Okrika
Encyclopedia
Okrika is a port
town in Rivers State
, Nigeria
, capital of the Local Government Area of the same name. The town is situated on a small island just south of Port Harcourt, making it a suburb
of the much larger city.
The average elevation of Okrika is 452 metres. It lies on the north of the Bonny River
and on Okrika Island, 35 miles (56 km) upstream from the Bight of Biafra. The town can be reached by vessels of a draft of 29 feet (9 metres) or less.
Formerly a small fishing village of the Ijo (Ijaw) people in the mangrove swamps of the eastern Niger River delta, Okrika became the capital of the Okrika kingdom in the early 17th century and actively dealt in slaves. It served as a port for the exportation of palm oil after the abolition of the slave trade in the 1830s, but it was a less significant port facility than either Bonny (18 miles [46 km] south) or Opobo (32 miles [81 km] east-southeast). By 1912, Okrika had been completely eclipsed by Port Harcourt, and it was not revived as a commercial port until 1965, when the nearby Alesa-Eleme oil refinery was completed and pipelines were built to a jetty on Okrika Island.It also has a major gas plant facility (Alakiri gas plant)that supplies to the refinery and others.
Refined petroleum products are Okrika’s only significant exports. The town has considerable local trade in fish, oil palm produce, locally processed salt, cassava (manioc), taro, plantains, and yams. The 2006 census determined the population of the Wakirike Local Government Area of the Rivers State of Nigeria was 222,026. An estimated 145,000 Okrika natives live elsewhere around the world, mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The local Kirike language
is part of the ljoid
group.
Port
A 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....
town in Rivers State
Rivers State
Rivers State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria. Its capital is Port Harcourt. It is bounded on the South by the Atlantic Ocean, to the North by Imo, Abia and Anambra States, to the East by Akwa Ibom State and to the West by Bayelsa and Delta states...
, 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...
, capital of the Local Government Area of the same name. The town is situated on a small island just south of Port Harcourt, making it a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of the much larger city.
The average elevation of Okrika is 452 metres. It lies on the north of the Bonny River
Bonny River
Bonny River is a river in Rivers State, Nigeria. Water taxis which move along the river provide the connection between Bonny Island and Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, which lies alongside the river.-External links:*...
and on Okrika Island, 35 miles (56 km) upstream from the Bight of Biafra. The town can be reached by vessels of a draft of 29 feet (9 metres) or less.
Formerly a small fishing village of the Ijo (Ijaw) people in the mangrove swamps of the eastern Niger River delta, Okrika became the capital of the Okrika kingdom in the early 17th century and actively dealt in slaves. It served as a port for the exportation of palm oil after the abolition of the slave trade in the 1830s, but it was a less significant port facility than either Bonny (18 miles [46 km] south) or Opobo (32 miles [81 km] east-southeast). By 1912, Okrika had been completely eclipsed by Port Harcourt, and it was not revived as a commercial port until 1965, when the nearby Alesa-Eleme oil refinery was completed and pipelines were built to a jetty on Okrika Island.It also has a major gas plant facility (Alakiri gas plant)that supplies to the refinery and others.
Refined petroleum products are Okrika’s only significant exports. The town has considerable local trade in fish, oil palm produce, locally processed salt, cassava (manioc), taro, plantains, and yams. The 2006 census determined the population of the Wakirike Local Government Area of the Rivers State of Nigeria was 222,026. An estimated 145,000 Okrika natives live elsewhere around the world, mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The local Kirike language
Kirike Language
Kirike languageKirikeni okwoin or Kirike language is an Ijaw language of Nigeria. It is intelligible and mostly spoken by the Okrika nation in Rivers state of Nigeria in the Niger Delta area.It is well spoken and versed in the nine major towns that constitute the Okrika nation; kirike se....
is part of the ljoid
Ijoid languages
The Ijoid languages are spoken by the Ịjọ and Defaka peoples of the Niger Delta, who number about ten million. The most populous language by far is Izon, with about a million speakers, followed by Okrike-Kalabari with over a half million. The family is generally divided in two branches, Ịjọ and...
group.