Onitsha
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General overview
.Onitsha is a city, commercial centre and river port of Anambra State, South eastern Nigeria. Historically,the former Eastern Nigeria did not experience a prolonged period of indigenous urbanisation like Ibadan for the southwest,Kano and Zaria in the north.Onitsha became an important trading port for the Royal Niger company in the mid 1850s.Following the abolition of slavery,trade in palm kernels and other cash crops boomed around this river port.Immigrants from the hinterland were drawn to the emerging boom town as did the Britsh traders who settled there and cordinated the palm oil and cash crops trade.In 1964,a bridge was built across the Niger River to replace the ferry crossing.Trade soared between the East and west of Nigeria.That thus made Onitsha the strategic gateway town for trade between the former eastern and western regions. The Biafran war years brought widespread devastation of Onitsha town.The following oil boom years brought huge influx of immigrants into the city.The war damaged facilities which was being repaired could not cope with the pace of the rural-urban exodus into the city.Slums consequently began to emerge from the hasty haphazard building construction to accomodate the huge influx.The city is estimated to have a population of more than 6 million, as of 2005. It lies at a major east-west crossing point of the Niger River, and occupies the northernmost point of the river regularly navigable by large vessels. These factors have historically made Onitsha a major centre for trade between the coastal regions and the north, as well as between eastern and western Nigeria. Onitsha possesses one of the very few road bridge crossings of the mile-wide Niger river.
History
Immigrants from the Kingdom of Benin are believed to have founded Onitsha in the 16th century. It soon became capital of an Igbo kingdom. In 1857 British traders in palm oil established a permanent station in the city, and Christian missionaries soon followed. In 1884 Onitsha became part of a British protectorate.The British colonial government and christian missionaries penetrated most of Igboland to set up their administrative authority,schools and churches through the river port at Onitsha.
Economy
Modern day industrial products include textiles, beer, mineral water, shoes, lumber, tyres, nails and printed publications. Traditional occupations include fishing and canoe-building. Local agriculture produces palm oil, maize, nuts, vegetables, and fruit.
Religion and politics
The city contains both Catholic and Anglican cathedrals. It is the residence of the traditional Igbo regional chieftain, the Obi of Onitsha. There is also a teacher training college for women and a famous leper colony. Onitsha is believed to have missed being named the state capital for a new state in the 1976 states creation. Thus, despite being one of the biggest commercial cities of west Africa, Onitsha remains congested from the over concentration of all her huge markets within the old city center and minimal expansion of the colonial roads infrastructure. The Federal and State governments have continued to deny the huge commercial city any significantly modern public hospital to cater for her huge population.
In February 2006 a Christian extremists here killed at least 24 Muslims and burned a few Muslim sites including two mosques. The riots were in response to riots by Muslims in the city of Maiduguri days earlier where at least 18 Christian were killed.
External links
Onitsha is also the title of a novel by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
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