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Poverty in Nineteenth-Century Yorubaland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

John Iliffe
John Iliffe
Affiliation:
St John's College, Cambridge
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It is widely believed that pre-colonial Africa south of the Sahara had no problem of poverty (and no beggars or ascetics) except in those few areas which already possessed intensive agriculture, literacy, world religions, and classes with stratified subcultures. This article uses the records of missionaries and evangelists living in nineteenth-century Yoruba towns to demonstrate the existence of paupers, beggars, ascetics and (with less certainty) charitable practices. It also considers the means by which the poor sought to survive. The article suggests that the absence of poverty from pre-colonial Africa is a myth and that the subject deserves fully study.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 43 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

References

1 Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Ujamaa – the basis of African Socialism’ (1962), in his Freedom and Unity (Dar es Salaam, 1966), 164.Google Scholar

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4 Ibid. 210–12, 193–4.

5 Ibid. 194. This is at best a partial truth. It assumes that poverty must be defined in relative terms, but in poor countries there are strong arguments for defining it in absolute terms: see Sen, Amartya, Poverty and Famines (revised edition, Oxford, 1982), ch. 2.Google Scholar Moreover, the two definitions are not mutually exclusive and neither is of any use to a historian of Africa because the data available are not good enough to test them. The only usable definition of poverty in Africa before the mid twentieth-century is a behavioural definition: the poor were those observed by others to behave as poor people behave.

6 Goody, , Cooking, 65, 191.Google Scholar

7 The main sources are the records of the Church Missionary Society [CMS] in Birmingham University Library. There is no material relevant to this subject in the records of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, which are in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. I am indebted to the librarians of both institutions. I am also grateful to the Executive Director of the Historical Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention for a microfilm of the papers of T. J. Bowen, although they do not contain data on poverty. I have not consulted other Southern Baptist or Roman Catholic records. Dr Jeremy Eades and Dr John Lonsdale have made valuable comments on drafts of the paper, although I have not always been able to incorporate them.

8 See above, note 5.

9 I have included material on Badagry because, although not strictly a Yoruba town, it was part of the same mission field and was culturally very closely related. Little material on Lagos is included because its records, which are distinct and very extensive, would need a separate study. Most material is from Abeokuta and Ibadan.

10 Mann, journal, 30 October 1858, CMS C.A2/O.66/95.

11 For a typical case see W. S. Allen, journal, 11 September 1882, CMS G3/A2/0/1884/103.

12 See Fadipe, N. A., The Sociology of the Yoruba (Ibadan, 1970), chs. 4 and 5.Google Scholar

13 Doherty to Long, 17 May 1882, CMS G3/A2/O/1882/112.

14 White to Venn, 6 June 1867, CMS C.A2/O.87/23.

15 Three were incapacitated in more than one way.

16 Oyebode, journal, 23 July 1890, CMS G3/A2/0/1891/123; W. Allen, journal, 16 November 1876, CMS C.A2/O.18/26 Olubi, journal, 25 November 1883, CMS G3/A2/O/1884/100.

17 Maser to Venn, 28 June 1867, CMS C.A2/O.68/76. By 1910 missionaries had founded two leprosaria in Abeokuta: see Ajisafe, A. K., History of Abeokuta (second edition, Bungay, 1924), 180;Google Scholar Tugwell to Baylis, 6 May 1895, CMS G3/A2/O/1895/90.

18 W. S. Allen, journal, 9 November 1888 (CMS G3/A2/O/1889/129)and 22 May 1882 (CMS G3/A2/O/1884/103); J. Okuseinde, journal, 17 November 1882, CMS G3/A2/O/1884/102; T. King, journal, 16 May 1855, CMS C.A2/O.61/56; George, journal, 27 May 1873, CMS C.A2/O.41/6.

19 E.g. Gollmer, journal, 15 October 1851, CMS C.A2/O.43/113.

20 E.g. Cole, journal, 13 September 1871, CMS C.A2/O.29/8.

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22 A large proportion of the sleeping sickness cases mentioned in the mission records were children or young people.

23 Olubi, journal, 2 June 1868, CMS C.A2/O.75/21.

24 White, journal, 17 February 1863, CMS C.A2/O.87/65.

25 Young, journal, 2 February and 6 March 1879, CMS C.A2/O.98/24.

26 Olubi, journal, 1 November 1880, CMS G3/A2/O/1881/99. For a detailed account of a similar case, see Seventeen Years in the Yoruba Country: Memorials of Anna Hinderer (London, 1872), 104–106.Google Scholar

27 Adebiyi, T. A., The Beloved Bishop: the Life of Bishop A. B. Akinyele (Ibadan, 1969), 27–28.Google Scholar

28 Wood to Baylis, 2 August 1893, CMS G3/A2/O/1893/116.

29 Wood to Baylis, 8 January 1894, CMS G3/A2/O/1894/4.

30 For Yoruba attitudes on this point see ‘A journal of Mr D. Coker, a catechist at Ido’, n.d. [1872?] CMS C.A2/O.28/4; Faulkner, Donald, Social Welfare and Juvenile Delinquency in Lagos, Nigeria (London, n.d.), 5.Google Scholar

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32 See Gutton, Jean-Pierre, La société et les pauvres en Europe (XVIe-XVIIIe siècles) (Paris, 1974), 72–73; Hufton, Poor, 12, 20;Google ScholarJones, Gareth Stedman, Outcast London (Oxford, 1971), 44, 51.Google Scholar

33 Abimbola, Wande, Ifa: an exposition of Ifa literary corpus (Ibadan, 1976), 108.Google Scholar

34 N. Johnson to ?, 3 January 1879, CMS C.A2/O.57/10.

35 Olubi to Fenn, 19 February 1880, CMS C.A2/O.75/47.

36 J. Okuseinde, journal, 2 April 1874, CMS C.A2/O.74/12.

37 E.g. Wood to Lang, 6 August 1890, CMS G3/A2/O/1890/117.

38 Olubi, journal, 8 June 1870, CMS C.A2/O.75/25.

39 ‘Report of the Ijaye Relief Committee’, 1 October 1861, CMS C.A2/O.11/25. See also Stone, R. H., In Afric's Forest and Jungle, or Six Years among the Yorubans (Edinburgh, 1900), 184–188.Google Scholar

40 Harrison to Secretaries, 21 October 1863, CMS C.A2/O.45/39. See also Ajayi, W. O., ‘A history of the Yoruba mission, 1843–1880’ (M.A. thesis, Bristol University, 1959), 174.Google Scholar

41 Mann to Secretaries, n.d. [December 1865] CMS C.A2/O.66/34.

42 See esp. Crowther to Hutchinson, 10 September 1856, CMS C.A2/O.31/78.

43 E.g. anonymous journal, 26 April 1872, CMS C.A2/O.29/9; Doherty, journal, 5 and 6 May 1876, CMS C.A2/O.35/11. The evidence does not permit investigation of social differentiation within villages.

44 Lijadu, journal, 11 May 1895, CMS G3/A2/O/1895/149; W. S. Allen, journal, 8 October 1877, CMS C.A2/O.19/17; W. Allen to Wright, 19 November 1879, CMS C.A2/O.18/9. The most comprehensive account is Oroge, E. Adeniyi, ‘The institution of slavery in Yorubaland with particular reference to the nineteenth century’ (Ph.D. thesis, Birmingham University, 1971).Google Scholar

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46 ‘Report from Revd. J. Johnson’, August 1877, CMS C.A2/O.56/50.

47 Lander, Richard, Records of Captain Clapperton's Last Expedition to Africa (London, 1830, second edition, 1967), 11, 205, 208, 213, 219;Google ScholarRichard, and Lander, John, Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger (London, 1832), 1, 188;Google ScholarBowen, T. J., Adventures and Missionary Labours (second edition, London, 1968), 300;Google ScholarStone, , In Afric's Forest, 35.Google Scholar

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53 Meakin, journal, 25 April 1859, CMS C.A2/O.69/12.

54 Cross, journal, 14 September 1883, CMS G3/A2/O/1883/191; Cole, journal, 11 March 1873, CMS C.A2/O.29/12; Sunday, journal, 4 January 1880, CMS C.A2/O.84/1; Hinderer, , Seventeen Years, 293.Google Scholar

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56 Huber, journal, 2 November 1851, CMS C.A2/O.51/A/1.

57 E.g. J. Okuseinde, journal, 25 January 1887, CMS G3/A2/O/1888/48; Harding to Baylis, 1 August 1899, CMS G3/A2/O/1899/122.

58 S. Crowther, journal, 15 November 1852, CMS C.A2/O.32/56; S. Johnson, journal, 12 July 1881, CMS G3/A2/O/1884/101.

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65 Crowther, Vocabulary, s.v. Madekoso.

66 There are excellent photographs of such figurines in Westcott, Joan, ‘The sculpture and myths of Eshu-Elegba, the Yoruba trickster’, Africa, XXXII (1962), 336–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 For Eshu and the other divinities mentioned here see Idowu, E. Bolaji, Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief (London, 1962).Google Scholar

68 Akiele, journal, 25 January 1888, CMS G3/A2/O/1889/130. ‘His’ refers to Tela Kofoworola.

69 W. S. Allen, journal, 12 September 1867, CMS C.A2/O.19/5.

70 George, journal, 18 March 1874, CMS C.A2/O.41/8.

71 C. Phillips, journal, 22 March 1885, CMS C.A2/O.77/11.

72 J. Smith, journal, 1 January 1866, CMS C.A2/O.83/20.

73 Kefer, journal, 13 May 1855, CMS C. A2/O.59/9; Akiele, journal, 30 May 1892, CMS G3/A2/O/1893/18.

74 Akiele, journal, 10 September 1890, CMS G3/A2/O/1891/121.

75 Westcott, , ‘Sculpture’, 337–8, 345–6.Google Scholar

76 Townsend, journal, 9 January 1852, CMS C.A2/O.85/248.

77 Young, journal, 2–4 May 1878, CMS C.A2/O.98/21; Hinderer, journal, 7 May 1853, CMS C.A2/O.49/106.

78 W. S. Allen, journal, 7 December 1883, CMS G3/A2/O/1884/103.

79 C. Phillips Jr, journal, 27 December 1877, CMS C.A2/O.78/19.

80 Olubi, journal, 10 January 1873, CMS C.A2/O.75/28.

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84 Church Missionary Record, 1850, 77. Abimbola, Ifa, 17, notes the same tradition.

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88 Lijadu, journal, 17 January 1895, CMS G3/A2/O/1895/149.

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93 Elizabeth Isichei, ‘Introduction’, in Ibid. 1–9.

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95 Crowther, Vocabulary, s.v. Alagbe.

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100 S. Johnson, journal, 23 June 1878, CMS C.A2/O.58/10.

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