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Some Comments on Land Tenure in Egba Division, Western Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Akin L. Mabogunje
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Extract

During the sitting of the West African Lands Committee in 1912, the witnesses who were called before the Committee from Egba Division emphatically stated that sales of both farm and town lands had been going on in Egbaland for some considerable time and had become accepted as normal. Equally significant was the vigour with which witnesses from all the other Yoruba sub-tribes countered the suggestion that sale of land existed or was permitted by the traditional land law and custom. H. L. Ward Price in his report also pointed out that sales of land had been going on in Egbaland for at least sixty years before he was writing in the 1930's. From the evidence he collected, it would seem that land sales dated back to between 1860 and 1880.

Résumé

QUELQUES COMMENTAIRES AU SUJET DU RÉGIME FONCIER DANS LA DIVISION D'EGBA DE LA NIGÉRIA OCCIDENTALE

La Division d'Egba est la seule de son genre en Nigéria, en raison du premier développement, dans cette région, de la conception des ventes de terrain par opposition au système traditionnel de l'aliénation des terrains par donation ou par nantissement. Ce fait a été vivement mis en lumière dans le Rapport du West African Lands Committee en 1916. La situation particulière qui existe dans cette Division était due à deux facteurs principaux, à savoir, les guerres du début du dix-neuvième siècle, qui ont fait disparaître l'ancien régime foncier et ont facilité le développement de la propriété individuelle des terrains, et l'arrivée des immigrants en provenance du Sierra Léone qui apportaient avec eux des idées nouvelles au sujet des transactions foncières.

Au cours de ces guerres, les Egba ont perdu la plupart de leurs terrains, pris par leurs ennemis — les Oyo, les Ife et les Ijebu — et ils sont venus s'établir dans l'Abeokuta en 1830. Pendant de nombreuses années à partir de cette date, les limites du terrain agricole disponible pour la nouvelle colonie ont été fixées par l'étendue de la retraite de leurs ennemis. A l'intérieur de ces limites tous les hommes valides ont morcelé le terrain en fermes individuelles sur lesquelles, en tant que première génération de propriétaires, ils avaient des droits illimités. Peu après 1830, les émigrants du Sierra Léone sont arrivés dans le sillage des missionnaires. La plupart de ces émigrants étaient des Egba qui avaient été vendus comme esclaves pendant les années de guerre puis délivrés par l'escadre de la Marine Royale Britannique. Ils se sont établis à Freetown, oú ils se sont habitués à la spéculation sur la propriété foncière et ils ont apporté avec eux la notion des ventes de terrains. L'analyse montre que dès 1851 ils achetaient et vendaient des terrains dans l'Abeokuta pour des convertis au christianisme. Les registres du tribunal Ake, dans l'Abeokuta, qui datent de 1904, enregistrent également quelques ventes de terrains avant le siècle actuel, lorsque la culture du cacao et des noix de kola, devenue rentable, constituait un encouragement supplémentaire dans ce sens.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , July 1961 , pp. 258 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1961

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References

page 258 note 1 Report of the West African Lands Committee, 1912 (Colonial Office, 1916), pp. 452–4.

page 258 note 2 Price, H. L. Ward, land Tenure in the Yoruba Provinces (Lagos, 1939), para. 250.Google Scholar

page 260 note 1 Biobaku, S. O., The Egba and their Neighbours, 1842–72 (Oxford, 1957), p. 3.Google Scholar

page 260 note 2 Ajisafe, A. K., The History of Abeokuta (Lagos, 1924), p. 20Google Scholar. In spite of Ajisafe's figure of 300, no more than 170 Egba towns are represented in Abeokuta town.

page 260 note 3 Blair, J., Intelligence Report on Abeokuta (1937), para. 91Google Scholar. Some historians include a fourth province—Egba Owu—but it is now generally agreed that the Owu did not belong to the original Egba stock.

page 260 note 4 Campbell, R., A Pilgrimage to my Motherland, 1859–60 (London, 1861), p. 33Google Scholar. Also, T. B. Macaulay, Letter to Major Straith, 25 Feb. 1853, Church Missionary Society Papers (CA 2/065); J- A. Maser, Letter to Rev. H. Venn, 15 May 1867, Church Missionary Society Papers (CA 2/068).

page 261 note 1 Fyfe, C. H., ‘ The Life and Times of John Ezzidio ’, Sierra Leone Studies, no. 4, June 1955.Google Scholar

page 261 note 2 The Maroons were ex-slaves of the Spaniards in Jamaica which was captured by Britain in 1655. They were removed to Sierra Leone via Halifax in 1800. Other settlers in Sierra Leone at this time include the Nova Scotians who were former slaves in America. They became emancipated on joining British troops during the American War of Independence and at the end of the war were located in Nova Scotia from where they moved to Sierra Leone in 1791. There were also Kroomen and Temne, natives of the surrounding countries, who came to look for work in the colony.

page 262 note 1 The figure is given by Commander F. E. Forbes (Papers relative to the Reduction of Lagos, Parliamentary Paper liv. 212, 1852, p. 180). Forbes had been sent to Abeokuta in December 1850 to help in recruiting the immigrants for the defence of the town against Dahomey. The figure is again confirmed by Beecroft who visited Abeokuta in January 1851. Beecroft gave no figure in his report of this visit, but when he called at Calabar on his way to Fernando Po, he told the Rev. Hope Waddell that there were about 3,000 emigrants there. (Hope Waddell, Journal entry for 10 February 1851, in United Presbyterian Miuion Records, 1851, p. 120.)

page 263 note 1 Thomas King, Journal, Oct.-Dec. 1851, Church Missionary Society (CA 2/061).

page 263 note 2 Mr. Taylor does not reside permanently in the village although he has a house there. Some members of his family, however, live in the village. A bale or headman sees after the day-to-day affairs of the village and has to be on the spot.

page 263 note 3 Suit No. 825/11. 27 October 1911. Record of Egba Division Grade A Court, Ake, Abeokuta.

page 264 note 1 Suit No. 269/05. 18 August 1905. Record of Egba Division Grade A Court, Ake, Abeokuta.

page 264 note 2 Suit No. 479/07. 28 August 1907. Record Egba Division Grade A Court, Ake, Abeokuta.

page 265 note 1 Egba Divisional Council Records 1890–1955. No. 46, Land Tenure in Egbaland.

page 265 note 2 This document is actually a typescript copy of a manuscript by the Land Officer. It was not signed though it bore the official title of its author and the date 16/6/31.

page 268 note 1 The Oniro of Iro, for instance, presented me with a list of 188 Egba villages which he claimed were on his township land.

page 268 note 2 Spottiswoode, J., Otta Intelligence Report (Abeo-kuta, 1935).Google Scholar

page 268 note 3 Lord Hailey, Introduction to Meek, C. K., Land Law and Custom in the Colonies (London, 1949).Google Scholar