Market Place and Integration: Interrogating Obudu And
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International Journal of Integrative Humanism Vol. 12, No. 1, March. 2020 MARKET PLACE AND INTEGRATION: INTERROGATING OBUDU AND TIV WOMEN IN CROSS BORDER TRADE By IROM, OBAR AYAMI Department of History and International Studies University of Calabar Calabar - Nigeria [email protected], [email protected] 08066632945, 07086510451 Abstract Obudu and Tiv people share boundary with Obudu located on the northern side of Cross River State and Vandeikya on the southern side of Benue state. As neighbours, they have interacted among themselves although these interactions were sometimes friendly and other times hostile. In most discussions and researches around these areas, the emphasizes has been more on factors that have tended to disunite them like wars and ways of resolving them. Not much attention has been given to the market place which apart from being an economic device for the distribution of goods, also brings people of diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious affiliations. Why is the market place synonymous with women and why do they take so much risk across warring borders to market places? The paper relies on field work carried out in these areas to demonstrate how economic intercourse through the venue of the market place brought about integration of people, cultures and ideas in the area. The paper concludes that there is a need to reposition the market place to once again play its historic role as a center of unity in the midst of the challenges of cooperate existence facing these border communities and the nation at large. Key Words: Cross Border, Inter-group relations, Obudu, Tiv, Trade, Introduction The history of cross border trade among communities’ dates back to pre-colonial times. Researchers including A.G. Hopkins (1975), Robert July (1976), and Onwuka Njoku (2001) have all observed that the history of circulation of people and trade able goods in the continent dates from pre-colonial times. Market activities particularly among women, dates back to pre-colonial times and their dominance of the market place has been well documented by scholars including Charles Patridge (1905), Akin Mabogunje (1961), B.W. Hodder and U.I. Ukwu (1969), R.N. Henderson (1972), A.G. Hopkins (1975), P.O. Sada and M.I. Mcnully (1978), O.B. Olaoba (2000), Yakubu Ochefu (2002) and Obar Irom (2012). As Esther Boserup (87) has noted, the women of West Africa are famous for their ingenuity in trade as they accounted for eighty percent of the population in the market place, and went further to distinguish themselves as having economic independence. Cross border market places is also a work place as trading is women’s work, not only because it brings them income but because it is a major source of identity (Worsley 65). This is so because this is an area were women in the area have continued to demonstrate their prowess as business women since their empowerments flow from this avenue. The Tiv in the southern area of Benue and their closest neighbours the upper Cross River people had since the 19th century established economic relation with the establishment of border markets. The antiquity of these trade relations is not only traceable by trade routes which connects Calabar from the Akwa Ibom axis, passing Ikom, Ogoja, Yala, Obudu up to Benue Valley passing 46 International Journal of Integrative Humanism Vol. 12, No. 1, March. 2020 through Tsar (Effa-Attoe 176). It was this trade that introduced Tiv to metal products and also salt, which replaced Mtsem (potash) (Maker 78). The importance of salt was not only in diet, but as a preservative for hides and skin and as currency. It was these markets that “became the meeting points of the exchange of products between Tiv and upper Cross River traders. The market became necessary in the wake of the constant and increased conflict and hostilities between the Tiv and the Ogoja peoples” (Agber 59). In the post colonial times, in spite of these conflicts, borders are still characterized by mobility of especially women and their goods to border markets places. A glossary look at literature on cross border trade shows that much work has been done especially in the Southern African Development Community Region (SADC). With emphasis on Mozambique and South Africa border S.A. Perberdy (2000) and S.A. Perberdy and J. Crush (2001) have shown that the majority of the people who travel across these borders daily are women. For the study area women are seen daily crossing these borders with items of exchange to a specific market place whose operational day falls on that day. Most importantly, A.P Cheater and R. B Gaidzanwa (1996), V.N. Muzvidziwa (1998), have demonstrated that these cross borders informal trade by women take place in the face of stiff resistance and opposition by patriarchal states in the region. In the study area, the risk involved is that of communal clashes at the borders as the women are either on their way to or from market places. This becomes more worrisome for the Obudu and Tiv since the borders are still in contention. Interestingly, Obudu and Vandeikya share similar characteristics in many respects. Whereas Obudu occupies the north most Local Government Area in Cross River State. Vandeikya is situated in the south most area in Benue state. Utuqwang communities of Obudu have the Banyago Tiv villages as neighbours; the Igwo-Ukanbi villages of Obudu urban areas of Atikpe, Abonkip, Bebuatong share boundary with Tiv communities of Tsar, Tsekwinge and Bezelemu. For the paper cross border market places represents the intersection between Local Government Areas and borderlines of communities between the Tiv areas and the Obudu areas which could sometimes be hostile or cooperative. This is so since Tiv contacts with the Obudu people during Tiv migration and settlements in the area witnesses a lot of conflicts and resulted in traditional enmity (Atagher 249). Colonial administration in the area confirmed this enmity and it was in an attempt to reduce this enmity that the “Mushin wall” was erected to check Tiv incursion into Obudu lands. (Tseror 25). These borders have been neither stable, rather they have often been porous, fluid and ever changing since between 1950 and 2005 eight of such wars have been fought and the reason has been the incursion of the Tiv of Tsar communities beyond the “Mushin wall” to farm. This situation has influenced most writers to gloss their relations from the angle of conflict and wars connected to borders. This paper argues that economic relations especially those in the market place continued irrespective of conflict. This is so because While aggressive tendencies can be pervasive in relationships, they must be seen as having their limits especially when economic realities begin to dictate the form group relations have to take. Tiv needed and still need the economic support of their neighbours just as their neighbours too fall back on them for some critical needs they cannot satisfy locally (Tseror 14) The social importance of the market place as noted by Robert Levine (1962), Paul and Laura Bohannan (1968), Hodder and Ukwu (1969), Falola (1996), Igirgi (2007) and Olaoba (2000) is not out of place since it must have been this social links that kept the market place going in the face of conflicts and its aftermath. OBUDU AND VANDEIKYA ECONOMY 47 International Journal of Integrative Humanism Vol. 12, No. 1, March. 2020 Since pre-colonial times, the life of the people of the area was intimately connected. The base of the economy was agriculture, but craft industries and hunting, also contributed to the economy. The market played a very important part in the locational and appropriational movement of material items. Christopher Fyfe has observed that “trade in early times and now results from the fact that no community is self sufficient. It is the need of each person to get what he wants and dispose what he has that gave rise to trade” (67). Studies by Ndoma Egba (1972); and Ecoma (1998) attribute the development of trade and markets among the societies in close proximity, to ecological variations that provided occupational specialization which enabled the people to produce goods in exchange for those they lacked. It was the need for exchange that prompted these southern Tiv to establish border markets especially at Iyon and Tsar to acquire needed goods from the Obudu and Yala areas of Northern Cross River. For example, while the Ubwa-Agabi was established by the Mbekyegh and Yache in Yala to abate their constant conflict, Awange market on the other hand was established at Tiv border with Yala to ease their women the burden of travelling too far into upper Cross River market places to obtain salt (Akoko Akough). Although most household production was geared towards surplus for exchange, the basic aim of most household products was to cater for the well being of the family for as long as products could last. With traditional rites undertaken during planting seasons, planning for disasters like famine, soil infertility, drought and pest destruction was not considered and these often led to considerably more agricultural produce than they actually used for their consumption. As E. Ulmen has noted, “If trade is to develop between any two locations, there must be a marketable surplus in one area and an effective demand in the other” (51). This ‘Marketable Surplus’ he defined as “theoretical surplus available for disposal with the producer after his genuine requirement of family consumption had been met” (26). These surpluses were devoted to obtaining through the markets items that were essential to the communities, as these essential items could not be obtained in any other manner.