The Defaka (called Afakani by their neighbours, the
Nkoroo) are a small ethnic group of south-eastern
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, ...
, numbering fewer than a thousand people. They live in the eastern part of the
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 ...
,
Rivers State
Rivers is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...
, Bonny District; part of them in the Defaka ward of Nkoroo town in close relationship with the
Nkoroo people, and another part of them on the isolated island of
Iwoma Nkoro, near
Kono. Present neighbours of the Defaka, apart from the Nkoroo people, are: at
Iwoma, the
Ogoni people (speakers of Ogoni/Kana/Khana), and to the east, the
Obolo. The Defaka have a less cordial relationship with these peoples than with the Nkoroo.
The
Defaka language
Defaka is an endangered language, endangered and divergent Nigeria, Nigerian language of uncertain classification. It is spoken in the Opobo–Nkoro Local government area, LGA of Rivers State, in the Defaka or Afakani ward of Nkọrọ town and ...
is thought to be most closely related to the
Ijo languages, which is the basis for the
Ijoid language family first proposed by Jenewari (1983). Defaka is being rapidly pushed to
extinction
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
as speakers are
shifting to the language of the Nkoroo people. All Defaka people speak Nkoroo; most use it as their primary language, even when talking with other Defaka speakers. At most 200 speakers of Defaka are left, mostly elderly people; as such, the language may already be
moribund
Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death.
Moribund may refer to:
* ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann
* " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...
(or nearly so).
History
The Defaka have always been a people small in number, and their history is a long narrative of harassment by numerically superior neighbours and subsequent migrations. According to oral histories reported in Jenewari (1983), the original home of the Defaka was in the
Iselema area (present-day
Delta State
Delta is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South (Nigeria), South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named after the Niger Delta—a large part of which is in the state—the state was formed from the former Bendel State, on 27 August 1 ...
). From there, they moved via the Central Delta into the Eastern Delta region, where they lived close to the
Abuloma ethnic group. Later they lived close to the
Udekama (Degema) people in the
Engenni area, and subsequently they entered the
Bonny territory to live at
Abalama Olotombia, and later near
Bodo
Bodo may refer to:
Ethnicity
* Boro people, also called ''Bodo'', an ethno-linguistic group mainly from Northwest Assam, India
* Bodo-Kachari people, an umbrella group from Nepal, India and Bangladesh that includes the Boro people
Culture an ...
in Ogoni. They moved to
Iyoba
The Iyoba of Benin is an important female titleholder in the chieftaincy system of the Kingdom of Benin, a Nigerian traditional state. She is otherwise known in English as the Queen Mother.
History
When King Ozolua died in the fifteenth centu ...
in the
Andoni
Andoni is a Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is located in Ngo-Town. It has an area of over 233 km and a population of over 311,500 at the last census. The postal code of the area is 504. The current Executive ...
country before establishing Olomama Nkoroo (''Old town''). From there, they finally moved to the present-day Nkoroo town. The Nkoroo people, neighbours of the Defaka and numbering about 4500, relate a similar tradition of migration. Thus, the Defaka and Nkoroo peoples have presumably been living together as neighbours prior to the establishment of Nkoroo town, perhaps even since the time that both of them were in the
Okrika
Okrika is a town in Rivers State, Nigeria, and serves as the headquarters of Okrika Local Government Area. It is situated on an island south of Port Harcourt, functioning as a suburb of the city.
The inhabitants of Okrika LGA are of Ijaw descent ...
territory.
See also
*
Demographics of Nigeria#Ethnic groups
*
Niger#Ethno-linguistic groups
References
* Blench, Roger (2000, rev. 2003) 'Language Death in West Africa' (unpublished paper given at the Round Table on Language Endangerment, Bad Godesborg, February 12–17, 2000).
* Jenewari, Charles E.W. (1983) 'Defaka, Ijo's Closest Linguistic Relative', in Dihoff, Ivan R. (ed.) ''Current Approaches to African Linguistics Vol 1'', 85–111.
* Shryock, A., Ladefoged, P., & Williamson, K. (1996/97) 'The phonetic structures of Defaka', ''Journal of West African Languages'', 26, 2, 3–27.
External links
Defaka at UNESCOat The UCLA Phonetics Lab.
Defakatargeted by a proposal to document endangered languages.
Defaka and Nkorooa project to document Defaka and Nkoroo
{{Indigenous peoples of Rivers State
Indigenous peoples of Rivers State
br:Defakeg