CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Preamble
This research sets out to investigate, describe, and analyze the problems and influence of Enwang mother tongue on Enwang Secondary School children attempting to learn English as a foreign and target language. This chapter is concerned with introductory matters such as the preamble to the study, background to the study, statement of problem, research questions, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study. In fact, it is under this introductory chapter that we are going to state the problems and situations which triggered off this research.
1.1 Background to the Study
It is under this sub-section of chapter one that we are going to explain the background of the people and children whom this study is specifically concerned, which are Ebughu people, and children in secondary school, specifically.
According to Uya (1984:21), the Enwang, one of the group that inhabit the Mbo littoral called Effiat Mbo, today live principally in the villages of Eyukut, Ejejai, Ubotuong, Ukoakpan, Ekiebongs, Eyudombo, Uba, Ibete, Ibot Ikot and Udingi. Except for Ibot Ikot and Udingi, the other villages are contiguous, and generally referred to as “Atai Enwang” (real Enwang) was estimated at about 25,000 making Enwang the largest group in the Effiat Mbo area. Initially grouped in the Effiat Clan, Enwang is now grouped with villages of Afaha Okpo, and there have been intermittent moves to have Enwang carved out as a separate clan.
There are basically two competing traditions on the origin and migrations of the Enwang to their present location (Uya, 1984:22). The first of this two traditions associates Enwang with the alleged movements of the Oron Ukpabang from “Usiak utin” (the East) to the Cameroons area. From there, along with the Ukpabang, the emigrants entered Nigeria in the Andoni region where they stayed for a while. Subsequent migration from Andoni brought the Enwang and the Oron to the present areas they occupy. This tradition thus associates Enwang with the Oron group, especially the Okpo group/clan and this explains the recent inclusion of Enwang in the Okpo clan. One informant, Chief Okwong Otioro aged 65 years claims that Enwang was the grandson of Okpo, founder of the Okpo clan in Oron. He said that his parents told him that Enwang people came to settle at Calabar after they had lived at Ibom near Arochukwu.
The second tradition links the Enwang people with the Efik of Old Calabar. Indeed, there has been the tendency to see the Enwang as one of the original Eburutu clans that dispersed from Ibom to Uruan. According to this tradition, the four Eburutu clans that arrived Uruan from Ibom were Abayen, Usuk Akpan, Enwang and Iboku. It is further claimed that the Enwang, along with Abayen and usuk-Akpa actually left Uruan before the final exit of the Iboku to Creek Town area. The Enwang are unanimous in linking their ancestory to that of the Efik. One of our informants declared:
Enwang was one of the Efik clans before the Europeans came to their area. We have always been known as Enwang. The father of the Efiks and Enwangs was Eburutu. We all settled at Igboland and Uruan before we left and settled at Calabar because of trouble and war. (Chief Okwong Otioro from Enwang Uda)
The details of Enwang migrations from Uruan are rather full. Like the Efiks the Enwang refused to be absorbed into the Uruan society.
The Enwang left Uruan before the Efik and followed the Cross River until they reached present day, Henshaw Town in Calabar. This claim of prior settlement of the Enwang in Calabar before the arrival of the Efik was the basis of a 1916 court judgment by Justice A. F. Webber (Uya, 1984: 23-24). It is more probable, he wrote, “that as far as Calabar land is concerned, the Efik when they came from Creek Town met the Kwas and the Enwangs. The Enwangs, an Efik tribe, must have come before the other Efiks. This is traditional history as given by the Henshaws, the Enwangs and the Kwas. Eyo Okon Akak, according to Uya (1984:25), has also concluded in a recent study that “the Akpas, Abayens and Enwangs were the first setters mainly on the coast as fishermen and traders and they were all of Efik stock and family”.
Further evidence of Enwang early presence in the area is that the most powerful deity among the Enwang, Anantigha is still located at present day Efut beach. Indeed, Chief Isemin Abia insists that in the past an Enwang Chief had to be present during the installation or burial of any Obong of Efikland. Be that it may, Enwang residence in present day Calabar was not without incidence. The Enwang people were generally believed to have magical powers capable of turning them into crocodiles to kill their neighbours in the adjacent rivers. It was reasoned that this was why they would not let their young girls to fetch water from the streams. Finally, matters came to a head when the Enwang popular masquerade, Etok Udo Ekang, drove a non-initiate into the house of an Nsidung woman, knocked down a door which fell on a sleeping baby who was killed instantly. War broke out between the Nsidung and the Enwang and after an initial victory, the Enwang were deflated and forced to migrate once again.