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Papers on the Economic Aspect of Life among the Ozuitem Ibo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

J. S. Harris
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Extract

Ozuitem is an Ibo community of approximately 7,400 individuals situated in Bende Division, Owerri Province, Southern Nigeria. This, like similar communities, is generally referred to as a ‘clan’ by government officials and this term has been crystallized in Talbot's volumes. Meek, as a result of his researches into Ibo social organization, refers to these as ‘communes’ or ‘village groups’. Throughout this study the term ‘community’ will be used to refer to Ozuitem and other similar politically autonomous and descent groups.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1943 , pp. 12 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1943

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References

page 12 note 1 See, e.g., Talbot, P. A., The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, 4 vols., London, 1926Google Scholar.

page 12 note 2 Meek, C. K., Law and authority in a Nigerian Tribe, London, 1937Google Scholar.

page 12 note 3 See pp. 14-19. These papers form part of an unpublished series of economic studies of the Ozuitem Ibo.

page 14 note 1 Unpublished.

page 15 note 1 It is hoped to publish this in a future number of Africa.

page 15 note 2 The yam vines are tied to these iceku sticks which are fixed between the yam heaps.

page 17 note 1 Pottery is not listed here because pots are not manufactured in Ozuitem. In those communities where pottery is made, the entire manufacture is in the hands of women. Neither is cloth weaving included on this list because it is not woven in Ozuitem. Where cloth is woven it is usually considered women's work although some informants report that they have also seen men engage in weaving.

page 18 note 1 Men are grouped on the basis of yearly age classes, but women are grouped only into five general categories; children, older girls of a sib who have not yet gone to live with their husbands recently married women, middle-aged women and old women.

page 19 note 1 This information obtained from the Bende No. a Forest Reserve Report by G. I. Jones (unpublished) in thefilesof the Bende Division administrative office.

page 19 note 2 However, yams are seldom planted in the sandy itum soil for two consecutive years since this results in poor growth and excessive rot. (This refers to a type of soil, not a specific tract of land.)

page 20 note 1 It is important to note that this figure of 640 adult males obtained by Jones is based not upon the tax records which account for only 532 men that year but upon an actual count of the adult men which therefore included the inevitable group of tax-evaders and men too old to pay tax but virile enough to farm. Jones found, and I later confirmed, that those men who were away from the community as traders or labourers made arrangements with their wives or relatives at home to have their farms cleared and planted for them. These men are included in the total of 640.

page 20 note 2 This figure of 1·2 annual acreage under cultivation per man bears out the belief of various Administrative officials that the people of this general area are prodigious yam farmers. Compare, for example, the figure of 0·6 annual acreage per man in the Owerri-Calabar circle reported by the Senior Assistant Conservator of Forests. (See Bende No. 2 Forest Report.)

page 20 note 3 Since women plant all or most of their crops on the yam farms of men no additional acreage need be considered in relation to these figures.

page 22 note 1 Low land, either oitum or oroa type, is often called okwu by the Ozuitem people.