Cross River State, Nigeria: A Global Visual Cultural and Forest Biodiversity Tourism Destination

• Authors: Effiom Essien Oku
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The evidence of Cross River State in Nigeria as a global visual cultural, biodiversity and wildlife tourism distinction located in West Africa is presented using photo-inventory. A socio-scientific photo-sourcing and explanation was carried out. The ancient city of Calabar that received early Christian missionaries to Nigeria is the capital of Cross River State in Nigeria, West Africa now host the Africa’s annual biggest street party (Calabar carnival). The ancient house of Mary Mitchell Slessor a Scottish missionary to Nigeria who stopped the ancient practice of killing of twins and multiple births built in 1848, stands in Calabar as a monument that attracts tourists from all parts of the world. The international Ekpe masquerade, boat and canoe race in Calabar, lebuko new yam festival in Ugep, Central Cross River are tourists attracted festivals. Being home of tropical forest with rare biodiversity added with wildlife, some mammals as endangered Gorilla, drill, chimpanzee and African black elephants, including different species of African Primates are seen in the protected zones of the National Park and Afi Wildlife Sanctuary. Photos of numerous huge ancient carved and engraved standing stones (Monoliths) dating back to 1200 BC are found in about 30 communities in Ikom, the Central part of Cross River State of Nigeria. Spectacular natural waterfalls for relaxation are in existence. The Obudu mountain Resort city exhibit the four weather type witness in Europe and America. The Resort is located on a mountain 1600 m high in the Northern Cross River State. Photos of the winding road from the bottom of the mountain to the top and nature dug swimming pools are places to visit.

Keywords

EN

Biodiversity; Calabar carnival; Cross River State; Monoliths; Street party; Tourism; Wildlife; endangered animals

Discipline

• FORESTRY: FORESTRY

• Publisher: Scientific Publishing House „DARWIN”
• Journal: The Institute of Biopaleogeography named under Charles R. Darwin
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 13
• Pages: 1-101

Contributors

author

Effiom Essien Oku

• Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Nigeria

References

• [1] Akpang, C. E. Beyond anthropological and associational discourse interrogating the minimalism of Ikom Monoliths as concept and found object art. Global Journal of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences 2 (1) (2014) 67-84
• [2] Flora S. Kaplan (1990). Some uses of photographs in recovering cultural history at the royal court of Benin, Nigeria. Visual Anthropology, 3: 2-3, 317-341, DOI:
• [3] Rouch, Jean. 1975. The Situation and Tendencies of the Cinema in Africa. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 2(1): 51-58
• [4] Sprague, Stephen. 1978. How I See the Yoruba See Themselves. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 5(1): 9-2
• [5] Joseph Nevadomsky. (2015) Photographic Representations of the Oba in the Contemporary Art of the Benin Kingdom. Critical Interventions 9: 3, pages 219-229
• [6] Kate Winskell, Peter J. Brown, Amy E. Patterson, Camilla Burkot, Benjamin C. Mbakwem. Making Sense of HIV in Southeastern Nigeria Fictional Narratives, Cultural Meanings, and Methodologies in Medical Anthropology. Medical Anthropology Quarterly Volume 27, Issue 2, June 2013, Pages 193-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12023
• [7] Robyn Singleton, Chris Obong’o, Benjamin Chigozie Mbakwem, Gaelle Sabben, Kate Winskell, Conceptualizing Consent: Cross-national and Temporal Representations of Sexual Consent in Young Africans’ Creative Narratives on HIV. The Journal of Sex Research, 10.1080/00224499.2021.1952399, (1-12), (2021)
• [8] Robyn Singleton, Gaelle Sabben, Kate Winskell, The spectrum of sexual transaction: representations in young Africans’ HIV-themed creative narratives. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 10.1080/13691058.2020.1727568, (1-17), (2020)
• [9] Kate Winskell, Gaëlle Sabben, Rob Stephenson, Kaitlyn L. Pruitt, Kristi Allen, Trinity Findlay, From condemnation to normalisation: Young Africans’ narratives about same-sex attraction and implications for communication and advocacy efforts. Global Public Health, 10.1080/17441692.2016.1203969, 13, 7, (859-873), (2016)
• [10] Kate Winskell, Gaëlle Sabben, Sexual stigma and symbolic violence experienced, enacted, and counteracted in young Africans’ writing about same-sex attraction. Social Science & Medicine, 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.004, 161, (143-150), (2016)
• [11] John E. Ehiri, Juliet Iwelunmor, Theddeus Iheanacho, Sarah Blackstone, Michael C. Obiefune, Amaka G. Ogidi, Frances U. Ahunanya, Donatus Nnadi, Dina Patel, Aaron T. Hunt, Echezona E. Ezeanolue, Using a Cultural Framework to Understand Factors Influencing HIV Testing in Nigeria. International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 10.1177/0272684X16685258, 37, 1, (33-42), (2016)
• [12] Jonathan Haynes (2010). A literature review: Nigerian and Ghanaian videos. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 22:1, 105-120, DOI: 10.1080/13696810903488645
• [13] Adamu, Abdalla Uba (2007). Currying favour: Eastern media influences and the Hausa video film. Film International, 5(4): 77-89
• [14] Adamu, Yusuf M. 2002. Between the word and the screen: a historical perspective on the Hausa literary movement and the home video invasion. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 15(2): 203-213
• [15] Adejunmobi, Moradewun (2002). English and the audience of an African popular culture. Cultural Critique, 50: 74-103
• [16] Adejunmobi, Moradewun (2007). Nigerian video film as minor transnational practice. Postcolonial Text, 3(2): 1-16
• [17] Adejunmobi, Moradewun (2008). Technorality, literature, and vernacular literacy in twenty-first-century Africa. Comparative Literature, 60(2): 164-185
• [18] Adeleke, Durotaye A. (2003). Culture, art and film in an African society: an evaluation. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 12(1): 49-56
• [19] Adeleke, Durotaye A. (2007). Parody of the Shakespearean fool tradition in an African society. Journal of Social Sciences, 15(1): 35-42
• [20] Adesokan, Akin (2004). Loud in Lagos: Nollywood videos. Wasafiri, 19(43): 45-49
• [21] Adeyemi, S. T. (2004). The culture specific application of sound in Nigerian video movies. Nigerian Music Review, 5: 51-61
• [22] Ajibade, Babson (2008). The need to deemphasise theoretic projects and emphasise experimental research among arts students in Nigerian universities. The Social Sciences, 3(1): 12-16
• [23] Akpabio, Eno (2007). Attitude of audience members to Nollywood films. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 16(1): 90-100
• [24] Dogbe, Esi (2003). Warped identities: dress in popular West African video films. African Identities, 1(1): 95-117
• [25] Fabian, Johannes (1978). Popular culture in Africa: findings and conjectures. Africa, 48(4): 315-334
• [26] Krings, Matthias. (2008). Conversion on screen: a glimpse at popular Islamic imaginations in northern Nigeria. Africa Today, 54(4): 45-68
• [27] McCall, John C. (2002). Madness, money, and movies: watching Nigerian popular videos with a native doctor's guidance. Africa Today, 49(3): 78-94
• [28] McCall, John C. (2004). Juju and justice at the movies: vigilantes in Nigerian popular videos. African Studies Review, 47(3): 51-67
• [29] Meyer, Birgit. (2007). Pentecostalism and neo-liberal capitalism. Faith, prosperity and vision in African pentecostal-charismatic churches. Journal for the Study of Religion, 20(2): 5–28
• [30] Meyer, Birgit. (2008). Introduction. Special issue media and the senses in the making of religious experience. Material Religion, 4(2): 124-35
• [31] Meyer, Birgit. (2008). Powerful pictures. Popular Protestant aesthetics in southern Ghana. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 76(1): 82-110
• [32] Omoera, Osakue Stevenson. (2009). Video film and African social reality: a consideration of Nigeria-Ghana block of West Africa. Journal of Human Ecology, 25(3): 193–9
• [33] Shaka, Femi Okiremuete (2003). History, genres, and Nigeria's emergent video film industry. Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, 5(2): 51-64
• [34] Ukadike, Frank Nwachukwu. (2000). Images of the reel thing: African video-films and the emergence of a new cultural art. Social Identities, 6(3): 237-40
• [35] Werner, Jean-François. (2006). How women are using television to domesticate globalization: a case study on the reception and consumption of telenovelas in Senegal. Visual Anthropology, 19: 443-7
• [36] Ann Overbergh. (2014) Technological innovation and the diversification of audiovisual storytelling circuits in Kenya. Journal of African Cultural Studies 26:2, pages 206-219
• [37] Lindiwe Dovey. (2010) African film and video: pleasure, politics, performance. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22: 1, pages 1-6
• [38] Birgit Meyer. (2010). ‘Tradition and colour at its best’: ‘tradition’ and ‘heritage’ in Ghanaian video-movies. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22:1, pages 7-23.
• [39] Gairoonisa Paleker. (2010) The B-Scheme subsidy and the ‘black film industry’ in apartheid South Africa, 1972–1990. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22:1, pages 91-104.
• [40] Alexie Tcheuyap. (2010). Comedy of power, power of comedy: strategic transformations in African cinemas. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22:1, pages 25-40.
• [41] Jade Miller. (2012). Global Nollywood: The Nigerian movie industry and alternative global networks in production and distribution. Global Media and Communication 8:2, pages 117-133
• [42] Josef Gugler. (2010) African Films in the Classroom. African Studies Review 53: 3, pages 1-17.
• [43] Moffat, D. and Linden, O. (1995) Perception and Reality: Assessing Sustainable Development in the Niger River Delta. Ambio, 24, 527-538
• [44] Agbagwa, I.O. (2008) Impact of the Construction of Access Roads to Oil Well Locations and Flow Stations on the Biodiversity of Some Niger Delta Floodplains. Journal of Applied Science Research, 4, 1876-1884
• [45] Agbagwa, I.O. and Ekeke, C. (2011). Structure and Phytodiversity of Freshwater Swamp Forest in Oil-Rich Bonny, Rivers State, Nigeria. Research Journal of Forestry, 5, 66-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.3923/rjf.2011.66.77
• [46] Umechuruba, C.I. (2005) Health Impact Assessment of Mangrove Vegetation in an Oil Spilled Site at the Bodo West Field in Rivers State. Nigeria Journal of Applied Science and Environmental Management, 9, 69-73
• [47] Ndubuisi, A.L. and Asia, I.O. (2007). Environmental Pollution in Oil Producing Areas of the Niger Delta Basin, Nigeria: Empirical Assessment of Trends and People’s Perception. Environmental Research Journal, 1, 18-26
• [48] Eregha, P.B. and Irughe, I.R. (2009). Oil Induced Environmental Degradation in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta: The Multiplier Effects. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 11, 160-175
• [49] Egbe, R.E. and Thompson, D. (2010) Environmental Challenges of Oil Spillage for Families in Oil Producing Communities of the Niger Delta Region. Journal of Home Economics Research, 13, 24-34
• [50] Agbagwa, I. and Ndukwu, B. (2014). Oil and Gas Pipeline Construction-Induced Forest Fragmentation and Biodiversity Loss in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Natural Resources, 5, 698-718. doi: 10.4236/nr.2014.512061
• [51] Eugene E. Ezebilo (2011) Local participation in forest and biodiversity conservation in a Nigerian rain forest. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 18: 1, 42-47, DOI: 10.1080/13504509.2011.544389

• Document Type: article