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They were then followed by the French who visited the region intermittently till even after the English arrived in 1650 AD to take effective control of trade in the region. Since the Niger Delta region was made up of diverse communities of Annang, Edo, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri and Isoko speaking peoples with no known or well-established common language of communication, it was therefore easy for many Niger Deltans to learn the Portuguese-based pidgin of the Niger Delta at that time.Īfter the Portuguese left the region, the Dutch followed and traded at the eastern end of the region for about half a century. This, of course became crucial to the evolution of Naijá, which started out as a Portuguese-based pidgin in the Niger Delta. And this brought their language close to languages of the Niger Delta for an extended period of time. They established schools and churches where they taught Portuguese and the doctrines of Christianity in the region. They established strong diplomatic ties between some of the great kingdoms of the region and Portugal. They started trading with the people of the region from as early as 1469AD. The Portuguese were the first group of Europeans to visit and explore coastal Nigeria, especially around the area now known geo-politically as the Niger Delta. And this marked the beginning of an extended contact between the indigenous peoples of coastal Nigeria and visiting groups of Europeans. The country was first visited by European explorers and traders in the mid 15th Century.
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The country is an amalgamation of ethnically diverse groups of people speaking well over 500 different languages. Nigeria has a population of more than 162 million people (July 2011 United Nations estimate) scattered across its 923,768 square kilometers of swamps, forests and savannahs. By David Esizimetor and Francis Egbokhare