The Defaka, also called Afakani, are a small ethnic group in southwest Nigeria. In fact Nigeria is one of the places where there is a large number of existing languages - 515. The size of the community that speaks this language was about one thousand several years ago (1992), but the updated figure suggests that today it is about a fifth of that. They live in the eastern part of the Niger Delta. Most live in the Afakani area of Nkoroo city. Others live on the island of Iwoma Nkoro, near Kono. Their “neighbors” are, as well as the Nkoroo (with which they have a good relationship), the Ogoni and the Obolo. Defaka became endangered because of mixing with the Nkoroo language.
The Iselema area is the epicenter of their culture. Later they migrated towards the eastern region of the Niger Delta, where they lived in close contact with the Abuloma people in the Okrika territory. They then came into contact with various tribes like the Udekama, crossing various border zones until they settled in Olomama Nkoroo and then finally in Nkoroo. It was this close contact with the Nkoroo that partly eroded the Defaka language: paradoxically good relations with this population have led to the Defaka culture, in reality very close to the Nkoroo, being absorbed and that the children began to grow up speaking the Nkoroo language as a first language. Ibo is another language that tainted Defaka. Even today Ibo is considered the language of schooling and economic transactions. The languages have been in contact for about 300 years.
Contamination, both on Iwoma Island and in Nkoroo, were inevitable and a hierarchy of the three languages has naturally formed and has ended up penalizing Defaka. There are currently around 250 people who continue to express themselves in this language and all are related.
The one major factor influencing the outcome is petroleum: the economy of the Niger Delta is strongly tied to this resource and it is wreaking havoc on the ecological and anthropological balance of the area.
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