Warri

==History==

===Etymology===
The name 'WARRI' was first associated with the [[Itsekiri]] [[ancestral]] capital town of [[Ode-Itsekiri|Ode Itsekiri]] which the locals also refer to as 'Iwerre'. A [[mispronunciation]] of Iwerre by several European [[explorers]] probably resulted in various names like AWERRI, OUWERI, WARRE, WARREE, etc. The [[British Empire|British]] eventually anglancised it as WARRI<ref>Ryder, A. F. C. "MISSIONARY ACTIVITY IN THE KINGDOM OF WARRI TO THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY." Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. 2, no. 1, 1960, pp. 1–26. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41970817. Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.
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===British Advent pre Warri City===
[[British colonial]]ism effectively took off in the Western [[Niger Delta]] with the proclamation of the Oil Coast Protectorate by [[Great Britain]] in June 1885. [[British colonial]] administration was carried out through local chiefs like Nana Olomu of Ebrohimi in [[Benin River]]. This administration was effectively restricted to Benin River and its environs as the [[British Empire|British]] were content with conducting [[trade]] with the people of the [[hinterland]]s through the [[Itsekiri people|Itsekiri]] as [[Intermediary|middlemen]]<ref>Lloyd, P. C. "The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century; An Outline Social History." The Journal of African History, vol. 4, no. 2, 1963, pp. 207–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/179535. Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.
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===Creation of Warri City===
The [[United Kingdom|British]] decided to move the seat of the administration of the Niger Coast Protectorate from the capital [[Ode-Itsekiri]] (Warri or Iwerre) to the [[upland and lowland|uplands]] to have effective control of the [[hinterlands]]. In order to achieve this, the British in 1906 took a [[lease]] of a new trading station opened in 1898 on [[virgin land]]s for Alexander Miller Brothers Limited of Liverpool at the mouth of the Okere Creeks. This new [[trading station]] was also named WARRI after the capital Ode-Itsekiri so the Itsekiris dubbed Ode-Itsekiri BIG WARRI in order to differentiate Ode-Itsekiri from the new trading station.<ref>Jones, G. I. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 43, no. 1, 1973, pp. 78–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1158548. Accessed 13 Jan. 2023.
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