Onitsha
| Onitsha | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|||
| Coordinates | 6 ° 8 ' N , 6 ° 47' E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Nigeria | ||
| Anambra | |||
| ISO 3166-2 | NG-AN | ||
| Residents | 1,285,000 (calculation 2018) | ||
| Metropolitan area | 1,708,539 (calculation 2012) | ||
Onitsha is a city in the state of Anambra in Nigeria with 1.285 million inhabitants (2018). The city is located on the Niger River near Enugu in southern Nigeria.
history
Onitsha was founded in the 16th century by immigrants from the Kingdom of Benin and the Niger Delta under the name Ado N'Idu and later became the capital of the Igbo Empire . In 1857 Great Britain established a trading post in the place. In 1884 Onitsha came under British colonial rule. Since 1960 the city has belonged to the independent state of Nigeria. Today the city is the residence of Obi of Onitsha , a chief of the Igbo people, and with the Cathedral Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop in the Archdiocese of Onitsha .
Population development of the agglomeration according to the UN
| year | population |
|---|---|
| 1950 | 74,000 |
| 1960 | 129,000 |
| 1970 | 195,000 |
| 1980 | 257,000 |
| 1990 | 337,000 |
| 2000 | 533,000 |
| 2010 | 869,000 |
| 2017 | 1,223,000 |
economy
Onitsha is an important industrial and commercial center in the region. The city trades in fruit , vegetables , palm products , corn and nuts . Industrial products in Onitsha include petroleum products , textiles , car tires and nails . In a 2016 study by the World Health Organization , Onitsha had the world's largest air pollution with fine particulate matter (PM10).
traffic
Onitsha has a bridge over the Niger, which makes the city a major road transport hub. The river connects Onitsha with the ports of Port Harcourt in the state of Rivers and Bururu and Warri in the state of Delta .
literature
In the 1950s and 1960s, the so-called Onitsha Market Literature developed in Onitsha , which set off a veritable "literature boom" in Nigeria. It was mainly written in pidgin English and dealt with topics such as advice, love or other worries in the daily life of the normal population. The Onitsha Market Literature is one of the best known examples of African Popular Literature or Popular Culture . A similar development can be seen today in northern Nigeria, where one often speaks of the Kano Market Literature in analogy , which, however, is mainly published in Hausa .
A novel by the French Nobel Prize laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is set in Onitsha and is also called " Onitsha ".
sons and daughters of the town
- Henry Onyekuru (* 1997), national soccer player
- Austin Ejide (* 1984), national soccer player
- Francis Obikwelu (* 1978), Portuguese sprinter of Nigerian origin
- Valerian Okeke (* 1953), Archbishop of Onitsha
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ CIA Factbook
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Population data of the Onitsha agglomeration
- ↑ Fragments of Onitsha History by Ben N. Azikiwe
- ↑ World Urbanization Prospects - Population Division - United Nations. Retrieved July 23, 2018 .
- ↑ Which are the world's two most polluted cities - and why? . Article in The Guardian, May 12, 2016
literature
- Emmanuel N. Obiechina: An African popular literature: a study of Onitsha market pamphlets . Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1973, ISBN 0-521-09744-4
- Emmanuel N. Obiechina: Onitsha market literature . London [u. a.]: Heinemann, 1972.
- Onitsha Market Literature at the Spencer Research Library (Kansas)
- Onitsha Market Literature at the Indiana University
