Facts about Mbembe Ethnic group

Mbembe is a Nigerian ethnic group who live around the middle Cross River. They speak a Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family language and numbered over 100,000 in the late twentieth century.

Yams, rice, cocoyams (taro), and cassava are all grown by the Mbembe. Wage laborers clear the fields and cultivate the yams in modern times.

After a year, the land is either fallowed or planted with cassava by women who profit from its sale. The population of wattle-and-daub communities with mat or thatched roofs ranges from 100 to 3,000 people.

Mbembe religion involves the belief in a creator god as well as ghosts who act as a link between the living and the dead. A large number of Mbembes are Christians.