- Eleme people
The Eleme are one of the various groups of
indigenous peoples that inhabit theNiger Delta region of southeastNigeria .Location
The Eleme live in ten village-clusters situated in
Eleme Local Government Area (ELGA),Rivers State , around 20km east ofPort Harcourt . The total territory occupied by the Eleme people expands across approximately 140 square kilometres.Fact|date=December 2007Ethnicity
Linguistically and ethnographically the Eleme are closely related to the
Ogoni people , and Eleme LGA is usually considered to be part ofOgoniland (the socio-political home of the Ogoni people. Fact|date=December 2007 However, the Eleme people historically have viewed themselves as non-Ogonis and relatively few Elemes are affiliated withMOSOP (a political organisation founded to protect the rights of the Ogonis), and the Eleme leadership have not signed theOgoni Bill of Rights .Society
The Eleme are traditionally an agricultural society, with workers travelling out to farms situated around the villages. Crops include yams,
cassava ,oil palm fruit,fluted pumpkin , andbitter-leaf . Crops are primarily used to sustain each family (a system of agriculture known assubsistence farming ) , but each family also typically trades their excess crops at one of the town markets. Even where family members are employed outside of agriculture, they still farm their own land as a supplementary income. Farm workers are usually women.Eleme has two clans, the Odido and the Nchia, each with their own dialect. [ [http://www.eleme.org.uk/ethnography/society.html Bond, Oliver (2004) "Eleme Ethnography - Eleme Society" ] ]
Religion
Christianity is the dominant major-religion in South-Eastern Nigeria and is widespread in Eleme. Traditionalanimist beliefs are also upheld by the majority of the population, including those who identify themselves as Christians.Fact|date=April 2008 Marriages are traditionallypolygamous and commonlyexogamous with both other Ogoni and non-Ogoni groups across the Niger Delta. While the introduction of Christianity has undoubtedly led to a greater number of monogamous marriages in the region, polygamy and Christianity do not appear to be mutually exclusive in some families.Fact|date=December 2007Language
The
Eleme language is potentially endangered. [ [http://www.livingtongues.org/eleme-baan.html Living Tongues Institute For Endangered Languages ] ]Notes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
