Proposals for a new economic order for the Oduduwa Republic
The current world economic order is a product of western culture. Production of goods and acquisition of wealth is considered the main purpose of life. The western man lost his autonomy to modern industrialism, which permitted self-realisation of the individual only within the context of the industrial organisation. The goal is the acquisitive ideals of individual gains, economic activity, success, and materials. The western man is just a cog in a vast economic wheel, designed to serve a purpose outside of himself. The western man’s reason for life is to work in the service of economic production and to accumulate capital; combined with a strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life.
Socialism/communism differs not a jot from capitalism. All require man to devote himself to material production. All require man to be a dependent employee. Modern economic activity eliminated the individual. Labour is reduced to simple movements. Artificially refined labour replaced the artisan, and the traditionally regulated. Uniqueness is eliminated. Everything is reduced to numbers. In the modern economic environment, the individual is powerless and insignificant. Man, no longer could control his economic fate. His hopes and goals are frustrated by events unknown to him and others that he cannot influence. Socialism/capitalism nationalised poverty whilst capitalism socialised insecurity and economic helplessness.
We most certainly do not want this modern, western economic order for our Oduduwa Republic. The economic practice of the ancient Yoruba was agrarian. It was not agricultural. Agricultural economics refers to farming as a business. It was not subsistence economics. Subsistence farming means the practice of growing crops/livestock sufficient only for personal use leaving no surplus for trade. On the contrary, the Yoruba agrarian economics had enough wealth to support full employment as well as an impressive urbanisation. The Yoruba agrarians could afford to pay specialists, artisans and craftsmen for goods and services. Clapperton and the Landers, travellers in Yorubaland in the early 1800s, reported international trade between the Yoruba agrarians and the Hausa/Nupe.
How did the ancient Yoruba with their agrarian practice achieve this economic feat? There are three discernible facets to it: namely, traditional individualism, the extended family (neighbourism) and regularised urbanisation.
The Yoruba of yore were individualistic by culture, nature, and upbringing. The typical Yoruba farmer, for example, had his own patch of land that was exclusive to him. He would not share that patch of land with another man. He annexed as much land as he was capable of tilling by his own personal efforts, and he planted as much as he could cope with. He was in other words his own limit. At harvest, his wife took the produce to the market to sell in her own demarcated stall. She might process the farm produce into foodstuff, such as, gari or elubo, which she then took to the market to sell in her own stall. She used some of what she earned selling in the market to buy her family’s needs from the same market. The rest of her earnings she put aside for her family’s future use. When her son became of age, he went into the bush to annex his own independent patch of land to farm. He would be helped with clearing the land and with the seeds to plant. And the cycle of individualism began again. If the young man chose to be an artisan, he underwent apprenticeship at the feet of a master. On completion of that apprenticeship, he would set up his own business, well away from the area of influence of his master. Indeed, sometimes he relocated as far away as another country in search of his own market.
The Yoruba of yore practised a system of extended family, but there are as many descriptions of it as there are writers. Many of these descriptions are fanciful, however. In truth, the extended family referred to people who were related by blood no matter how remote. This blood relationship was through both maternal and paternal lines. Consequently, the extended family could not all have lived under one roof as writers were wont to claim. In economic terms, the extended family provided a ‘launch pad’ for a young person about to leave home to set up on his own. For example, the family would assist in clearing an annexed land and provide seeds for planting. An apprentice might be assisted with his ‘exit fee’ or with setting up his own business. The family might provide free labour or other resources for a project, such as, the building of a house. A new bride would be provided with what she immediately needed to set up a home. The extended family contributed to family gatherings, such as, weddings and burials. The Yoruba extended family was simply too large, and too diverse, to be the provider of informal insurance for all as writers often claimed. Indeed, a frequent complaint by Yoruba people is how unhelpful the extended family turned out to be in times of trouble or when they needed a job or money.
Urbanisation was a tradition of the Yoruba. Indeed, the Yoruba of yore were the most urbanised of all of Africa’s ethnic nations. Yoruba cities were known to the Europeans from as early as the 1400s: 1485, d’Aveiro narrated how the King of Benin went to the powerful city of Ile Ife to be crowned; 1505, Pereira described Ijebu-Ode as ‘a very large city’; 1729, D’Anville included Ondo as a city on his map. In the 1930s, 9 of the 10 largest cities in Nigeria were Yoruba. Practically all the Yoruba people of yore were urban (Ilu) dwellers. Yoruba urbanisation was by design and not by accident. Whereas in Europe urbanisation was the product of industrialisation, ‘Ile labo simi oko’ (to the home we come to rest after work) was the underpinning philosophy of Yoruba urbanisation. Indeed, the Yoruba separated the place of work, farm or market, from the place of dwelling by considerable physical distance. Home was where to relax and socialise, to forget the back-breaking work of tilling the land. The Yoruba of yore did not trivialise with their enjoyment of life, and all Ilu economic activities were directed towards this singular objective. Hence, unlike what happened in Europe, Yoruba urbanisation was not accompanied by social dislocation or by disorganisation.
How do we translate this ancient to the modern? The inherent individualism of the Yoruba youth should be incentivised through widespread small-scale farming; indeed, making agrarianism a way of life. Individuals would be offered small holdings with assistance with clearing the bush and with seeds to plant. Small-scale farms are sustainable and climate friendly. Crop rotation and composting (to replace wild fires) would obviate the need for fertilisers, which dangerously pollute the land, or the need for GM seeds, which interfere with the human physiology. A thousand small-scale farms, translating to at least a thousand jobs, would enhance the overall economy more than an industrial farm. To complement the small-scale farm, other youths would be assisted to establish adjoining, relevant small-scale food processing industries. A custom made ‘market’ that would obviate the need for long distance transportation, or the need to use preservatives or refrigeration for perishable food crops like tomatoes and peppers. A thousand small tomato processing units sited locally, for example, would achieve more economically than a large one off like Dangote’s, which has not yet been able to get off the ground despite billions of Naira spent on it.
Agrarianism means license to grow just about any variety of food crops - berries, fruits, legumes, onions, peas, rice, tubers, vegetables etc. Agrarianism means opportunity to farm mushrooms, fish, and small animals. Cash crops would put Oduduwa Republic at the mercy of other countries whereas, food crops would not. Agrarianism would encourage the mentality of trusting other aspects of economic life, such as, mining and utilities to the individual person rather than to government or to corporations - domestic or international. A further benefit of this proposed agrarian revolution would be the shift in urbanism from current western-style cities, where most youths are jobless and attracted to life of crime, to the depopulated, gentrified, and lifeless rural Yorubaland. And, the incoming youths would bring with them to the rurality, the goods and services accoutrement of modern life.
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