AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY JOUNAL OF ARTS

The thrust of this paper is to assess the historical and significant impact of Obolo on the Ibani from settlement to 2015. Bonny settlement history in the Eastern Niger Delta is characterised by their waves of migrations from their home land in the Ijaw country of the Central Niger Delta to the Ndoki area through Opuoko in Ogoni territory, and finally arrived at their present place of settlement which was relinquished to them by the Obolo inhabitants of the territory. The Ibani migration and settlement at Ndoki further exposed them to the Obolo who traded with the Ndoki people along the Imo River where they exchanged their marine resources with agricultural produce of the Ndoki respectively. The Ibani contact and interactions with the Obolo was a precursor to the Obolo hospitable gesture to the Ibani forebear migrants. This work adopted the primary and secondary sources to reconstruct this past. The paper found out that Bonny was not self-made but owed their development to the enormous significant contributions of the Obolo. The paper therefore concludes that the Obolo had impacted extensively on the Ibani in several critical areas of their existence which enhanced their attainment of historical achievements and global prominence.

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