HISTORY OF ENUGU STATE

Enugu is the capital of Enugu State in Nigeria. It is located in southeastern Nigeria. The city has a population of 722,664 according to the 2006 Nigerian census, however, this number is believed to have risen to 3.3 million as of 2014. The name Enugu is derived from the two Igbo words Énú Ụ́gwụ́ meaning “hill top” denoting the city’s hilly geography. The city was named after Enugwu Ngwo, under which coal was found.

Since the 17th century the location of present day Enugu has been inhabited by the Nike subgroup of the Igbo people; one of Enugu’s neighbourhoods still retains the village’s old name Ogui. In 1900 the Southern Nigeria Protectorate was established by the colonial

administration of the British Empire. The discovery of coal by the colonialists led to the building of the Eastern Line railway to carry coal from the inland city to the port of Port Harcourt, a city created for this purpose located 151 miles (243 km) south of what was called Enugu Coal Camp. Enugu Coal Camp was then renamed simply Enugu and developed as one of the few cities in West Africa created from European contact. By 1958 Enugu had over 8,000 coal miners. As of 2005 there are no significant coal mining activities left in the city.

Enugu became the capital of the Eastern Region after Nigeria’s independence in 1960; a succession of territorial adjustments in 1967, 1976 and 1991 led to Enugu becoming the capital of what is now Enugu State. On 30 May 1967 Enugu was declared the capital of the short-lived Republic of Biafra; for this Enugu is known as the “capital of Igboland.”

Industries in the city include the urban market and bottling industries. Enugu has become a preferred filming location for directors of the Nigerian movie industry, dubbed “Nollywood”. Enugu’s main airport is the Akanu Ibiam International Airport. The main educational establishment in the city is the Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria based in Nsukka, a town north of Enugu and in the same state.

Early history

The first settlement in the Enugu area was the small Nike village of Ogui, which was present since the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Nike in the Igbo language means “with strength or power.” It was through slave raiding that the Nike people acquired most of their lands, which were mostly unsettled. The Nike used slaves for a defence strategy, placing slave camps at the edge of their territories so that it was harder for an enemy to access the free born. The Nike people were allied to the Aro people who formed the Aro Confederacy (1690—1901) which was an Igbo organisation that controlled slave trading in the Enugu area. Along with the Aro people who came to trade from Arochukwu in the south were the Hausa people who came to trade from the north. The Hausa traders provided horses to the Nike which were used for rituals by the Igbo. Both the Aro and Hausa migrated back and forth to what is now the city of Enugu and were considered foreigners to the area.

Industrialization

A British campaign to invade Arochukwu and open up the hinterland for British military and political rule was carried out in 1901. A war between the British and Aro officially started on 1 December 1901 lasting till 24 March 1902 when the Aro were defeated. The Aro Confederacy ended and the rest of Aro dominated areas was added to The Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, declared in 1900. Europeans first arrived in the Enugu area in 1903 when the British/Australian geologist Albert Ernest Kitson led an exploration of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate to search for especially valued mineral resources under the supervision of the Imperial Institute, London. By 1909 coal was found under the village of Enugwu Ngwo in the Udi and Okoga areas and by 1913 the coal was confirmed to be in quantities that would be vi…