CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background of the Study

Anaang is a name which marks a dual identification: it identifies a people- the Anaang and their language. As a people, the Anaang is claimed to be the second-largest ethnic group after the Ibibio in the present-day Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. They number 1.4 million following the 1991 census result. They occupy the North – Western part of Akwa Ibom State with a total of 2.735g. kilometers. They are bounded by Abia State in the North, Rivers State in the West, the Ibibio people in the South, East, and North East.

The Anaang people are semi-Bantu speakers who originated from the central Benue valley in Nigeria. They are said to have moved through the Northern flank of the Cross River to the Enyong Greek and eventually through the present-day Eastern Ibibio (Ikono) land to settle at the location of the present-day Abak. Greenberg (1963) further claims that the Anaang people were the first wave of the Ibibio-speaking people to settle in the present-day Ibibio land (Greenberg 84). Udo argues that the Anaang people who migrated to the present area were semi-Bantu. The source points out that researchers have made it known that life had existed along the banks and valleys of Cross River many years even before the migration of the Bantu people to this part of the world” (37).

Anaang is one of the languages spoken by the Anaang people of Akwa Ibom State in the South-South geographical zone of Nigeria. Anaang belongs to the Bantu language group and it is spoken as a first language by the Anaang people. (Essien 1982:12). Gleason’s (1961) discussion on language families identifies the Niger-Congo as the most important language family in Africa. The central branch of this language family “centers on Eastern Nigeria and Cameroons”. Essien (1993:14) says that the migration of the ancestors of Anaang was a matter of securing a separate geographical entity in order to demarcate themselves from the Ibibio people. The reason for this separation, according to Essien, was because the Anaang people considered themselves as a distinct tribe, militant in nature, and would not succumb to any threat to their safety, language, and culture from any other people (Ibibio).

Geographically, the Anaang people occupy the Western part of Akwa Ibom State of the South-South geopolitical zone of the Nigeria nation. Anaang people live in eight out of thirty-one Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State: namely; Abak, Essien Udim, Ika, Ikot Ekpene, Ukanafun, Oruk Anam and Obot Akara.

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