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Craft Organization in Yoruba Towns1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Peter Lloyd
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Extract

Everywhere in West Africa contact with Western economy has brought changes in the technology of the indigenous people; today, side by side with the old man chipping away at a block of wood, making an image or a mask, and the weaver with his horizontal loom producing yard upon yard of narrow cloth strips to be sewn together into huge, flowing robes, sit the tailor making khaki shorts on his treadle sewing-machine and the carpenter nailing together planks for doors and window frames. In the traditional craft industries a father hands on his knowledge and skill to his sons; thus some crafts become the preserve of certain lineages. The sudden impact of the new technology did not give the craftsmen an opportunity to adapt their work to the new machines and tools; new men were recruited who had never been craftsmen and thus today the numerous tailors, carpenters, builders, and their like are not related to their fellow workers by blood ties; but, independent as these workers may appear, they are usually united to their fellow craftsmen by bonds of economic agreement whereby their work is strictly regulated. This study will attempt to describe the organization of the traditional crafts in some Yoruba towns and to show how the new crafts have formed guild organizations which preserve many of the functions of the older craft organization, but have a structure based not upon the lineage but upon the territorial divisions of society.

Résumé

L'ORGANISATION DES MÉTIERS DANS LES VILLES YORUBA

Les métiers traditionnels parmi les Yoruba furent organisés sur une base de lignage. Certains métiers constituaient le monopole héréditaire de certains lignages, et les pères formaient leurs fils en vue de leur succession. Les métiers modernes ont développé une organisation, dont les fonctions sont, en quelque sorte, similaires à celles de l'organisation traditionnelle; le corps de métier règle les différends entre ses membres, fixe les prix et détermine les conditions d'apprentissage, et s'efforce, mais pas toujours avec succès, à maintenir un standard de bon travail. De plus, les corps de métiers ont adopté quelques caractéristiques des clubs sociaux existants, particulièrement en ce qui concerne les règles gouvernant l'admission aux corps de métiers et la bonne tenue dans les réunions. L'existence d'apprentis et d'ouvriers qualifiés et leurs rapports avec des artisans, petits patrons, sont des caractéristiques des corps de métiers modernes, pour lesquelles il n'y a rien de comparable dans les organisations traditionnelles, dont l'unité ouvrière se composait du père et de ses fils.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1953 , pp. 30 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1953

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References

page 31 note 1 There is considerable cultural diversity between the Yoruba subtribes. Material for this study has been collected from two towns—Iwo and Shaki— which are predominantly Oyo, and a third—Ado—which is in the heart of Ekiti country. There seemed to be no significant difference between the craft organizations found in these towns, and unless otherwise stated, their description will apply to all three areas. There seems to be little reason to doubt that a common pattern is found throughout the whole of Yoruba country.

Of the towns mentioned in this study Iwo has a population of 50,000 persons, Shaki—21,000 persons, and Ado—17,000 persons. Ado is in the heart of the cocoa-producing area; it is a trade centre and a political headquarters of Ekiti Division; the rate of literacy is relatively high and Christianity has progressed farther than in Iwo or Shaki. Iwo is on the edge of the cocoa belt and Shaki is far north of it; both towns are predominantly Moslem and education has made little progress,

page 32 note 1 Ado itself is in reality a union of three towns. Settlements of between 3,000-5,000 are common in Ekiti.

page 32 note 2 In a Yoruba town lineages are not ranked in hierarchical order; in this sense craftsmen are not given a higher or lower status than non-craftsmen.

page 33 note 1 Ifεalε = evening work; ifε = work; alε = evening.

page 33 note 2 εgbε = any type of club, meeting, or union.

page 34 note 1 Nadel, S. F., Black Byzantium, 1942, ch. xiv.Google Scholar

page 34 note 2 The lineage (idile = stem of the house) is group of persons descended from a common ancestor in the male line; the compound (agbo-ile = group of houses) is the residence of the male members of the lineage, their wives, and unmarried children; the Bale (baba ile = father of the house) is always oldest living male.

page 34 note 3 The head of a craft organization is known as the father of the craft; thus baba alagbεdε = father of blacksmiths. Sometimes the prefix oni- or ɔl-, denoting possession, is used; thus ɔlɔde = head of the hunters.

page 36 note 1 Nadel, , op. cit.,Google Scholar has used the word ‘guild’ for craft organizations based on the lineage or extended family where the labour group is formed of a man, his brothers, and sons. It seems preferable to use the word in the same manner as historians to connote the organization of crafts where the master-apprentice-journeyman relationship is typical.

The Yoruba use the word εgbε for guild; the semiliterates usually translate this as ‘meeting’.

page 37 note 1 Eight days is, by Yoruba counting, a seven-day week. Meetings are held on Fridays or Sundays according to whether the members are predominantly Moslem or Christian.

page 37 note 2 A case is a legal dispute involving payments to chiefs for their arbitration.

page 37 note 3 Stealing work is the seeking to obtain contracts on which a fellow worker has defaulted.

page 37 note 4 One must not overtly seek for business and this includes visiting the relatives of the deceased to obtain an order for a coffin,

page 38 note 1 The Yoruba use the word ɔga for master; this term includes all types of employers. There is no specific word for master craftsman. The apprentice is ɔmɔfe (ɔmɔ = boy, fe = to work), a term which includes all boys learning anything and also casual unskilled labourers. The journeyman is often called by the same English word; the only Yoruba equivalent is alagbafe = a labourer.

page 38 note 2 The contract was written in English by a public letter-writer whose phraseology has been retained, Names and date have been omitted to avoid any possible embarrassment to the parties involved.

page 43 note 1 The development of the craft guild from the clan or lineage is described for Europe by Gronbech, V. in Culture of the Teutons, 1931, p. 35.Google Scholar