Gokana, Rivers

Gokana is a Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Kpor.

It has an area of 126 km² and a population of 228,828 at the 2006 census.

The postal code of the area is 504.^[1]

Gokana is divided into sixteen towns, each headed by a king. The sixteen towns are further subdivided into villages. All sixteen towns have one common ancestry.the native Gokana week is made up of five days, Maa, Bon, Zua, SJon, Koo(pronounced cur). Koo is the official sabbath or rest day when our indigenes were to stay at home and not go to the farm. The Gokana people have a rich cultural heritage. The main religions are Christianity and African traditional religions; although most of its customs, traditions and festivals have become extinct due to urbanization and rural-urban migration,some have survived. Amongst these is the "Naa Bira Dae" festival, celebrated around late March to early April in honour of the goddess of the night. It lasts for 15 days or three local weeks and during this period, no woman, child or uninitiated adult male is allowed to go out, except emergency services such as the police. The Gokana language, of the Ogonoid group of the Cross-River branch of the large Niger-Congo language family,[1] is the main spoken language. Weddings, burials(of people who died in old age)and the naming of a child are important ceremonies among the people of Gokana and they are celebrated in style. Gokana kingdom is headed by a king called the "Gbere Mene" of Gokana Kingdom.

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