The Calabar River in
Cross River State
Cross River State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named for the Cross River, the state was formed from the eastern part of the Eastern Region on 27 May 1967. The state has its capital as Calabar and is bordered to ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
flows from the north past the city of
Calabar
Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari, Cali and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language, as the Efik people dominate this area. The city is adjac ...
, 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 .
The Calabar River was once a major source of slaves brought down from the interior to be shipped west in the
Atlantic slave trade
The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...
. Slaving was suppressed by 1860, but the port of Calabar remained important in the export of
palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...
and other products, until it was eclipsed by
Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...
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 Hills in the
Cross River National Park. The geology of the river basin includes the
Pre-Cambrian
The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
Oban Massif, Cretaceous sediments of the Calabar flank and the recent
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...
sedimentary basin. The basin is about wide and long, with an area of 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 . Average temperatures range from in August to in February. Relative humidity is high, between 80% and 100%. The basin has 223 streams with a total length of . 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.
In 1862 the
Zoological Society of London
The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...
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 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
Calabar
Calabar (also referred to as Callabar, Calabari, Calbari, Cali and Kalabar) is the capital city of Cross River State, Nigeria. It was originally named Akwa Akpa, in the Efik language, as the Efik people dominate this area. The city is adjac ...
was founded by
Efik
The Efik are an ethnic group located primarily in southern Nigeria, and western Cameroon. Within Nigeria, the Efik can be found in the present-day Cross River State and Akwa Ibom state. The Efik speak the Efik language which is a member of the ...
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
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an 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 Town, originally known as Atakpa, is an Efik city-state that flourished in the 19th century in what is now southern Nigeria. The City State extended from now Calabar to Bakassi in the east and Oron to the west. Although it is now absorbed ...
(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
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...
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
A polacca (or ''polacre'') is a type of seventeenth- to nineteenth-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. It had two or th ...
-bark ''Minerva'', which was armed with two 18-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. The ship's boats had sailed 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.
Later history
With the suppression of the slave trade in the 1850s,
palm oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...
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
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 1884 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the following year. It was renamed on 12 M ...
, after which
Lagos
Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
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
Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...
, 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 ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
tourist market.
Since 1975 the city has been home to the
University of Calabar
The University of Calabar is a federal university situated in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. It is one of Nigeria's second-generation federal universities. The University of Calabar was a campus of the University of Nigeria until 1975. ...
.
The development of the port, and the neighboring
Calabar Free Trade Zone and
Tinapa Free Zone & Resort has been held back in recent years by bureaucratic 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 River
The Great Kwa River'' flows through Cross River State, Nigeria, draining the east side of the city of Calabar. The river ecology is under threat from human activity.
Location
The river originates in the Oban Hills, in the Cross River National ...
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
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU:
*
* is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established ...
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
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
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.
References
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{{Authority control
Rivers of Nigeria
Cross River State