These groups likely took their name from the Bakassi peninsula, an oil-rich peninsula in the Annang /Efik / Ibibio region of the coastal southeastern Nigeria disputes over the peninsula which had hastened hostilities between Nigeria and Cameroon, with both countries contending for ownership of the region and its resources.
Most of this Nigerian immigrants are of Yoruba, Igbo and Ibibio origins.
Ibibio |
Efik language, their language, a variation of the Ibibio language
Historians have compared the significance of Nri, at its peak, to the religious cities of Rome or Mecca: it was the seat of a powerful and imperial state that influenced much of the territories inhabited by the Igbo of Awka and Onitsha to the east; the Efik, the Ibibio, and the Ijaw to the South; Nsukka and southern Igala to the north; and Asaba, and the Anioma to the west.
The raffia palm is important in societies such as that of the Province of Bohol in the Philippines, Kuba of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nso of Cameroon, the Igbo and Ibibio/Annang of southestern, the Urhobo and Ijaw people of Niger delta Nigeria and the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria, among several other West African ethnic nations.
Before Nigeria became a country through British colonial government, Southeastern Nigeria was a home to many ethnic groups such as the Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Efik, Annang, Ekoi, etc.