Very little was written about the Anaang people before the mid-19th century. Early European traders who arrived in the cross river territories referred to groups who lived outside of the coastal areas as residents of Egbo-Sharry Country. The first written mention of the Anaangs is in Sigismund Koelle's account of liberated slaves in Sierra Leone. He mentioned a liberated slave named "Ebengo" who hailed from Nkwot in Abak. Ebengo was captured and sold to the Portuguese but was subsequently freed by a British warship and later settled in Waterloo, Sierra Leone. The British soldiers listed the languages spoken by the slaves in that captured ship as "Anaang". The second mention is a description of what is known as the Ikot Udo Obong Wars. The British described the killings of the Anaangs by King "Jaja" of Opobo as a punishment for defying his orders and trading in palm oil directly with the British merchants instead of going through him as a middle man. In the war that ensued, the British intervened and with the help of the Anaangs, they captured King Jaja and exiled him to the West Indies. The British established a military post at Ikot Ekpene in 1904.