Eleme people

The Eleme people are one of the various groups of indigenous peoples that inhabit the Niger Delta region of South-South Nigeria.

The Eleme live in ten village-clusters situated in Eleme Local Government Area (ELELGA), Rivers State, around 20 km east of Port Harcourt. The total territory occupied by the Eleme people expands across approximately 140 square kilometres. Eleme is bounded in the north by Obio Akpor and Oyigbo, in the South by Okrika and Ogu Bolo, in the east by Tai and the West by Okrika and Port Harcourt.

In early colonial records Eleme is called Mbolli. The name came from the slave merchants of Arochuku who used the words "Mbolli Iche" which means "one country that is different" in Ibo language to describe the people of Eleme. When the British colonising force entered Eleme in April 1898, their escorts introduced the people of Eleme to the British as Mbolli people.

Linguistically and ethnographically the Eleme Kingdom is a separate entity from the Ogonis, their neighbours. The Eleme language is very distinct, though phonetically sounds like Ogoni Language, and this has raised the debate over whether or not Eleme is part of Ogoni. Nevertheless, Eleme is not part of Ogoni. Eleme is a unique ethnic group, and the people of Eleme have their unique way of doing things.

"The inclusion of Mbolli and, to a lesser extent that of Ogoni, spoken by two isolated and distinct tribes on the western border as within the Ibibio stock is only proposed tentatively, and the former is chiefly included because of its kinship with Ogoni." Vol IX, p.96

Eleme has a future role to play in the development of the Niger Delta Area of Nigeria. Before now,the Eleme people were behind in the educational sector, but now they are one of the most educated Local government areas of the state. Again, they are the center of trade in the region, the Eleme market being the most popular market in the region. Eleme is traditionally an agricultural society, with farmers travelling out to farms situated around the villages, though the emergence of white-collar jobs and the industrial activities going on in modern-day Eleme tend to shift the paradigm.

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Wikipedia