Calabar River
Encyclopedia
The Calabar River in Cross River State
, Nigeria
flows from the north past the city of Calabar
, joining the larger Cross River
about 8 kilometres (5 mi) to the south. The river at Calabar forms a natural harbor deep enough for vessels with a draft of 6 metres (19.7 ft).
The Calabar River was once a major source of slaves brought down from the interior to be shipped west in the Atlantic slave trade
. Slaving was suppressed by 1860, but the port of Calabar remained important for export of palm oil
and other products, until it was eclipsed by Port Harcourt in the 1920s. With improved roads into the interior, Calabar has regained importance as a port and is growing rapidly. The tropical rain forest in the Calabar River basin is rapidly being destroyed, and pollution is decreasing fish and shrimp catches in the estuary. Those that are caught have unsafe levels of contaminants.
in the Cross River National Park
.
The geology of the river basin includes the Pre-Cambrian Oban Massif, Cretaceous sediments of the Calabar flank and the recent Niger Delta
sedimentary basin.
The basin is about 43 kilometres (26.7 mi) wide and 62 kilometres (38.5 mi) long, with an area of 1514 square kilometres (584.6 sq mi)
At one time it was entirely covered by tropical rainforest.
The region has a rainy season from April until October, during which 80% of the annual rain falls, with peaks in June and September.
Annual rainfall averages 1830 millimetres (72 in). Average temperatures range from 24 °C (75.2 °F) in August to 30 °C (86 °F) in February. Relative humidity is high, between 80% and 100%.
The basin has 223 streams with a total length of 516 kilometres (320.6 mi).
This is a small number given the size of the basin.
Drainage is poor, so the basin is subject to flooding, gully erosion and landslides. A 2010 study said that flooding had increased in recent years.
In 1862 the Zoological Society of London
received a description of a new crocodile named Crocodilus frontatus that had been taken from the Old Calabar River, with a much broader head than in Crocodilus vulgaris. A new bat called Sphyrocephalus labrosus was also reported.
The river system formed by the Cross River, Calabar, Great Kwa
and other tributaries forms extensive flood plains and wetlands that empty into the Cross River estuary. The system has an estimated area of 54000 square kilometres (20,849.5 sq mi) As of 2000 about 8,000 tonnes of fish and 20,000 tonnes of shrimp were being caught annually.
Shrimp provide a relatively cheap form of protein to the people of Calabar.
The fishermen land their catches at Alepan's beach on the Calabar River, and the catch is sold in the surrounding markets.
was founded by Efik families who had left Creek Town, further up the Calabar river, settling on the east bank in a position where they were able to dominate traffic with European vessels that anchored in the river, and soon becoming the most powerful in the region. In 1767 there was a massacre when the crews of six British slavers intervened in a dispute between the rulers of two competing slaving centers on the river, Old Town and New Town, or Duke's Town: 400 men were killed.
Akwa Akpa
(Duke's Town) became a center of the trade where slaves were exchanged for European goods.
Due to public petitions against slave trading, the British House of Commons
held a hearing on the 1767 massacre in 1790.
The British banned the slave trade in 1807 and began to actively intervene in suppressing the trade by ships of other nations.
Between 1807 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron seized around 1,600 ships involved in the slave trade.
HMS Comus
appears to have been the first warship to have sailed up the Calabar River as far as Akwa Akpa in 1815. Her boats captured seven Portuguese and Spanish slavers carrying some 550 slaves.
On 6 January 1829 the Brig Jules was captured by HM Eden on the bar of the Old Calabar River with 220 slaves on board, who had been shipped in the river.
On 26 February 1829 the Hirondelle was captured by the Eden within the entrance of the river with 112 slaves on board.
On 5 January 1835, boats from HMS Pelorus
captured the Spanish polacca
-bark Minerva, which was armed with two 18-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. The ship's boats had sailed 60 miles (96.6 km) up the Calabar river
and laid in ambush. Skillful handling resulted in the capture of the slaver with no casualties to the boarding party although the vessel's guns were double-shotted and the crew and the boarding party exchanged small arms fire. The slaver had some 650 slaves aboard.
and palm kernels became the main exports of the river.
The chiefs of Akwa Akpa placed themselves under British protection in 1884.
From 1884 until 1906 Old Calabar was the headquarters of the Niger Coast Protectorate
, after which Lagos became the main center.
Now called Calabar, the city remained an important port shipping ivory, timber, beeswax, and palm produce until 1916, when the railway terminus was opened at Port Harcourt, 145 km to the west.
Calabar today has regained its importance as a port with the completion of roads providing good access to southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Exports include palm produce, timber, rubber, cocoa, copra, and piassava fibre.
Industries include sawmills, a cement factory, boat builders and plants to process rubber, palm oil and food.
Artisans make ebony artifacts for the Lagos
tourist market.
Since 1975 the city has been home to the University of Calabar
.
The port, and the neighboring Calabar Free Trade Zone
and Tinapa Free Zone & Resort have been held back by bureacratic problems, and also by poor power supply, poor roads and lack of dredging of the shallow Calabar River channel.
to the east and the wetlands of the Cross river estuary to the south. It can only grow to the north, into the Calabar River catchment area, and this has been happening.
The Calabar river watershed was originally covered by tropical rainforest.
Much has now been replaced by agriculture, road construction, forestry, industry and housing for the growing population of Calabar.
For example, the National Integrated Power Project covers a large area of land besides the Calabar-Itu
highway at Ikot Nyong in Odukpani Local Government Area.
A study of changes in land use in the Calabar river catchment between 1967 and 2008 showed that the area covered by high forest decreased by almost 30% during that period. In 1967, high forest covered almost 70% of the basin area. By 2008 it covered less than 40%, mostly in the north.
Industrial quarrying began in the 1980s and now affects a significant area. It may be causing stream siltation and flooding as well as air and water pollution.
The built-up area more than doubled from 3.5% to 7.6% of the land area in the study period.
Calabar Municipality has no waste treatment facilities.
Human wastes and those from cottage industries are dumped in surface sites or into open drains.
The torrential rains wash most of the wastes into the Calabar and Great Kwa Rivers.
Urban pollution and oil exploration activity in the near shore area both threaten the ecology of the estuary, greatly reducing the numbers and diversity of the species that provide food for shrimps and fish.
A 1999 study of fish caught in the Calabar and Kwa rivers and in the estuary showed levels of copper and hydrocarbons were above the World Health Organization
permissible levels in all samples.
Iron content was above permissible levels in 20% of samples.
The rate of accumulation of hydrocarbons was greater in the wet seasons, probably because of higher levels of contaminated material washed from vehicle maintenance shops by the torrential rains.
Calabar Municipality and Calabar South had a combined population of 371,000 in 2006.
The population of Cross River State has been growing at the rate of about 3% annually since 1991.
Growth rates are considerably higher in Calabar city.
The state government faces a serious challenge in accommodating this growth while maintaining income levels and avoiding ecological disaster.
|title=Calabar
|work=Encyclopedia Britannica
|accessdate=2011-09-07}}
|url=http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BUN_CAL/CALABAR_or_OLD_CALABAR_.html
|title=Calabar (or Old Calabar)
|work=1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume V04, Page 962
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}
|title=Correspondence with the British Commissioners, at Sierra Leone, the Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Surinam: relating to the slave trade, 1835 ...
|year=1836 |location=London |publisher=William Clowes and Sons}}
|url=http://crossriverstate.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1168:governor-imoke-urges-federal-government-to-invest-in-tinapa&catid=209:quick-news
|title=Governor Imoke Urges Federal Government to Invest In Tinapa.
|publisher=Cross River State
|accessdate=2011-09-09}}
|url=http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=2829
|title=History of Calabar
|work=The African Executive
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA73
|title=House of Commons papers |volume=19
|publisher=HMSO |year=1831}}
|url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sitefactsheet.php?id=6740
|work=BirdLife International
|year=2010
|title=Important Bird Areas factsheet: Cross River National Park: Oban Division
|accessdate=2010-11-05}}
|url=http://nigerianpilot.com/?q=content/lack-facilities-stall-trade-calabar-free-trade-zone
|title=Lack Of Facilities Stall Trade At Calabar Free Trade Zone
|date=12/20/2010
|work=Nigerian Pilot
|accessdate=2011-09-09}}
|url=http://www.greatblacksinwax.org/Exhibits/middle_pass.htm
|title=The Middle Passage
|publisher=National Great Blacks in Wax Museum
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}
Cross River State
Cross 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...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , 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...
flows from the north past the city of Calabar
Calabar
Calabar is a city in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The original name for Calabar was Atakpa, from the Jukun language....
, joining the larger Cross River
Cross River (Nigeria)
Cross 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....
about 8 kilometres (5 mi) to the south. The river at Calabar forms a natural harbor deep enough for vessels with a draft of 6 metres (19.7 ft).
The Calabar River was once a major source of slaves brought down from the interior to be shipped west in the Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
The 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...
. Slaving was suppressed by 1860, but the port of Calabar remained important for export of palm oil
Palm oil
Palm 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...
and other products, until it was eclipsed by Port Harcourt in the 1920s. With improved roads into the interior, Calabar has regained importance as a port and is growing rapidly. The tropical rain forest in the Calabar River basin is rapidly being destroyed, and pollution is decreasing fish and shrimp catches in the estuary. Those that are caught have unsafe levels of contaminants.
Location
The Calabar River drains part of the Oban HillsOban Hills
The Oban Hills are a range of hills in Cross River State, Nigeria.They lie within the Oban Hills Division of the Cross River National Park.-Geography:The hills are rugged, rising from in the river valleys to over in the mountains....
in the Cross River National Park
Cross river national park
The Cross River National Park is a national park of Nigeria, located in Cross River State, Nigeria.There are two separate sections, Okwangwo and Oban ....
.
The geology of the river basin includes the Pre-Cambrian Oban Massif, Cretaceous sediments of the Calabar flank and the recent Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...
sedimentary basin.
The basin is about 43 kilometres (26.7 mi) wide and 62 kilometres (38.5 mi) long, with an area of 1514 square kilometres (584.6 sq mi)
At one time it was entirely covered by tropical rainforest.
The region has a rainy season from April until October, during which 80% of the annual rain falls, with peaks in June and September.
Annual rainfall averages 1830 millimetres (72 in). Average temperatures range from 24 °C (75.2 °F) in August to 30 °C (86 °F) in February. Relative humidity is high, between 80% and 100%.
The basin has 223 streams with a total length of 516 kilometres (320.6 mi).
This is a small number given the size of the basin.
Drainage is poor, so the basin is subject to flooding, gully erosion and landslides. A 2010 study said that flooding had increased in recent years.
In 1862 the Zoological Society of London
Zoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...
received a description of a new crocodile named Crocodilus frontatus that had been taken from the Old Calabar River, with a much broader head than in Crocodilus vulgaris. A new bat called Sphyrocephalus labrosus was also reported.
The river system formed by the Cross River, Calabar, Great Kwa
Great Kwa River
The Great Kwa River flows through Cross River State, Nigeria, draining the east side of the city of Calabar...
and other tributaries forms extensive flood plains and wetlands that empty into the Cross River estuary. The system has an estimated area of 54000 square kilometres (20,849.5 sq mi) As of 2000 about 8,000 tonnes of fish and 20,000 tonnes of shrimp were being caught annually.
Shrimp provide a relatively cheap form of protein to the people of Calabar.
The fishermen land their catches at Alepan's beach on the Calabar River, and the catch is sold in the surrounding markets.
Slave trade
The modern city of CalabarCalabar
Calabar is a city in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The original name for Calabar was Atakpa, from the Jukun language....
was founded by Efik families who had left Creek Town, further up the Calabar river, settling on the east bank in a position where they were able to dominate traffic with European vessels that anchored in the river, and soon becoming the most powerful in the region. In 1767 there was a massacre when the crews of six British slavers intervened in a dispute between the rulers of two competing slaving centers on the river, Old Town and New Town, or Duke's Town: 400 men were killed.
Akwa Akpa
Akwa Akpa
Akwa 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....
(Duke's Town) became a center of the trade where slaves were exchanged for European goods.
Due to public petitions against slave trading, the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
held a hearing on the 1767 massacre in 1790.
The British banned the slave trade in 1807 and began to actively intervene in suppressing the trade by ships of other nations.
Between 1807 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron seized around 1,600 ships involved in the slave trade.
HMS Comus
HMS Comus (1806)
HMS Comus was a 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806. In 1807 she took part in one notable single-ship action and was at the capture of Copenhagen. In 1815 she spent six months with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade during which...
appears to have been the first warship to have sailed up the Calabar River as far as Akwa Akpa in 1815. Her boats captured seven Portuguese and Spanish slavers carrying some 550 slaves.
On 6 January 1829 the Brig Jules was captured by HM Eden on the bar of the Old Calabar River with 220 slaves on board, who had been shipped in the river.
On 26 February 1829 the Hirondelle was captured by the Eden within the entrance of the river with 112 slaves on board.
On 5 January 1835, boats from HMS Pelorus
HMS Pelorus (1808)
HMS Pelorus was a 385-ton, 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built in Itchenor, England and launched on 25 June 1808. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. On anti-slavery patrol off West Africa, she captured four slavers and freed some 1350 slaves...
captured the Spanish polacca
Polacca
A polacca is a type of seventeenth-century sailing vessel, similar to the xebec. The name is the feminine of "Polish" in the Italian language. The polacca was frequently seen in the Mediterranean...
-bark Minerva, which was armed with two 18-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. The ship's boats had sailed 60 miles (96.6 km) up the Calabar river
Calabar River
The 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 laid in ambush. Skillful handling resulted in the capture of the slaver with no casualties to the boarding party although the vessel's guns were double-shotted and the crew and the boarding party exchanged small arms fire. The slaver had some 650 slaves aboard.
Later history
With the suppression of the slave trade in the 1850s, palm oilPalm oil
Palm 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...
and palm kernels became the main exports of the river.
The chiefs of Akwa Akpa placed themselves under British protection in 1884.
From 1884 until 1906 Old Calabar was the headquarters of the Niger Coast Protectorate
Niger Coast Protectorate
The 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...
, after which Lagos became the main center.
Now called Calabar, the city remained an important port shipping ivory, timber, beeswax, and palm produce until 1916, when the railway terminus was opened at Port Harcourt, 145 km to the west.
Calabar today has regained its importance as a port with the completion of roads providing good access to southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Exports include palm produce, timber, rubber, cocoa, copra, and piassava fibre.
Industries include sawmills, a cement factory, boat builders and plants to process rubber, palm oil and food.
Artisans make ebony artifacts for the Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
tourist market.
Since 1975 the city has been home to the University of Calabar
University of Calabar
The 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...
.
The port, and the neighboring Calabar Free Trade Zone
Calabar Free Trade Zone
The 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...
and Tinapa Free Zone & Resort have been held back by bureacratic problems, and also by poor power supply, poor roads and lack of dredging of the shallow Calabar River channel.
Environmental concerns
The city of Calabar is bounded by the Calabar River to the west, Great Kwa RiverGreat Kwa River
The Great Kwa River flows through Cross River State, Nigeria, draining the east side of the city of Calabar...
to the east and the wetlands of the Cross river estuary to the south. It can only grow to the north, into the Calabar River catchment area, and this has been happening.
The Calabar river watershed was originally covered by tropical rainforest.
Much has now been replaced by agriculture, road construction, forestry, industry and housing for the growing population of Calabar.
For example, the National Integrated Power Project covers a large area of land besides the Calabar-Itu
Itu, Nigeria
Itu is located in the south east of Nigeria and is a Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State....
highway at Ikot Nyong in Odukpani Local Government Area.
A study of changes in land use in the Calabar river catchment between 1967 and 2008 showed that the area covered by high forest decreased by almost 30% during that period. In 1967, high forest covered almost 70% of the basin area. By 2008 it covered less than 40%, mostly in the north.
Industrial quarrying began in the 1980s and now affects a significant area. It may be causing stream siltation and flooding as well as air and water pollution.
The built-up area more than doubled from 3.5% to 7.6% of the land area in the study period.
Calabar Municipality has no waste treatment facilities.
Human wastes and those from cottage industries are dumped in surface sites or into open drains.
The torrential rains wash most of the wastes into the Calabar and Great Kwa Rivers.
Urban pollution and oil exploration activity in the near shore area both threaten the ecology of the estuary, greatly reducing the numbers and diversity of the species that provide food for shrimps and fish.
A 1999 study of fish caught in the Calabar and Kwa rivers and in the estuary showed levels of copper and hydrocarbons were above the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
permissible levels in all samples.
Iron content was above permissible levels in 20% of samples.
The rate of accumulation of hydrocarbons was greater in the wet seasons, probably because of higher levels of contaminated material washed from vehicle maintenance shops by the torrential rains.
Calabar Municipality and Calabar South had a combined population of 371,000 in 2006.
The population of Cross River State has been growing at the rate of about 3% annually since 1991.
Growth rates are considerably higher in Calabar city.
The state government faces a serious challenge in accommodating this growth while maintaining income levels and avoiding ecological disaster.
Sources
|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/88678/Calabar|title=Calabar
|work=Encyclopedia Britannica
|accessdate=2011-09-07}}
|url=http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/BUN_CAL/CALABAR_or_OLD_CALABAR_.html
|title=Calabar (or Old Calabar)
|work=1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume V04, Page 962
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}
|title=Correspondence with the British Commissioners, at Sierra Leone, the Havana, Rio de Janeiro, and Surinam: relating to the slave trade, 1835 ...
|year=1836 |location=London |publisher=William Clowes and Sons}}
|url=http://crossriverstate.gov.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1168:governor-imoke-urges-federal-government-to-invest-in-tinapa&catid=209:quick-news
|title=Governor Imoke Urges Federal Government to Invest In Tinapa.
|publisher=Cross River State
|accessdate=2011-09-09}}
|url=http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=2829
|title=History of Calabar
|work=The African Executive
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}
|url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA73
|title=House of Commons papers |volume=19
|publisher=HMSO |year=1831}}
|url=http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/sitefactsheet.php?id=6740
|work=BirdLife International
|year=2010
|title=Important Bird Areas factsheet: Cross River National Park: Oban Division
|accessdate=2010-11-05}}
|url=http://nigerianpilot.com/?q=content/lack-facilities-stall-trade-calabar-free-trade-zone
|title=Lack Of Facilities Stall Trade At Calabar Free Trade Zone
|date=12/20/2010
|work=Nigerian Pilot
|accessdate=2011-09-09}}
|url=http://www.greatblacksinwax.org/Exhibits/middle_pass.htm
|title=The Middle Passage
|publisher=National Great Blacks in Wax Museum
|accessdate=2010-09-02}}