The Ogonis are a people in the Rivers South East senatorial district of Rivers State, in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. They number just over 2 million and live in a homeland which they also refer to as Ogoniland. They share common oil-related environmental problems with the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta.
The Ogoni rose to international attention after a massive public protest campaign against Shell Oil, led by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which is also a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).
The territory is located in Rivers State near the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, east of the city of Port Harcourt. It extends across three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Khana, Gokana and Tai. Ogoniland is divided into the Five kingdoms: Babbe, Gokana, Ken-Khana, Nyo-Khana and Tai. Nyo-Khana is on the East while Ken-Khana is on the west.
Ogoni languages
There are multiple languages spoken by the Ogoni. The largest is Khana, which mutually intelligible with the dialects of the other kingdoms, Gokana, Tae (Tẹẹ), and Baen Ogoi part of the linguistic diversity of the Niger Delta.
According to oral tradition, the Ogoni people migrated from ancient Ghana down to the Atlantic coast eventually making their way over to the eastern Niger Delta and getting absorbed into the already existing Igbo and Ijaw population. The name, Ogoni originated from the Ibani/Ijaw word- Igoni, which means strangers. Linguistic calculations ns
eoples on the Guinea coast, the Ogoni have an internal political structure subject to community-by-community arrangement, including appointment of chiefs and community development bodies, some recognized by the government and others not. They survived the period of the slave trade in relative isolation and did not lose any of their members to enslavement. After Nigeria was colonized by the British in 1885, British soldiers arrived in Ogoni by 1901. Major resistance to their presence continued through 1914.