THE PRESENT DAY ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF YORUBALAND

BY ADELEKE

The focus of this paper is the present day economic development of the the present-day Yoruba. The paper begins with a discussion of the agricultural development as well as the agricultural state of the present Yoruba. This includes such topics as the shift from small Yoruba farms to cash crop production. Likewise, with the growth of crash crops, questions of land tenure had to be addressed, in relation to economic growth. Such topics discussed are the distinctions between rights of membership to land, familial rights, and kingdom rights. Then, the focus of the paper switches to another sector of economic growth of the Yoruba, namely trade and marketing, showing the importance of women in such sectors. Lastly, the paper concludes with a discussion of present-day craft production, with a focus on how traditional familial craft vocations have left their markers on present-day economic production.

In Yorubaland, the major forms of economic opportunities developed as a result of the interaction of a number of major factors : the distribution of population and natural resources, the location of cash crops, the development of the transport system, the growth of education, and the economic policy of successive governments. However, among the plethora of factors, the growth of the cash-crop economy superseded all. In the 19th century, the growth of the trade in palm oil led to a "reorganization of production in the interior and the development of slave estates owned by the powerful war-chiefs" (Eades, pg. 65). In addition, such a reorganization meant the development of a Saro trading elite in Lagos. "After 1880, African merchants were affected by a trade recession, and some of them looked for alternative investments" (Eades, pg. 65).

Cocoa, which had recently come to West Africa from the Spanish and Portuguese African colonies, was readily adopted in Ibadan and Abeokuta. With the exception of kola, alternatives to cocoa were not successful. Cocoa, which includes "few economies of scale," was well adapted to production on the small holdings of Yoruba farmers. The spread of cocoa was helped by the success of planters in Agege and Ota. They made use of laborers from towns in the interior who took the crop back with them when they returned home. In Ijesa and Ibadan, the rapid spread of the crop was due to the search of new economic opportunities and the new growth in industry.

The growth in industry brought new patterns of migration. The farmers in Ife who had adopted cocoa before 1939 were joined in the following decade by Egba and Ibadan migrants looking for new land. "Since the 1950s, most migration in search of cocoa land has been to Ijesa and Ondo" (Eades, pg. 66). Later migrants were often able to work for established cocoa-farmers from their own home areas in return for help in starting their own farms. The rise of the cocoa industry had profound implications: "innovations in land-tenure patterns and labor organizations, the intensification of inequalities between the forest and savanna areas, innovations in marketing, and the creation of the marketing-board system with its important political repercussions" (Eades, pg. 66).

The majority of Yoruba farms are small, and the size is limited by the available labor and the level of technology. The main farm tools are the hoe and the bushknife, and "manpower is usually the only energy input" (Eades pg. 69). The use of "draught" animals is impossible because of the tsetse fly, and "mechanization is also difficult because of the small size of plots and the pattern of shifting cultivation" (Eades, pg. 69). The use of fertilizers is restricted to the cultivation of cash-crops like cocoa and tobacco. Farm land fertility was traditionally maintained by a long period of "fallow after only two or three years’ cultivation, though in many areas this has been modified because of increasing pressure on land" (Eades, pg. 69).

In Yoruba culture, the method of reckoning farm size is not in terms of area, but rather, in terms of "heaps," the mounds of earth prepared for the cultivation of yams and other food crops. The number of heaps is often reckoned in multiples of 200, or about 1/15th or 1/20th of an acre. In Ibarapa, most farms consists of 10-20 plots, usually adjacent or in 3-4 separate groups. A plot of 8-10 units of 200 heaps is considered large. Labor units per plot is typically small. Most adult men farm independently with help from their wives and children, though it is not uncommon for them to hire laborers when necessary. It used to be common, particularly in Ekiti, for there to exist patrilineal group farming, in which all the men in a lineage worked together under the direction of the oldest man. However, such an arrangement has all but vanished. In addition, there used to be farm arrangements called "aro" and "owe."

"Aro" consisted of "groups of kin or age-group members who helped each other on a rotational basis, especially to clear new land in the dry season or to help with weeding during the rains" (Eades, pg. 70). "Owe" groups were larger, involving a hundred or more "agnates and affines, who worked in return for food, palm wine, and kola" (Eades, pg. 70). With the recent growth in education, it has become difficult for farms to retain the labor of their children on the farm, forcing farmers to rely more on hired labor. It was estimated that in 1956, 40 percent or more of the labor on cocoa farms were hired.

However, today, a large numbers of laborers come from other parts of the country, particularly from the Niger-Benue area and Igbo areas. Hired laborers work either on an annual basis, in return for food, lodgings, and a lump sum at the end of the season, or on a monthly or daily rates, or on a piece-work basis. The majority of farmers who require regular help prefer to hire workers on an annual basis, since the rate of hire is much lower ( N30 to N72 per annum). In the savanna regions, however, hired labor has become less important, though "some of the wealthier Igbeti farmers did use hired labor to expand their food-crop production for the market" (Eades, pg. 70).

The major food crops of the Yoruba farmer are yams, maize, cassava, beans, cocoyam, and guineacorn. Rice cultivation, however, has been spreading to areas such as Egba and northern Oho, while plantain and bananas are important in the forest areas. Yams are the major crop in Ilorin, Kabba, and Oyo, basically all savanna areas. Cassava is the important food crop of Ijebu, Ibadan, and Abeokuta. Guineacorn and millet are grown only in the savanna regions. (Eades, pg. 70). Yam cultivation, however, is steadily on the decline, since yams grow best in rich soils and are normally planted on fallowed land, lands which are ideal for cocoa agriculture. Thus, the forest areas have become more dependent on their yam supplies from the savanna areas of the north. (Clarke, pg. 28).

As previously stated, several of the lands that were traditionally used for the major food crops of the Yoruba people have been replaced by cash crops. As Eades states : "In one sense the distinction between food crops and cash crops is irrelevant in the Yoruba case, as most of the farmers dispose of at least some of their crops on the market. In Igbeti, where land is plentiful, those who could afford it were expanding their yam production for the market using hired labor. In some northern areas, tobacco production for the cigarette companies has spread rapidly in the last twenty years, mainly because of the very successful extension work by the Nigerian Tobacco Company." Cotton is grown in many areas, mainly for local use, but the two major cash crops, cocoa and kola, are only produced in the forest areas. (Eades, pg. 72).

The cash crop kola, grown entirely for the Nigerian market, is bought by Hausa buyers, located in Yoruba towns and villages, for sale in the northern states of the country. (Cohen, pg. 122). There are two varieties of kola grown in Yorubaland, "nitida" known in Yoruba as "abata," and "acuminata," known by the Yoruba as "gbanja." Abata is indigenous to the area, and gbanja is the main variety that is exported. Before the colonial period, most of the gbanja kola sold in northern Nigerian came from southern Ghana. It was introduced into Yorubaland as a cash crop in the 1890s, and by 1930, most of the supplies for the north came from the Yoruba areas. Abata is more important for Yoruba ritual. "Kola has proved a useful crop in some of the forest areas like Agege, Ota, Ijebu where cocoa was introduced very early on but did not perform well" (Eades, pg. 72).

In addition to kola, Western Nigeria produces substantial amounts of palm oil, though in recent years, exports of palm oil has seriously declined. The extraction of oil from the palm fruit is quite an elaborate process, most efficiently done by using a mechanical press. However, many woman still use a more "traditional labor-intensive technique" (Eades, pg. 72). First of all, the fruits are boiled and pounded, and the mash that is produced is re-boiled. The palm oil rises to the top and is scrapped off. The kernels of the palm fruit are likewise cracked and used separately to make palm-kernel oil. According to Adegbola, in some areas, the palm-oil industry has been taken over by Urhobo and other migrants from the Mid-belt, who lease the right to reap the palm fruit from the local farms.

Lastly, the third major cash crop of Yorubaland is cocoa. The cocoa industry first developed in the western areas: Ilaro, Agege, and Abeokuta. However, the centers for production of the cocoa have gradually moved to the east to Ondo, Akure, and Owo, due to the aging of the trees in these areas. The best environment for cocoa production is loamy soils and on freshly cleared forest lands. The trees themselves take about 7 years for they actually begin to produce. "The average life of the trees is around forty years, but productivity declines and many of the trees die before this. Thus, a continual search for new land suitable for cocoa cultivation is necessary, and migration, first to Ife, and later to Ondo, has resulted" (Eades, pg. 73). As a result, cocoa planting has become viewed as a more permanent investment than the other staple food crops, and land for cocoa production has become increasingly scarce. Likewise, questions of land tenure and patterns of land tenure have developed.

The question of land tenure in Yorubaland is of great complexity and often quite ambiguous. Before the question of land tenure can be addressed, one must first make the distinction between the right to use land and full ownership, "particularly the right to alienate it" (Eades, pg. 73) Throughout Yorubaland, the two may not necessarily coincide. Second of all, as land becomes more valuable, "either because of its increasing in scarcity or its potential for cash crops, conflict over access to, and control of, land will increase, and an increasing quantum of rights will be asserted over it" (Eades, pg. 73).

Lloyd remarks of Ondo land tenure, "while land has little scarcity or commercial value, it will be described as communal: but as soon as it becomes valuable, the descent groups currently using it will begin to claim rights amounting to full ownership" (Llyod, pg.131). In different areas of Yorubaland, ownership of land is thought of as being "vested in the ruler on behalf his community, as being vested in descent groups, or as being vested in individuals" (Eades, pg. 73). Third of all, a sharp distinction has to be made between the rights that a member of a kingdom can have in its land and the rights which can be acquired by an outsider. In general, outsiders can become tenants, but cannot claim rights of ownership over land, and as the scarcity of land increases, the more rigidly this rule applies.

As Eades notes, descent group control over land is the norm. This is the pattern one finds in Ibadan, Ijebu, and Ekiti. Within the descent group, land is allocated in accordance to need. A farmer can use the land allocated to him, and, likewise, he can pass the land on to his children. However, he usually cannot alienate the land without permission of the descent group as a whole. "In the case of large descent groups, a process of partition often takes place: the land is divided between segments which can dispose of it without reference to the other segments, and this process of fragmentation has reached its fullest extent in Egba, where it is common to have land rights vested in individual farmers" (Llyod, pg. 84-85, 241-242).

The major alternative to obtaining land from one’s own descent group in many areas is to "beg" it (Toro) from another group, often in return for gifts (isaigi) and annual payment of "isokole." Likewise, one can access land through sharecropping. This method has become increasingly common as owners of cocoa farms are unable or unwilling to manage the farms themselves. The owner often provides the seed, chemicals, and accommodations, and that proceeds of the crop are split between the sharecropper and the owner. As Berry notes, in some areas "farm-owners are commuting a third of the crop into a cash payment in advance - a system which assures them of regular income, reduces their responsibilities and provides the sharecropper with greater incentive to raise productivity" (Berry, pg. 131).

Lastly, in a final note in Yoruba land-tenure practices, such land-tenure patterns have increasing political implications. First of all, such practices the attachment of individuals to their home towns. Secondly, they make it difficult for strangers or outsiders to become easily assimilated in the areas in which they have settled. As Eades notes, "Yoruba migrants and their descendants in the cocoa belt tend to remain ‘strangers’ (alejo) if they come from another kingdom, even when they speak the same dialect of Yoruba" (Eades, pg. 76). For example, the Modakeke in Ife are still considered "alejo" despite the fact that they have been there for a century or more. (Berry, pg. 113-116).

The Yoruba have the known reputation for their skill in trade, both throughout Nigeria and elsewhere in West Africa The earliest accounts that are found to describe this area speak of an area thriving with craft industries and a complex division of labor. The development of urban centers produced a marketing system in which agricultural produce, craft goods and imported goods changed hands, and much of this trade, especially in the daily markets of the towns, has traditionally be handled by women.

As well as daily markets, there were the periodic markets which served wider areas. Trade was an important issue in international relations. "Some towns were termini on the long-distance trade routes that linked the Yoruba kingdoms with the Akan to the west, and the Bariba, Hausa, and Nupe to the north" (Eades, pg. 80). Trade on these routes was well-organized, roads often being wide and well-maintained, and caravanseries were established outside the main towns. "Trade and tolls provided a major source of revenue for the political authorities along the route" (Mabogunje, 1968: pg. 79-90).

Some features of the traditional marketing system have survived to the present. "Daily markets in the towns and periodic markets in the rurla areas are still the basis of the distributive system" (Hodder, 1969: pg. 121). The pattern of long-distance trade in the 19th century "has given way to a Yoruba diaspora in the 20th" (Eades, pg. 81). Yoruba traders have settled in large numbers throughout West Africa. The large daily markets of the major commercial centers supply goods not only to the local consumers, but also to traders from other towns. Good examples are "the major Ibadan markets, some of which are quite specialized, such as Gege and Orita Merin in the trade foodstuffs, and Oja Iba in the trade in kola" (Hodder, 1969: 58-93). There are also some specialized urban periodic markets like Oje in Ibadan, where sales of Yoruba cloth and locally made soap alternate. Ibadan, like most Yoruba towns, also has a number of small night markets, scattered through the town, selling mainly foodstuffs and cooked foods. (Eades, pg. 81). Outside the large towns are the ‘rings’ of village markets, organized into four- or eight day cycles, with a different market being held on each day. The best documented of these is the Akinyele ring, an eight -day cycle to the north of Ibadan (Hodder, 1969: pg 58-93), but four-day cycles are more common. "Over 80 per cent of the traders in the Akinyele markets were women, and between 50 and 60 per cent of the traders sold foodstuffs"

(Eades, pg. 81). The markets in a ring are evenly spread out, and most rural settlements are within walking distance of one or other of them. Hodder found that much of the produce was still brought in by headload.

Marketing of this type is very labor-intensive. The goods involved are of two main types: manufactured goods moving outwards from the major urban centers, and farm produce moving in the other direction. Manufactured goods mostly originate from the large expatriate and Lebanese firms in Lagos and Ibadan. (Eades, pg. 82). The middle level of Yoruba whole-salers are usually men and women who buy in bulk on regular accounts from the larger firms, and who sell goods in smaller units to the network of retail traders. At the retail level, trading capital is often very limited. "Turnover is rapid, and the quantities sold are very small. Many women sell individual cigarettes, matches in bundles of ten, and sugar cubes in piles of two or three at a time.

Many Yoruba occupations were traditionally organized within particular compounds or descent groups, including weaving, smithing, woodcarving, leatherwork, drumming and medicine. Many of these specializations persist. In Igbeti, the best drummers in the town still come from Ile Onilu, and facial scars are still made by members of Ile Olola. These occupations are mainly confined to men, but others, such as pottery, indigo-dyeing, and weaving on the uptight loom, are carried on only by women. Some of the crafts have survived better than others. There are still Yoruba carvers who produce work of exceptional quality in response to modern commissions, (Carroll, 1967), but the craft has declined along with the traditional religion for which most carvings are made. Some palace crafts like leatherwork or calabash-carving in Oyo have been reorganized around tourism. Pottery has survived competition from imported enamelware and locally cast aluminium, and is still made in large quantities in Ilorin. However, the craft which has perhaps adapted best to the changing conditions is weaving (Bray, 1968).

As with farming and trading, many children help their parents in the crafts and have mastered the skills by the age of 16. Parents were traditionally expected to set up their children in the occupation, provide them with the necessary tools, and arrange their marriages. Until then, they could keep the profits from their children’s work, but the child could keep the income from work done in his spare time on his own account. The head of the craft in a town was normally the "bale" of one of the compounds involved in it. Members of the main crafts held regular meetings to discuss prices, sort out disputes and share information on techniques and markets. Taxes were paid to the political authorities in craft goods. (Eades, pg. 85).

Present day, the categories of craftsman and trader shade off into those of transport-owner, small-scale industrialist, and building contractor. Among the most popular enterprises are sawmilling, baking, and printing. Nearly all towns have at least one printerprinting such things as visitor cards and the such. A town the size of Igbeti can support three small bakeries, each with three employees, and each producing about 200 loaves a day. Lastly, there is a small group of very wealthy Yoruba industrialists, though in general the Nigerian industrial scene is dominated by government and expatriate capital.