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Fishing, Migrations and Inter-group Relations in the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Coast of West Africa) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Ayodeji Olukoju
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Extract

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.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 69 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 2000

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References

Notes

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

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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

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14 Ibid., 35–36.

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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.

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26 Sanwo, ‘Fishing Co-operatives’, 28.

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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

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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

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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