Seaport, slave trade When
Portuguese explorers in the 15th century reached this part of the
Guinea coast, they called the tribes of the area "Calabar". These historic inhabitants were quas, Efuts, and efiks. Efik people migrated from the area of the
Niger River to the shores of Calabar. They were fleeing civil war with their kindred and the
Ibibio people. Since the 16th century, Calabar has served as an international
seaport, exporting such goods as
palm oil. During the centuries of the
Atlantic slave trade, it became a major port for shipment of African slaves to the Americas. The Spanish maintain the Calabar designation. Tribes around that region were taken in as slaves for slave trade. Such tribes included the
Igbo tribes (communities) who lived around that region at the time. Those minority tribes were subject to slave raids by more powerful tribes or ethnic groups in the region. From 1725 until 1750, roughly 17,000 enslaved Africans were sold from Calabar to European slave traders; from 1772 to 1775, the number soared to more than 62,000. Old Calabar (Duke Town) and
Creek Town, northeast, were crucial towns in the trade of slaves in that era. In 1815 , as part of the British
blockade of Africa, sailed into
Duke Town, where she captured seven Spanish and Portuguese
slave ships.
John Jea, an enslaved
African American, came from the area. He later became a writer. A small
mulatto community of merchants was located here that had links to missionary and other merchant colonies in Igboland,
Lagos, and across the
Atlantic. In 1846,
Scottish Presbyterians established a mission station in Calabar. Among the missionaries, Hope Waddell, who worked in Calabar from 1845 to 1858, and
Mary Slessor, who evangelized Christianity in Calabar from 1876 to 1915, worked to improve treatment by and among the native peoples. They influenced many Efik people to
convert to Christianity. They tried to change or abolish the following traditional practices: • Killing newborn twins, • Human sacrifice at the death of village elders (to provide servants for them in the afterlife), •
"Judgment of God", in which suspects in crime were poisoned, and convicted if they fell ill or died They founded a school to provide secondary education to Africans. They also worked to protect water supplies and limit mosquitoes to contain
yellow fever epidemics. Waddell and Slessor are still honoured in Calabar today; streets and squares in the city were named for them.
Colonial times On 10 September 1884,
Queen Victoria signed a treaty of protection with the king and chiefs of Akwa Akpa, known to
Europeans as Old Calabar—then the official title to distinguish it from
New Calabar to the east. Calabar was the headquarter of the European administration in the
Niger Delta until 1906 when the seat of government was moved to
Lagos. • First Nigerian city to have a secondary school (the Hope Waddell Training Institution), • first Nigerian city with a hospital (St Margaret's), • first Nigerian female pharmacist,
Biafra War After independence in 1960, tensions increased between the North and South areas of the country, which were strongly affiliated with Muslims and Christians, respectively. In addition, the South had a concentration of educated people who were politically powerful and had a history of trade and interaction with other communities. The Southeastern area decided to become independent and declared itself as the Republic of Biafra in 1967. It included Calabar. In October 1967, an armada of the Nigerian Navy left the harbour of Bonny on a naval campaign en route to Calabar. The ships carried troops of the Nigerian 3rd Naval Division under the command of Colonel Benjamin Adekunle. At this time, Calabar was being defended by the 9th Battalion of Biafrans under the command of Major Ogbo Oji. On 17 October, the Biafran defences on the beaches of Calabar came under heavy air and naval fire. Less than 24 hours later, the Nigerian 8th Battalion under the command of Major Ochefu went ashore at Lokoja and captured the Calabar cement factory. Later that day, the Nigerian 33rd Battalion landed on the beach at Calabar. The Biafran resistance was overwhelmed. After Nigerian troops advanced into Calabar from three different positions, bloody hand-to-hand fighting ensued. After suffering heavy losses, the remaining mercenaries retreated northward and fled Biafra. After three years, the country reunited under the Nigerian central government. == Economy ==