Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/211

Human Ecosystems: Anyama District 18 THE HUMAN ECOSYSTEMS: THE ANYAMA DISTRICT
 * Location
 * Topography
 * Soils
 * The Natural Ecosystem
 * Natural and Viable Society
 * Modern Society
 * The Economy
 * The Environment as Seen by Local People
 * Social and Political Status

18.1 LOCATION

Anyama (pronounced Ay-ama as in eye) lies within the West African Freshwater Alluvial Monsoon ecozone. It is a river-side settlement on the Ekole Creek 20 kms South of Yenagoa in the Ogbia Local Government of Bayelsa State, (see map 8). It is in the Fresh-water ecozone of the Niger Delta. The Ekole Creek is a large river that at one time carried the waters subsequently captured by the Nun River.

The Anyama people speak a dialect which they call Ema. The dialect is one of the Kugbo-Ogbia cluster of dialects in the Central Delta group of languages which belongs to the Benue-Congo family, which is a sub-family of the Volta-Congo family, also a sub-family of the Atlantic-Congo family, (Professor Kay Williams, Department of Linguistics, University of Port Harcourt). The language is only distantly related to the Ijoid languages (both part of the Atlantic-Congo family) which are spoken immediately to the West and over the larger part of the Delta.

A number of villages up and down the river belong to the Anyama community, including Otuedu, Ologi and Onuebum.

A noticeable feature of Anyama is its relative isolation (compared to Botem-Tai and Nembe) despite being on a busy river and near to Yenagoa. It is not always easy to get a flying boat to stop. Footpaths along the river link the closest neighbouring communities.

18.2 TOPOGRAPHY

The Anyama district lies on the alluvial flood plain of the Niger Delta Map 8.). Like the Okoroba-Nembe district, it is a young dynamic landscape where rivers meander in wide curves across a plain which is so flat, that although the general flow is Southerly some rivers run in a Northerly direction. The young rivers erode the unstable alluvial deposits and spread fresh alluvium on one side of a river as they erode the other. Ox-bow lakes are formed and as the rivers shift their positions they capture sections of each other so that they may quite suddenly (in geological terms) carry a lot less water abandoning 209