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 Era, 1970-1986

Festus Chibuike Onuegbu Department of History and International Studies Nnamdi Azikiwe University, 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 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 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

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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

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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 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 in the Southeastern part of . 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

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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). However, our area of study is the Isu at home: the traditional Isuland.

Economic Foundations of Isu before the Nigerian Civil War The history and studies on Igbo economy have often taken three major dimensions of economic practices into consideration which largely define the nature of Igbo material culture and cosmology. Agriculture, manufacturing, and trade have been identified by a number of scholars and interested observers as the pillars of Igbo traditional economy.6 Out of these three major aspects of Igbo economy, agriculture (farming) remains the most engaging and common amongst the people. The importance of agriculture in the traditional Igbo economy cannot be over emphasized. V.C Uchendu describes farming as 'the Igbo staff of life'.7 In the case of Isu, the people and society were, and are still to a large extent, predominantly agrarian. Isu is located in the part of Igboland that has fertile and table land, and experience enough seasonal rainfall necessary for sustainable farming. Subsistent farming has always played a key role in the sustenance of material livelihood of the people. Food crops like yam (ji), cocoa yam (ede), cassava (ji- akpu), plantain (unene), local beans specie (akidi), maize (uka), melon (egusi); vegetable crops like fruit- pumpkin (ugu), okro (oro nmiri ofe), bitter leaves (olugbu), scent leaves (nchianwu), fibre leaves (ukase), gummy bitter leave specie (utazi), garden egg (anara); and spices like pepper (ose), and nursing mother pepper (uziza) are cultivated and harvested by the people of Isu. Planting season normally begins around March-April, and harvesting of some seasonal food crops is around November-December. Like in many other communities in Igboland, farming amongst the Isu is culturally genderised and ritualised. For instance, cultivation of yam is the exclusive preserve of the men while cocoa yam is for women. F.I Njoku using Mbano area as a reference point observes that: Women only planted maize, melon, and okro on the slopes of yam mounds; and cocoa yam and cassava between spaces provided by yam mounds. While women were busy planting their crops, men staked the growing yams. The task of women in the farm increased,

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Vol .4 No. 2 July -December 2020 while those of men reduced to periodic visits to support the yam vines. Weeding was done twice on each farm and was usually performed by 8 women. In other words, both men and women play important role in the agricultural economy of Isu. No wonder, A.E Afigbo posits that one striking Igbo attitude to 9 agriculture in times before now was that every Igbo man and woman was a farmer. Apart from farming, another aspect of traditional agricultural economy of Isu revolved around 'palm oil' processing and 'palm wine' tapping. Oil palms (nkwu) and raffia palms (ngwo) were common economic trees which provided resources that greatly enhanced the livelihood of the people. Many families and towns were known for either palm fruit cutting (ogburu nkwu) or palm wine tapping (inyi ngwo) and (inyi nkwu). The ogburu nkwu and inyi ngwo or inyi nkwu, as the case may be, are occupations traditionally meant for men. Women were not expected to engage in such occupations. However, the processing of the palm fruits for palm oil and palm kernel in particular was mostly done by the women folk. It is instructive to note that palm oil production was done at subsistent level. It was only when what was needed for household consumption became excess that part of it could be sold in the local markets within or beyond the village. But, that is not to say there were no men and women in Isu that engaged in commercial palm oil processing before the 1970s. The point is that their number was very much less when compared with what was obtainable in the post-war period. According to one archived Colonial Economic Survey Intelligence Report on Orlu Division made in 1927, 'only about sixteen local oil mills could be classified as producing for the commercial markets other than for immediate and year long household consumptions...and out of the 10 number eleven (more than 60 per cent) were located in Amandugba/Nnerim area'. Land and labour, like in most other Igbo societies, were the two important factors of rural production among the Isu. Land in particular provided the needed capital, and was central to agricultural productions. The land tenure system was mostly organised on family lineage basis; and was further allotted to individuals on the basis of right to inheritance and patrilineal seniority in the family. High Chief Ucheoma Duru informed us that the Diokwara (the elderly son in the family) inherits the bigger share of the family land while his other brothers had to share the remaining portions. Women do not inherit their paternal family land except in occasions where they bought them. Women only farm on their husbands' inherited or bought portions of land in their married homes.11 Thus, Isu society, like most Igbo societies, is patrilineal but, that is not to say that their women do not have the right to own property or/and were economically and socio-culturally

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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) marginalized. In fact, women, largely, were very active participants in rural agricultural economy amongst the Isu. Land could be leased to a friend or brother or another family to farm for sometime, after which the real owner would take back his land. It, also, could be outrightly sold, or be parted with as a return for good gesture done to an individual or a family. In other words, the families that had expanse of acres of land or many portions of land at their disposal were often very much able to feed themselves and assist other kinsmen and women. The Igbo agricultural economy is labour intensive. The Isu had peculiar ways of meeting their labour demands of agriculture. Generally, each family did its own farm work for itself. In some cases, a man that had large farmland could directly hire labour or extract it through what is called iyo oru (clientage) where he had to leverage on his benevolence to a number of his kinsmen and demand for labour from them. Also, there was the ohe oru or igba onwe oru, a labour reciprocation practice amongst members of an age-grade. In pre-colonial times, most freeborn families made use of a number of acquired slaves in their farm work. Afigbo rightly posits that Igbo society placed a high premium on hardwork. It was where every able-bodied person was actively engaged in farm work.12 V.C Uchendu, on the same strength, had earlier stated that to remind an Igbo that he is ori mgbe ahia loro (one who eats only when the market holds) is to humiliate him.13 However, it does not mean that trade was not important amongst the Igbo people. The point is that the Igbo placed much more value on agriculture than trade. Farming aside, the Isu engaged in local manufacturing. Local craft like making of farm tools ('hoe' ogu, 'machetes' or mma, 'axe' ebugbu, and 'digger' mbazi), basket, mat, wood work, and pottery were very common amongst the Isu. Amurie Omanze, Amandugba and part of Olori were known for making all kinds of baskets (ekete, abo, ngiga, nyo, and akparata) used for specific agricultural and household purposes. Some part of Isu like Umuozu- Isu and Isu-Njaba were earlier known for their prowess in pottery. They made all kinds of local earth pots (ite ) and plate (oku). However, before the eve of the colonial era, some elements of blacksmithing (uzu) had permeated into Umuouzu-Isu and parts of Isu-Njaba and Eziama Obaire most probably because of their geographical proximity to Nkwerre known across and beyond Igboland for its greatness in blacksmithing; thence, it earned the popular status 'Nkwerre okpu uzu' and 'Nkwerre opia egbe'. Wood work and carvings also survived as important craft among the Isu. Places like Amurie and Ekwe were known for making mortar, saucer, and pestle (ikwe, okwa and aka-odu) from hard woods. They, also, carved doors and window frames (mgbo and ekwe mgbo) and masquerade heads (isi okorosha) for their

Vol .4 No. 2 July -December 2020 popular oho cultural festivals. That is to say that wood carving among the Isu did not

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng only serve the household needs but, also, the cultural needs of the people. It is important to note that in as much as manufacturing was an important part of the local economy, people engaged in it on a part time basis. They did it without abandoning their primary attention to farming. Hence, O.N Njoku posits that manufacturing in the Igbo pre-colonial society was geared towards satisfying the 14 agricultural and household needs of the people. Another important aspect of Isu traditional economy was trade. The people engaged in trading activities involving mainly the exchange of agricultural products and local manufactures (crafts) amongst themselves and with their neighbours. Products in the categories of food items, local household utensils, farm implements (tools), and domestic animals were items of trade in various village markets (ahia) and central market in each of the towns across the Isu clan. Trading activities amongst the Isu was responsible for the popularity of town markets like Eke Amandugba, Orie- Ekwe, Nkwo-Isu (in Isu-Njaba town), Orie-Amurie, and Orie-Uloano (also, in Amandugba area). Nze Onyemobi Ezeala informed us that the town markets were conducted from the morning to evening periods while the village market squares conducted business mostly in the evening period; and the varieties of goods in town markets were usually in large quantities as against limited varieties in village markets.15 Though markets were not specialised in terms of the goods traded in them, there were occasions where particular goods were common in a particular market. The sale of all kinds of basket and pottery, for instance, were very much common around 'Eke Amandugba' and blacksmith products like: hoes, machetes, axes, and diggers were common in 'Nkwo Isu'. Palm oil sale was not restricted to a particular market; it was found in a reasonable quantity in all of them. In the pre- colonial times, the means of transporting these trade goods to the market was by foot. The goods bound for the market may be carried to the marketplace by slaves (ndi ohu), hired labourers (ndi oburu or ndi obuibu), and the trader himself and his family members depending on the size and quantity of the goods. However, during the first half of the last century, bicycles (igwe) became fashionable as a means for the conveyance of goods to markets around Isu environs. The people did not only participate in local markets within Isu and its neighbourhood, they, also, traveled to distant places for trade. Isu men and women got to places like , among the Ohuhu clan, Okigwe, Awka, and host of other distant Igbo areas and beyond. D. Northrup once observed that the Igbo people before the dawn of the nineteenth century engaged in both short and long distant

POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW (PHR) trade.16 In summary, the Isu sustained their material society up to the civil war period through farming, local manufacture of basic crafts and tools, and trade. The pattern

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng with which the local economy thrived, though in some respect showed peculiarity of the Isu society, was not different from the general pattern of Igbo traditional economy.

The Aftermaths of the Civil War and Palm Oil Business amongst the Isu The civil war destroyed the socio-economic fabrics of the Biafra territories. The agricultural sector which was the livewire of the Igbo economy was abandoned as people who were fearfully scampering for their lives had no time and space to farm. Besides, farmlands were largely destroyed by bombings and enemy plundering. Food production and other economic activities like trading and local manufacturing were abruptly and severely dislocated. Moreover, as the war raged on, even before the war actually broke out, the pogrom that was orchestrated against the Igbo in the North saw more than two million Igbo men and women flee for safety and poured back into their crowded homeland, abandoning jobs and property it had taken them a lifetime of struggle to acquire.17 The huge refugee problem in Biafra during and immediately after the war added in no small way to the severity of the burden of socio-economic dislocations and loss in various Igbo territories when the war ended. There was total economic collapse and widespread hunger and poverty in Igboland after the war. O.N Njoku argues that the Nigerian Civil War wrought untold destruction of lives and property in Eastern Nigeria in general and Igboland in particular, the theatre of the war.18 The daunting challenge for the people to economically re-engage themselves and rebuild their communal societies, thus, necessitated a number of survival strategies improvised to cope with and outlive the aftermaths of the war. The immediate post civil war situation in Igboland urgently demanded for serious improvisations and efforts that would guarantee survival of the Igbo people, who had been badly wrecked by war. How the people could meaningfully re-engage themselves in a society where almost every source of livelihood was lost to war, thus, became extremely challenging. General Yakubu Gowon launched the 3R programme for reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconciliation of the damaged former Biafra enclave. In as much as the Gowon post-war reconstruction efforts in Igboland in particular were welcomed with enthusiastic optimism, only little was achieved. The implementation process was characterised by the lukewarm commitment and the perceived sabotage on the part of the Gowon government on one hand and high-handedness and corruption of the Ukpabi Asika led East

Vol .4 No. 2 July -December 2020 Central State Government on the other hand. Therefore, many Igbo communities survived the aftermaths of the Nigerian Civil War through self- help and independent communal efforts. It is within this purview of self- effort that the Isu survival in the

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng years after the civil war is situated. The Isu were able to survive the disastrous effects of the war largely because of their resilience while resorting to the palm oil business. As we have earlier pointed out, palm oil production and marketing among the Isu before the civil war period was done basically for household consumption and for satisfaction of the demand in local markets within the same locality. Perhaps, people were primarily engaged with other important economic activities that they did not care much about investing more of their time and energy in the large scale commercial processing and production of palm oil, even though there were enough oil palm resources in the area to be exploited for such a purpose. On the other hand, a large scale production of 'palm oil for trade' required a large labour force which was not readily available because almost every Isu man or woman was primarily a farmer, and may not be willing to abandon his or her traditional farming occupation to give maximum attention to palm oil production and trade. Processing of palm oil was considered as a part time economic activity amongst the Isu before the period under study. However, when the Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970 the Isu had virtually lost every source of their livelihood, and their problems were further compounded by large number of native and non native war returnees who fled from their pre-war places of residence for safety, looking to be absorbed into the Isu economic society. The increased number of dependencies and war handicapped persons in the families became a major social and economic headache. Farmlands were ravaged; trading and trade routes were deserted; and local craft industries were dislocated. Besides, not very many people could embark on labour migration, the popular isuakamma practice among many central Igbo groups, to far away Igbo territories in Umuagwo, Ohaji, Oguta, Egbema, , Ahoada, Ikwerre, and other rich agrarian communities in the southwestern part of Igboland. Madam Agwanwanyi Egbuchulam confirmed that women from Ezi-Isu had to trek as far as Nkwerre or Amaigbo to get some items they needed for household consumption.19 In fact, it was a situation where there was almost nothing to rely on to rebuild from. Therefore, the local palm oil industry which was previously considered as a part time activity, and was mainly geared towards satisfying the immediate household needs which became the fulcrum under which men and women of Isu could find the pathway to rebuild their individual and communal livelihood after the civil war. Many Isu people, whose farm crops and trading activities were lost to the destructive effects of the war and even those who had been made refugees by the incidence of the war, found a full time occupation in the palm

POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW (PHR) oil business, ahia mmanu. From Amurie- Omanze in the southwestern end to Isu- Njaba in the northern end, a significant number of local oil mills (edibala) had been

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng established in the first few years after the war. Owners of the oil mills, also, became major buyers of palm fruits (both the already picked ones and harvested bunches of palm fruits at their oil mill centres or at the markets). This practice was very common in Uloano area of Amandugba. Most people displaced by the war and who were looking for a way to be economically absorbed, became labourers in a number of oil mills, and got paid daily after their services. They did the work of pounding the boiled palm fruits (isu nkwu); separating the palm kernel from the oil fibers (itu aki); and pressing the fiber to extract palm oil after kernel was removed, ipa mmanu. A new class of labour emerged around Isu locally referred to as 'ndi oru edibala', meaning those who offer labour for palm oil processing in local oil mills. Perhaps, due to the growing number of local oil mills, there was an increased demand for labour in the oil palm industry. Isu was even receiving migrant labourers from neigbouring communities. Chief Abara Ohaeri recalled that a number of people around Orodo, Ogwa, Mbieri in Mbaitoli area in particular were going to neighbouring communities in Isu on a daily basis to do edibala work.20 The palm oil industry required the services of a significant number of able-bodied men and women.21 However, before the end of the 1970s oil mill operators had started mechanizing the industry. Machines (igwe nkwu) began to be used in the oil mills for some specific tasks that were previously done by mere hands. This increased the level of production and reduced the cost of labour. The oil mills expanded in size as the turn over tripled. The igwe nkwu factor, it should be noted, revolutionised the palm oil business in Isu. Differen machines were introduced into the mills. There were those that pulped the oil fiber from the kernel; extracted the oil from the fiber; and cracked the palm kernel. On the aspect of trade, palm oil production was no longer essentially produced for just household needs and for the local market demand. The palm oil trade amongst the Isu became a serious business, and conducted beyond the immediate Isu environs and its neighbourhoods. Palm oil produce from the Isu area began to have direct access to markets in several major urban centres within and outside Igboland. There developed a group of men and women in Isu whose business was that of buying of palm oil from individual homes and oil mills for onward sell to major cities in Nigeria. The business was referred to as Igba ahia mmanu. They went into several communities around Isu to buy palm produce. The bulk of the merchandise were usually transported to ready markets in Lagos, and in areas in the North (Ugwu Awusa) like Oturkpo, Jos, Kano, Maiduguri, and a host of other cities. On a weekly basis, loads of Lorries with tons of palm oil bound to the North or Lagos would leave the Isu area. A number of young boys were apprenticed in

Vol .4 No. 2 July -December 2020 this business that its gulf sustainably expanded. Chuks Agonmuo said that many of the young men that ventured into palm oil business in Isu in the

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng 22 1980s later became major benefactors in their respective towns. They

trained and set up many people in the business afterwards. Put differently, the palm oil business in the period after the civil war created a class of local bourgeoisie amongst the men and women of Isu, and aided the further growth of the Isu economy in the subsequent years. In as much as Isu became a major production and distribution centre for palm oil, it, also, became a major market destination where neighbouring communities around it could sell their harvested palm fruits at more favourable prices. For example, people around the western part of Ogwa town in Mbaitoli area had the Uloano part of Amandugba as a major market for the sale of their harvested palm fruits. This in the long run helped to sustain the age long inter-group relations between them. O. Ekundare posits that trade is one of the vehicles of inter-group relations among Nigerians.23 The implication is that the palm oil industry provided a new lease of life amongst the Isu in the immediate post-civil war years which further opened up their local economy.

Conclusion The immediate aftermaths of the Nigerian Civil War posed a serious and severe survival challenge before the Isu, one of the Igbo cultural clans in the former Biafra enclave. The enormity of the war destructions and the experience they wrought on the society of Isu made the people to improvise and find a pathway through palm oil production in their quest to survive after the war had dislocated the economic fabrics of their society. The aggressive engagement in palm oil business amongst the Isu after the war, it was found out, set the path for the economic rise of the Isu vis-à-vis other neighbouring Igbo groups around them in the recent past. The Isu enterprising spirit, common to every other Igbo group, was the compelling force that created the palm oil transformation from almost nothing. Thus, Isu's survival after the civil war was ensured through their resort to aggressive production and sale of palm oil as their individual land communal occupation.

End Notes 1. G.T. Basden, Among the Ibos of Nigeria, Lagos: University Publishing Co., 1982, 155. 2. Oil palm' is botanically referred to as Elaeis guineensis. 3. F.C. Onuegbu, M. Obiajulu, and O. Nnajiofor, “The Ontology of 'Nkwu- Elu' and Its Relevance in Igbo African Socio-cultural Society and Beyond” Journal of Religion and Human Relations, 7(1), 2015, 110-118. POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW (PHR)

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POLAC HISTORICAL REVIEW Vol. 4 No 2 July – December 2020 Pages 34 – 45 ISSN: 2476 – 8049 Website: www.npaw-jhss.com.ng 4. G.E.K. Ofomata, Geographical Maps of Nigeria, Benin: Ethiope Pub. Co., 1975, 12. 5. See: E. Isichei, The Igbo People and the Europeans, London: Faber and Faber, 1973, 18. 6. For more detailed and incisive discussions on the foundation of Igbo economy, see: A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture, Ibadan: University Press Ltd., 1981; V.C Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1965; and E. Isichei, A History of the Igbo People, London: Macmillan Press, 1976. 7. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast… 31. 8. F.I. Njoku, “Trade, Trade Routes and Economic Activities in Mbano in the 19th Century” in D.O Chukwu, S.I. Okoro, E. Uchendu, and J.G. Nkem-Onyekpe (eds) Studies in Igbo History, : Nolix Publications, 2016, 62-89. 9. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand… 124. 10. N.A.E. Onprof 46/08/33 “Intelligence Report on Orlu Division” September, 1927. th 11. Chief Ucheoma Duru, c.67 years, Farmer, interviewed in Ekwe, 6 September, 2019. 12. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand… 125. 13. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast… 28. 14. O.N. Njoku, Economic History of Nigeria: 19th and 20th Centuries, Enugu: Magnet Enterprises, 2000, 18. 15. Nze Onyemobi Ezeala, c.63 years, Farmer, interviewed in Amandugba, 4th October, 2019. 16. D. Northrup, Trader without Rulers, London: Routled and Kedan Paul Ltd., 1958, 79. 17. See: Esichei, A History of the Igbo… 246. 18. O.N. Njoku, “Misguided Optimism in the Birth of a New Nigeria: the Gowon Era, 1970-1975” Unizik Journal of Arts and Humanities, vol.3, 2001, 105. 19. Madam Agwanwanyi Egbuchulam, C.65 years, Trader, interviewed at Ezi-Isu, 10th September, 2019. th 20. Chief Abara Ohaeri, C.72 years, Community Leader, interviewed at Orodo, 5 Otober, 2019. 21. See: F.E. Ayokhai, “Food Technology in Colonial Nigeria: the Experience of Uzairhue Women of Benin” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, VOL.23, 2014, 60. th 22. Chuks Agonmuo, C.59 years, Farmer, interviewed at Amurie-Omanze, 4 October, 2019. 23. O. Ekundare, Economic History of Nigeria, London: Methuen and Co., 1973, 61.

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