November 2003. The Kingdom is currently being overseen by a Regent Chief (Dr.) C.I.T. Numbere, till a new king is crowned. The King along with his Council of Chiefs, most of whom are royal princes, make up

64-710: Is spoken south of Port Harcourt . Ibani is spoken southeast of Port Harcourt, in the Bonny local government area and in Opobo . Kirike is spoken in Port Harcourt and the local government areas of Okrika and Ogu–Bolo . This article about Ijoid languages is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Abonnema Abonnema is a town in Nigeria that was founded in 1882 by eleven (11) independent, equal and autonomous founding fathers in 1882. Abonnema has NO MONARCHY but

80-581: The Kalabari royal court. According to one tradition, the Kalabari people originally came from Calabar (called "Old Calabar" by the Europeans), a site further to the east occupied by Efik people of Cross River State. This may have been a 19th-century invention. The Efik themselves say the name "Calabar" was given to their town by the Europeans. Other traditions say Kalabari was founded by Ijo settlers from Amafo, on

96-494: The Kalabari were called "Englishmen". A ruler named King Owerri Daba was said to have brought the slave trade to Kalabari and Bonny, and to have founded the houses of Duke Monmouth and Duke Africa. This happened some time before 1699, since James Barbot records giving presents to Duke Monmouth of Kalabari in that year. Kalabari became an entrepôt of the Atlantic slave trade , mainly selling slaves purchased from Igboland , further to

112-623: The Sombreiro River to Abonnema. The government of Kalabari had now become a council of powerful chiefs and royal princes headed and overseen by the King. Names and dates taken from John Stewart's African States and Rulers (1989). Rulers after the kingdom became part of the British protectorate, then the independent Federation of Nigeria: Kalabari language As of 2005, the language, "spoken by 258,000 people, [was] endangered largely because of

128-491: The delta people refused to trade on credit. The people of Elem Kalabari originally worshipped the goddess Awoamenakaso ( or Awamenakaso, Akaso ), the mother of all the deities of the Kalabari clan, even when individual settlements had their own local gods and goddesses. She opposed war and bloodshed, and the Kalabari later claimed she was the sister of the British goddess Brittana, who ruled the seas. Among their neighbors, because of their "civilized" and generally peaceful behavior

144-615: The massive relocation that has taken place in the area due to the development of Nigeria's oil industry in the Port Harcourt region." Berbice Creole Dutch , a recently extinct Dutch Creole formerly spoken in Eastern Guyana , was spoken by descendants of Kalabari speakers. The African element in Berbice Dutch is predominantly Kalabari in origin. Kalabari-language words have been proposed for some modern technical terms. Kalabari

160-575: The north. Amachree I, who died around 1800, was the founder of the dynasty that bears his name. Most of the major trading houses expanded during his reign. In the 19th century, the Kalabari Kingdom was in the center of a power struggle in the east of the delta. Elem Kalabari fought against the Nembe Kingdom to the west, the Kingdom of Bonny to the southeast and Okrika to the northeast. The main rival

176-561: The others that were created in Elem Kalabari before Abonnema was founded in 1882. Chief Disreal Gbobo Bob-Manuel, Owukori IX is the current Ananyanabo of Abonnema. <Abonnema Centenary brochure - 1982 > Abonnema grew to become a flourishing major Nigerian seaport during the colonial era. It was host to many European companies. One such company was the Royal Niger Company , which later metamorphosed into U.A.C . Abonnema

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192-420: The separate state of Opobo , he became an ally of Kalabari. Bonny now began a more serious push into Kalabari territory to recover from loss of trade to Opobo. In 1873 a perpetual treaty of peace was signed between Kalabari and Bonny on the same day that a treaty was signed between two rival factions within Kalabari. Neither of these treaties was observed. In July 1882 the British consul had to intervene again in

208-510: The struggle with Bonny . From 1882 to 1884 two factions of the royal family continued to struggle for control. The Amachree faction succeeded, while the Barboy or Will Braide group moved to the new settlement of Bakana in 1881. Soon after, the remaining faction, consisting mostly of the Amachree group, also evacuated Elem Kalabari, moving to Abonnema in 1882 and to Buguma in 1884, both further inland. The European traders followed them, now going up

224-559: The west bank of the New Calabar River , and that they were joined there by settlers from other communities. The people occupied a series of islands among the mangrove swamps of the delta, where they engaged in fishing and trading. They would take the produce of the delta region up the New Calabar and Imo rivers, and exchange them for food and goods of the hinterland. In the 15th century, the early European traders noted that they alone of

240-484: Was Okrika, which had the potential to block Kalabari's access to the interior. The Kalabari brought their goods down to Elem Ifoko, at the mouth of the New Calabar river, but refused to go the seven more miles to Bonny for the convenience of the European traders. Trade involved the acquisition of slaves, ivory and palm oil, for which cotton clothing, hardware, guns and gunpowder were given in exchange. Salt, made by evaporation,

256-574: Was an important article of trade in the interior. In July 1863, the feud with the Nembe people of Brass flared up, with the Nembe the decisive victors. By December 1865 the Okrika had started ambushing Kalabari trading canoes, and Bonny was threatening to join in since Kalabari was blocking their passage through Kalabari territory. The British consul had to intervene to prevent further hostilities. When Jubo Jubogha ("Ja-Ja") moved from Bonny in 1869 and established

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