Elele

The Ikwerri share no sense of tribal unity.

Its constituents are Elele, Umudioga and Egbeda, together with eight smaller village groups or villages. The neighbouring groups are called Ikwerri collectively even though they feel no tribal solidarity and vary considerably from one another.

The Ikwerri area is described as having plenty of land and a good supply of labour coming in from the north. Yams are a comparatively small crop because of the rainfall, and farms are worked by men and women alike, the women growing cassava and cocoyams besides yams.

Afigbo records that political officers stationed at New Calabar attributed the resistance they met at Elele and its neighbourhood to the Aro, who in this period were urging local populations not to deal directly with the British and the coastal traders.