Isu Oil Palm Economy in the Post Nigerian Civil War Era, 1970-1986

POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng Isu Oil Palm Economy in the Post Nigerian Civil War Era, 1970-1986 Festus Chibuike Onuegbu Department of History and International Studies Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Chuka Enuka Department of History and International Studies Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Abstract This paper examines how the Isu people of Orlu, in the central area of Igboland used the local oil palm industry to survive the socio-economic challenges posed by the aftermaths of the civil war and rebuilt their communities. The level of social and economic destruction that came with the Nigerian Civil War in Igboland was indeed enormous. Several Igbo means of livelihood were destroyed. Farmlands were destroyed; lines of trading were disconnected and lost; local manufacturing became almost dead; and the problem of refugee and war returnees constituted a serious distress on several Igbo communities. Faced with this challenging situation, the Igbo, however, had to look for a way to ensure immediate material survival and continued existence after the war. One of the major aspects of Igbo traditional economy which offered a new lease of life for the people after the war was the oil palm industry. Many Igbo people saw it as the only surviving economic activity that they could fall back on to rebuild their lives and communities. Adopting the qualitative and descriptive historical method in its analysis, the paper discusses the palm oil business as the mainstay of Isu economy in the post civil war years. The paper finds that many Isu men and women, after the war, engaged in palm oil processing and production beyond subsistence level which offered them trade access to many other neighbouring and distance Igbo communities. The paper thus, concludes that the Isu, like a number of other Igbo communities, were able to survive the economic and social aftermaths of the civil war largely due to their strong engagement in palm oil production and trade. Introduction Right from the pre-colonial times, oil palm industry has remained an important aspect of Igbo economy. Most rural communities in Igboland primarily relied on oil palm economy as a means of livelihood. Oil palms are numerously spread across Igboland that any casual observer may summarily 35 POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW (PHR) say that nothing grows in the vegetation of Igbo territories but oil palm trees. G.T. Basden observes that the palm trees in Igbo country are blessings of inestimable value; and by far, the most abundant and valuable is the oil palm which flourishes over almost the whole of the Igbo country in greater or less degree according to the locality.1 In other words, oil palm is a critical element in the foundation and sustenance of the Igbo economy. Oil palm, Elaeis guineensis,2 is put to many uses and has a number of economic and social benefits. The palm fronds or leaves igu are used to make resting sheds or local roof-cover for shelter. They also serve as fodder for domestic animals like goats and sheep. The fronds can, also, be used to make brooms (aziza) for household sweeping. The palm tree trunk (ogwe nkwu) can be used for house-building purposes: they are used to make rafters, cross-beams and wall-plates though they are easily depredated by termites commonly known as white ants. The fiber (ashirizi nkwu) of the trunk is often woven to locally produce fish traps. The use of palm fronds and stems to build compound walls or physical barricades for protective purposes is very common amongst the Igbo people. The thorny skeleton of the bunch of palm fruits, after the fruits are extracted, (ayiriha nkwu or ogwu nkwu) could serve as a source of firewood when dried or a deterrent to domestic and wild birds that may likely damage crops in the garden or farm. The ashes gotten from burning the dried thorny skeleton of palm fruit hosts are often used to produce a kind of locally made potash (ngo) for preparing certain local dishes or/and for easy cooking of local foods like akidi (a local beans specie) and ukwa (breadfruits) which ordinarily take hours to get done. Virgin palm fronds (omu) are used for traditional and religious purposes. For example it can be used to show the sacredness of a place; portray danger, bad omen, or rejection. It is also used in propitiation rites and religious ritual ceremonies. The palm kernel nuts can be fried to produce paraffin oil locally known as elo aki or ide aki which serves as a fine ointment for the people especially during the harmattan and can be used as healing oil for children suffering from high fever (anya-elu or odide). Some of the oil palm trees, particularly those that bear no fruits but merely produce a cluster of flowers which dry up and remain on the tree for a considerable time (oke-nkwu), are tapped to extract a kind of palm wine known as 'up wine' (nkwu-elu). Though there are other kinds of palm wine like the one gotten from raffia palm (mmanya ngwo) and the one tapped from a fallen palm tree (iti ala), the 'up wine', as Onuegbu et al note, is the most powerful and highly sought for in the celebration of cultural festivities and observation of traditional rites amongst the Igbo people.3 Of all the benefits derived from the oil palm economy, the palm oil, however, is the most valuable and beneficial amongst the Igbo people because it serves for 36 POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng Vol .4 No. 2 July -December 2020 domestic consumption or/and commercial purposes in the sustenance of daily livelihood of the people. Palm oil processing, production and distribution, had engaged the attention of many Igbo men and women as a major economic activity, especially since the late nineteenth century when there began to be huge emphasis on palm oil as a major item of export trade in the Niger hinterland, and was further supported subsequently by the British colonial cash-crop-production oriented agricultural policy. Palm oil produce was very common amongst the Isu like many other Igbo communities. However, it was not produced on a large scale commercial basis in comparism to what was obtainable in some notable Igbo communities that had access to European companies' trade on palm oil during the late nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. However, it was in the challenging period after the Biafra War that the Isu most probably began large scale palm oil processing for wide commercial purposes. The economic aftermaths of the war inevitably made the business of palm oil production as the only alternative for economic survival amongst the Isu; hence, it became a major rural occupation amongst Isu men and women before the close of the 1980s. Thus, this paper examines the role of oil palm economy in the material and social survival of the Isu people in Igboland after the civil war. Defining the Study Area Isu is one of the cultural clans in the central part of Igboland, and constitutes one of the twenty-one (21) Local Government Areas in Imo State in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. It is today made up of seven towns, namely: Amandugba, Amurie-Omanze, Ekwe, Ezi-Isu, Nnerim, Olori, Isu- Njaba, and Umundugba. However, prior to local government boundary delineation and adjustments in Imo State the Isuland extended beyond the boundaries of what presently formed Isu Local Government. Some border towns like Eziama-Obaire, Umuozu-Isu, and some villages in Umuaka that fall outside the Isu Local Government Area are still traditional part of Isuland only separated by mere political boundary demarcation. The Isu is bounded on the Northcentral by Orlu, on the Northeast by Nkwerre, on the West by Njaba, on the South by Mbaitoli, and on the East by Isiala-Mbano. Geographically, Isu occupies an expanse area of 2,609 square km and lies between 5.17o and 6.0o o o 4 East and 7.25 and 8.0 North. The Isu settlements can, also, be found in other areas within the central-eastern part of Igboland beyond the frontiers of Orlu area. Before the dawn of British colonialism, a number of Isu elements had made important migrations eastward into some other territories where they settle today. These Isu migrant-settled-towns distant from their original homeland are 37 POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW (PHR) referred to as the Isu-ama clan in Igbo historiography, meaning 'the Isu in abroad'. These early Isu migrant settlers dispersed more widely in the towns of Mbama, Oboama, Osu, Nkwerre, Agbaja, Ugiri, Ehime, Umunumo, and Eziama. These Igbo towns were earlier regarded as the Mbanasaa, however, most of them are now in Mbano as carved out by the British for easy colonial administration under the jurisdiction of Umuduru Native Court in 1924.5 It is, therefore, not surprising that many towns across the Isu-ama clan attribute their origin and migration from particular villages amongst the Isu in the Orlu area in their oral traditions. In other word, there are Isu-ulo (Isu at home or the original homestead of the Isu) and Isu- ama (Isu abroad).

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