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MARKEFWOMEN AND CAPITALIST ADAPTATION:
A CASE STUDY 5N RURAL BENIN, NlGERlA

Dissertation for the Degree of Ph. D.
MiGHlGAN STATE UNIVERSiTY '
ELEANOR JEAN JOHNSON
1973

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ABSTRACT

MARKETNOMEN AND CAPITALIST ADAPTATION:
A CASE STUDY IN RURAL BENIN, NIGERIA

By

Eleanor Jean Johnson

In this dissertation, the trading activities of marketplace
traders are investigated, and the process whereby petty traders evolve
into capitalist traders is analyzed. Research was conducted in and
around The Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR),
located 20 miles north of Benin City in the Mid-Western State of
Nigeria. Survey questionnaires were adminiStered to large samples of
women in the NIFOR staff community, in its major satellite villages,
and in the two marketplaces located in these communities. Intensive
work was done with smaller samples of traders, and the method of
participant observation was used extensively.

Preliminary survey work revealed that over 50% of adult women
in the communities are engaged in some type of trade; most of these
are marketplace traders. Of these, only about 5% were later
categorized as capitalist traders on the basis of analysis of their
activities and scale of business. This means that of the total

population of adult women, only 2%% are capitalist traders.

Eleanor Jean Johnson

The development from petty trader to capitalist trader is“
conceptualized as a sequence of adaptive strategies and tactics for
coping with the socio-economic environment. Strategies are defined
as long-range goals or objectives, while tactics refer to short-term
actions consistent with these objectives. The marketplace
capitalist, or big trader, is distinguished by the fact that she
possesses a relatively large fund of money-capital which she
manipulates in a capitalistic way. Petty traders develop into
capitalist traders through employing a sequence of strategies
the objectives of which are the acquisition, accumulation and
manipulation of money-capital. Three logical stages in this process
are delineated.

Firstly, traders change from simple commodity circulation
to "potential"-capitalist commodity circulation when they acquire an
initial fund of money-capital and engage in middleman trading
activities. The strategies specified at this preliminary stage
include the acquisition of money through a gift or loan, and the
gradual accumulation of a hoard of money through saving the small
profits from petty activities.

Secondly, petty traders endeavoring to become capitalist
traders must manipulate money-capital in ways which lead to its
growth, i.e., they must engage in true capitalist commodity circula-
tion. The strategies employed at this stage include the minimization
of the competitive structure of the internal marketing system, the
maximization of profits in exchange interactions, and the allocation

of money-profits to an investment fund for trading.

Eleanor Jean Johnson

The third stage in the development from petty trader to
capitalist trader is marked by strategies employed by wealthy big
traders who are expansion-oriented. Such women are members of the
marketplace elite, and are usually good managers and organizers,
imaginative innovators, and active profit-seekers. The strategies
employed by big traders are aimed at accelerating capital accumula-
tion, and consist firstly of expanding the scale of marketplace
business by increasing the size of the trading firm, and secondly
of innovatively investing capital in business enterprise outside the
marketplace.

The analysis of the capitalist adaptation of female traders
is approached inductively, but three hypotheses arise from the
discussion. Firstly, the necessity of an emerging capitalist mode
of production is postulated as the basis for capitalist trading
patterns. Secondly, female traders' roles within the family group
are hypothesized as being the main extra-economic roles influencing
trading activities. Thirdly, it is postulated that business
opportunities for women in the modern commercial sector will be
great where women participate extensively in the traditional marketing

system.

MARKETNOMEN AND CAPITALIST ADAPTATION:
A CASE STUDY IN RURAL BENIN, NIGERIA

By

Eleanor Jean Johnson

A DISSERTATION

Presented to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Anthropology

1973

Copyright by
ELEANOR JEAN JOHNSON
1973

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Canada Council provided full financial support for this
project. Fieldwork was supported by a Doctoral Fellowship (N7l-22l7),
and the dissertation was written with the support of a Fellowship
Renewal (N72-6090). I am sincerely grateful to The Canada Council
for this support.

To the Ministry of Economic Development and Reconstruction of
the Midwestern State Government of Nigeria, I am grateful for per-
mission to undertake the research in the Midwest State. The Nigerian
Institute for Oil Palm Research gave me permission to conduct field-
work in the area, and kindly allowed me access to NIFOR statistics,
as well as the use of office equipment. I am particularly grateful
to the Director of the Institute, Mr. E. Ogor, the Chief of Isiuwa
Village and the ex-head of the NIFOR Advisory and Information
Services, Chief S. A. Omenai, the ex-Plantation Manager, Mr. E. I.
Ogedegbe, as well as his wife Mrs. Ogedegbe.

My sincere thanks go to the enggjg_of Uwan, Mr; Idumwonyi
Ehigie for permission to conduct the study of the communities of Uwan,
Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen, and to the Secretary of The Iyekuselu
District Council, Mr. D. 0. Edokpayi, and his staff for preparing the
housing list of these communities and for cooperating at every stage

of the research.

ii

I thank Drs. Akinwowo and Osagie of The Nigerian Institute
of Social and Economic Research, University of Ibadan, for their
helpful suggestions and criticisms, and Dr. Q.B.O. Anthonio of the
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Ibadan, for his
comments and advice and for access to some of his own research
material.

I am particularly grateful to Dr. Scott Cook, the chairman
of my dissertation committee, for his assistance in every phase of
the project. His helpful suggestions and criticisms have been
invaluable, as have those of the other members of my dissertation
committee, Dr. Iwao Ishino, Dr. Leonard Kasdan and Dr. John Hunter.
To Dr. Richard Salisbury I acknowledge a long-standing debt. It was
he who first interested me in economic anthropology, and many of my'
ideas are a direct result of his careful teaching and inspiring
writing.

Mrs. M. Okundaye and Mrs. E. Esokpuwu served as my research
assistants, and deserve my deepest gratitude for their help and con-
tinued interest in the project.

To the residents of Isiuwa Village and the three villages of
Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen, as well as to all the women in Isiuwa
Market and Ugbogiobo Market, I extend my sincere thanks. Without
their cooperation and willing assistance, the project would not have
been completed.

My thanks go to Dr. Joseph Spielberg and Dr. Edward Henry

for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

I would like to dedicate this study to my husband Tim, in
partial acknowledgment of my dependence upon his constant encourage-
ment and patience, and for his numerous suggestions and criticisms,
and to my three daughters Katie, Pam and Emily, for their under-
standing, and for the many long, hot hours they spent with me in

the villages and marketplaces.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter

I.

II.

III.

IV.

INTRODUCTION .

The Problem .
Data- -Collecting Procedures

THE SETTING

Nigeria .

The Midwestern State

The NIFOR- Area

The Trading Activities of Women in the Communities
Summary . .

THE REGIONAL MARKETPLACE SYSTEM

Introduction . .
The System of Marketplaces .
Characteristics of the Agents of Exchange

MARKETPLACE TRANSACTIONS .

Price Formation

Bargaining Behavior

Socializing, Social Stratification, and Social
Mobility in the Marketplace .

The Marketplace "Big Trader"

THE DEVELOPMENT FROM PETTY TRADER T0. CAPITALIST
TRADER. .

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stage One. The Acquisition of an Initial Fund of
Money- Capital . . .

Stage Two. Accumulation Of Capital and Capitalist
Commodity Circulation . . . . . . .

Stage Three: Entry Into the Elite

V

Page
vii

ix

108
115
122
129
129
132

138
181

Chapter Page

VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . 187
FOOTNOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . .1 . . . . . . 201
APPENDIX A: COMMODITY INVENTORIES . . . . . . . . .l 202
APPENDIX B: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES . . . . . . . . . 224

BIBLIOGRAPHY................232

vi

Table

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

LIST OF TABLES

Classification of Community Women by Occupation and
Village . . . . . . .

Classification of Secondary Women by Occupation and
Village . . . . . . .

Classification of Community Women by Ethnic Group
and Present Village . . . . .

Classification of Community Women by Ethnic Group and
Occupation .

Classification of Community Women by Age and
Occupation . .

Classification of Community Women by Age,
Occupation and Village . .

Marketplaces Regularly Attended by Female Traders in
Two Marketplaces . . . . . .

Classification of Female Market Traders by Distances
of Home Villages and Availability of Motorized
Transport . . . . . . . .

Home Villages of Female Traders in Two Rural
Marketplaces

Classification of Traders by Marketplace and
Distances Travelled to Obtain Commodities .

Numbers of Traders in Two Marketplaces over a lZ—Month
Period . . . . . . . .

Isiuwa Market Female Traders by Ethnic Group and
Commodity . . . . .

Ugbogiobo Market Female Traders by Ethnic Group and
Commodity . . .

Classification of Female Traders by Ethnic Group,
Village and Marketplace . . . .

vii

Page

46

47

49

51

52

54

70

72

74

75

77

80

81

84

Table Page

15. Classification of Wholesalers by Commodity and
Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

l6. Classification of Female Traders by Age and
Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

l7. Classification of Female Marketplace Traders by
Age and Commodity . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

l8. Classification of 33 Big Traders by Home Area and
Commodity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l24

l9. Classification of 33 Big Traders by Present
Commodities and Original Commodities . . . . . 126

20. Isiuwa Market Restudy Traders Classified by Initial

Capital, and Gain of Present Capital Over Initial

Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l37
Al. Ugbogiobo Market Commodity Inventory . . . . . . 206

A2. Isiuwa Market Commodity Inventory . . . . . . . 2l4

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page
l. Map of Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0 22
2. Map of the Midwest State . . . . . . . . . . 23
3. Map of the NIFOR-Area . . . . .1 . . . . . . 30
4. Diagram of Isiuwa Marketplace . . . . . . . . . 6O
5. Diagram of Ugbogiobo Marketplace . . . . . . . . 63

ix

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The Problem

 

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the activities
of female traders in rural Benin, Nigeria, and to analyze their
behavior in terms of current theoretical formulations in economic
anthropology. Specifically, my primary concern is to discover why
some traders are more successful than others, i.e., what it is that
distinguishes the "big trader" from the "petty trader," and through
what process petty traders evolve into successful business women. I

1 The

will analyze this process as a sequence of adaptive strategies.
development from petty trader to big trader as capitalist trader is
viewed as the process through which a woman successfully manipulates
the socio-economic environment to her own advantage.

Gloria Marshall (l964z249) in her study of Yoruba women in
Western Nigeria, has noted that "the world of the market is pre-
dominantly a woman's world." The same is true in rural Benin where
the great majority of petty traders are women. Marketplace trading is
an activity that has occupied Bini women for centuries. Early
European travellers to the ancient Benin Kingdom noted the prevalence
of women in the marketplaces of Benin City (Ryder, 1969:25l, 3l4).

Bradbury (l957) has remarked on the extensive trading activities of

Beni women, as well as of women of the other ethnic groups which were

controlled by the Benin Kingdom. This dissertation is limited to the
study of women traders who far outnumber men in the internal marketing
system of rural Benin.

The activities of petty traders are remarkably similar through-
out the world and have been studied in the Caribbean by Mintz (1956,
l959), Katzin (1960) and Spence (l964), in Java by Dewey (l962), in
Middle America by Tax (l953) and in West Africa by Bauer (l954),
Marshall (l964) and McCall (l955). Mintz, in several of his writings,
has delineated the functions of these small-scale traders, services
which include bulking, transporting, minor processing and packing,
storing, breaking bulk, and extending short-term credit. Functions
which in a developed economy are performed by a few large-scale firms,
are in developing areas performed on a small, sometimes minute, scale
by numerous petty traders.

Female traders in rural Benin operate within a market exchange
system which channels their choices and restricts their activities.
Before delineating the parameters of this exchange system, it is
necessary to define the economic field of study, and specify the place
of the exchange process within this field.

The sub-discipline of economic anthropology, pre-occupied
throughout the past decade by the "formalist-substantive" debate, now
shows signs of moving towards a resolution of this conflict. The
formalist definition of economics as ”economizing" (LeClair, l968:l97)
and thus an aspect of all human social behavior is unsatisfactory in
delimiting a substantive field of inquiry. The substantivist

definition of economics as the process of provisioning society with

"material goods which satisfy biological and social wants,"
(Dalton, l968:l48), fails to identify specific components of this
process so that no institution is regarded as economic and the
economy cannot be separated from other societal systems.

Cook (1973:29) has recently attempted to bridge the gap
between these two approaches by defining the economic field as
". . a culturally-mediated field of a human population's activity
in which its members interact with their physical and social environ-
ment in the calculated attempt to acquire, directly or indirectly,
a living." The component processes within this activity field are
then empirically identifiable as (l) production, which includes
appropriation of materials from the natural environment and their
transformation into useful products, (2) transfer of rights in or
control over commodities, which includes both distribution and
exchange, and (3) utilization of these commodities in direct con-
sumption or in capital consumption.

Marx clearly explains the relationships between these
processes:

By production, the members of society appropriate (produce
and shape) the products of nature to human wants; distribu-
tion determines the pr0portion in which the individual
participates in this production; exchange brings him the
particular products into which he wishes to turn the
quantity secured by him through distribution; finally
through consumption the products become objects of use and
enjoyment, of individual appropriation. . . . Production
thus appears as the starting point; consumption as the
final end; and distribution and exchange as the middle; the
latter has a double aspect, distribution being defined as

a process carried on by society, while exchange as one
proceeding from the individual (l97lz22).

The present study focuses on exchange, the process whereby
products, having been distributed according to the prevailing social
laws, are exchanged by the individual for commodities which fill his
needs and satisfy his wants. The exchange system in any society is
closely linked to the system of distribution, and the system of
distribution is largely a result of prevailing modes of production
(cf. Marx, 1971:29, 33).

The present study is concerned with patterns of exchange and
commodity circulation within a production system that is semi-
capitalistic. The economic field with which we are concerned is
characterized by scarce capital, abundant unskilled labor and a
poorly developed infra-structure. It is not, however, exclusively a
peasant system of rural cultivators who produce surpluses which are
transferred to a dominant group of non-cultivators (cf. Wolf, l966:
3-4). The system to be described encompasses both peasants and semi-
proletarians as well as nascent capitalists. The exchange system
examined is one of marketplace exchange in a developing nation. In
the industrial sector the prevailing mode of production is capitalistic,
the state being the major capitalist, while at the rural village level,
the prevailing mode of production is semi-capitalistic, being
characterized by peasant agricultural and artisan production. The
traders to be discussed include both peasant-marketers and middleman-
traders.

The exchange process is one of transferring rights of ownership
or use of commodities. The use of general purpose money facilitates

exchange, tends to unify the exchange system and leads to increased

production of commodities having exchange-value. It also facilitates
the separation of the means of production (materials and tools) from
the labor-power necessary to produce utilizable products from these
materials and tools (cf. Marx, l97l:60-6l). The means of production
and labor-power become commodities which can be expressed in terms of
money-value. It is this separation of labor-power from the means of
production that to Marx (l930:79l) characterizes the capitalist mode

of production. Labor-power is then a commodity having exchange-value,
for once separated from the means of production, it must be exchanged
for other commodities having use-value in order for the laborer to
reproduce himself. Growth and specialization in the exchange system
are correlated with increased division of labor and role specialization
in the production system. As the prevailing mode of production becomes
increasingly capitalistic, the exchange system becomes increasingly
separated from the production system and the role of the full-time
exchange agent assumes greater importance. Individuals who specialize
in exchange, i.e., traders or merchants, acquire a living through their
interactions, direct or indirect, with producers on the one hand and
consumers on the other.

In a society of partial-capitalistic production, which situation
characterizes much of the Third World, the exchange system is frequently
composed of two relatively distinct sectors; the export marketing
system which deals primarily with commodities destined for ultimate
sale outside the state, and the internal marketing system which deals
primarily with commodities destined for utilization or consumption

within the state. The export marketing system is almost always

1

 

dominated by capitalists, whether private or government-sponsored,
while the internal marketing system is characterized by numerous self-
sponsored petty traders some of whom engage in capitalistic circula-
tion, but many of whom exchange commodities produced in the peasant
sector for money which in turn they exchange for comsumption com-
modities. Marx (l930:83) characterizes this latter process as simple
commodity circulation (C-M-C).

Simple commodity circulation is undoubtedly the dominant mode
of circulation at the pre-industrial level where the majority of
commodities produced in the society are consumed directly in repro-
ducing the social units. However, as the prevailing mode of production
becomes increasingly capitalistic, i.e., as the means of production are
increasingly separated from the labor-power necessary to transform them
into products, the opportunities for capitalistic commodity circulation
and capital accumulation increase (Marx, 1971:67-68).

Among female traders in rural Benin, simple commodity circula-
tion tends to be limited to the exchange activities of peasant-
marketers who exchange their own products for money which they use to
provision their subsistence/replacement funds, ceremonial funds and
rent funds (cf. Wolf, l966:5-lO). Theoretically, middleman-traders
engage in a different type of commodity circulation. Middlemen
operate with a fund of money-capital and are themselves rarely
producers. They exchange money for commodities (M-C), and at a later
stage of the circuit, the commodities are changed back into money
having greater value than the original sum (C-M1). This system of

circulation (M-C-M1) is what Marx (l930:l32) describes as capitalist

commodity circulation because the money-capital acquires surplus-
value in the process. However, traders who operate with a fund of
money-capital do not always manipulate their capital in capitalistic
ways. Many of them use all the profits gained in trading to provision
subsistence, ceremonial and rent funds. Thus if M1 consists of
M + m (original money-value plus surplus-value), M is the replacement
fund for trading, while m is used as the subsistence fund to feed the
trader and to provision his ceremonial and rent funds.

Middleman-traders engage in true capitalist circulation only
when they use M1 to provision an investment fund as well as subsistence/
replacement, ceremonial and rent funds (cf. Marx, l930:l38). Only
those traders who continually recirculate a portion of their profits as
well as their original sum of money-capital can be said to be
capitalist traders for whom the exchange-value of money assumes
"processional value" (Marx, l930:l40, l4l) and continually increases
through continual circulation. Marketplace capitalists are defined as
traders who engage in true capitalist commodity circulation.

The use of the term "capitalist” for merchants or traders is
not strictly in keeping with Marx' usage. For Marx, the capitalist
is one who controls production through his ability to purchase both
labor-power and the objective conditions of production (l930:l65,
l69-193). Marx' primary concern in Capital (Vol. 1) is to analyze
the capitalist mode of production. He does point out, however, that
capital in the form of money frequently makes its appearance as the
capital of traders; "it appears as moneyed wealth, as the capital of

the merchant and of the userer" (19302l3l). Furthermore, he also

indicates that the merchant who engages in capitalist commodity
circulation can be regarded as a capitalist. "As the conscious
representative of this movement (i.e., of M-C-M‘), the possessor of
money becomes a capitalist" (l930:l38). The present study is con-
cerned with capitalist traders, and not with capitalist producers.

Female traders in rural Benin operate within and between the
numerous marketplaces which are the links in the internal marketing
system and the sites of the majority of transactions. Marketplaces
vary greatly in size, in function and in frequency of occurrence.
Although this dissertation deals primarily with traders, the market-
place is the arena in which the trader operates, and the activities
of traders influence and are influenced by the structure of the
marketplace system.

Within a given rural area, it is common to find several small
village markets, one or two larger regional markets, and often at a
considerable distance away, a large urban market. In addition, it is
not uncommon to find incipient markets, the future development of
which depends on the changing demography of the area. Skinner (l964)
has traced the growth and maturing of the rural marketing system in
China, and has classified marketplaces according to their position in
a central-place heirarchy. Hodder and Ukwu (l969) have attempted
similar analyses in two areas of Nigeria. This dissertation will
examine the size, positioning and functions of the markets in the area
studied, and will discuss how these marketplaces relate to each other

and to the urban center of Benin City.

Periodic markets are common in many areas. Skinner (1964)
has pointed out that in many rural areas the demand for goods and
services within any one village is not large enough to support a
daily market. The marketplace, therefore, moves from village to
village in a cycle, and the physical spacing between markets is such
that the itinerant trader can walk from market to market, and thus
"tap the demand in several marketing areas and attain the survival
threshold" (p. 69). Much has been written on the subject of market
periodicity in West Africa (Hodder, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1970; Hill,
1962, 1966; Hodder and Ukwu, 1969; Smith 1970, 1971, 1972).

Although there has been no analysis as complete and detailed as that
of Skinner's for rural China, it is nevertheless clear that a loose
system of "market rings" does exist, particularly in parts of Nigeria.
The number of itinerant traders who actually do "tap the demand in
several marketing areas," and the factors which determine the
marketing ring travelled by individuals will be examined.

Because petty traders operate on a small-scale, their
activities have rarely been of interest to economists, and because
they are, for the most part, uneducated and illiterate, economic
planners and developers have tended to overlook their entrepreneurial
potential. In the colonial era in Africa, it was often assumed that
business skills were lacking in the "traditional" sector of society,
and that entrepreneurship could be developed only through government
intervention to increase education and technical training, as well as
to assist in providing capital (cf. Kamarck, 1971:231). As early as

1954, however, Bauer (1954:29) pointed out that the prevailing system

10

of trade in West Africa, which was (and still is) characterized by a
multiplicity of small-scale intermediaries, "brings into prominence
and influence a type of trader-entrepreneur accustomed to the ways of
an exchange economy, notably the habitual and systematic use of money.
These trader-entrepreneurs are more likely to accumulate savings and
place them in productive employment than are other sections of the
population."

In developing nations where capital is scarce and technical
and managerial skills are generally at a low level, there is no doubt
that the wide-scale rapid development of enterprise (whether private
or public) requires a substantial amount of government intervention
and outside assistance. Nonetheless, it is evident that the gradual
evolution of entrepreneurship has been going on for some time within
the so-called "traditional" sector, though as Bauer and Yamey
(1957:105) point out, "its manifestations may easily be overlooked by
those who equate entrepreneurship with the launching on a massive
scale of a new industry or product and who forget that large industries
and firms have almost invariably sprung from small beginnings."

Mintz (1964) has more recently identified peasant marketplaces in
Latin America as training grounds for small-scale entrepreneurs, while
Katzin (1964:180-181) has pointed out that in West Africa, many small
entrepreneurs begin their business careers as petty traders.

The present dissertation does not focus on entrepreneurship
pgr_§g, but rather on the emergence of capitalist commodity circulation
among female traders. Nonetheless, it will be apparent that many

successful marketplace traders are small-scale entrepreneurs, and that

11

entrepreneurial skills are acquired and utilized (to varying degrees)
by petty traders who develop into capitalist traders. The adaptive
process from petty trader to capitalist trader is conceptualized as
"a sequence of strategies for coping with the socio-economic
environment" (Whitten, 1969:230). Strategies are defined as long-
range goals or objectives, while tactics refer to short-term actions
consistent with these goals (cf. Whitten and Whitten, 1972). The
majority of petty traders do not succeed in adapting to the internal
marketing system in a capitalistic way. Very many of them engage in
simple commodity circulation (C-M-C), or in "potential"-capitalist
commodity circulation (M-C-M1) in which the surplus-value of money is
not invested or manipulated in a capitalistic way. Those who manage
to attach significant "processional value" to their money capital
become capitalist traders (Marx, 1930:140-141).

The strategies which are identified as being adaptive, or
advantageous to business success, center around the acquisition,
accumulation and manipulation of money-capital. Female traders in
rural Benin operate within a marketplace exchange system which is
linked to and a result of a semi-capitalist mode of production
(cf. Marx, 1971:32-33). The adaptive strategies by means of which
the change from pre-capitalist to capitalist commodity circulation is
accomplished are plans of action designed to enable the female trader
to advantageously manipulate capital within the marketplace exchange
system.

The term ”market" has been used in the anthropological

literature in three distinct ways (cf. Firth, 1967:5; Cook, in press:

12

71-72; Belshaw, 1965:6-9). Firstly, it has been used to refer to
the marketplace, the site where buyers and sellers meet to exchange
commodities. In this sense, the market is merely a geographical
place, and no statement is made as to its structure or extent.
Secondly, it has been defined as the general conditions or state of
affairs under which exchange occurs. In this sense, the market
structure is usually discussed in terms of the kinds and degree of
competition, and no statement is made as to its location or extent.
Thirdly, market has been defined as the set of alternative sources
of supply and demand available to buyers and sellers. In this sense,
the boundaries or extent of the market are delimited by supply and
demand which integrate the market through the mechanism of price.
As Steiner points out (1968:581), "the concept of market is multi-
dimensional and complex. . . . No single definition serves the many
uses to which the concept is put; the relevant definition must be
suited to the particular application required."

The present study deals mainly with marketplace trade which,
by definition, is site-confined. The geographical.or locational
dimension of market exchange is therefore a primary focus. Secondly,
this study is concerned with the activities of individual traders and
their interactions with other sellers and buyers. In this regard,
both the structure and the extent of the market are important. I have
combined these latter two dimensions in a generalized examination of
transactions between actors within the marketplace arena.

The analysis consists of three main sections: firstly an

analysis of the internal marketing system as a system of periodic

13

marketplaces (i.e., the spatio-temporal distribution of market sites);
secondly an analysis of transactions between buyers and sellers within
this system (i.e., price formation and bargaining behavior); thirdly
an analysis of the strategies and tactics employed by successful or
potentially successful traders as adaptations to both the locational

and the transactional dimensions of the internal marketing system.

Data-Collecting Procedures

 

Fieldwork was carried out from January, 1972, to May, 1973,
in and around The Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR),
which is located 18 miles north of Benin City in the Midwest State of
Nigeria. This area was chosen because my husband was employed at
NIFOR and we lived in the NIFOR compound. Two research assistants
helped with the interviewing. One is the wife of a primary school
teacher at NIFOR, the other, the wife of a secondary school teacher
at a boys' grammar school nearby. Both are secondary modern school
graduates. Research was conducted primarily in Isiuwa Market and
Ugbogiobo Market, and in the communities in which these marketplaces
are located. Other periodic rural marketplaces in the region were
visited, as were daily urban marketplaces in Benin City. Several
field trips were made to communities and marketplaces in other parts
of the Midwest State and the Western State.

Survey-questionnaires were administered to large samples of
women in the NIFOR-area communities and marketplaces. Intensive
interviews were conducted with smaller samples of female traders.

Data relating to transactional exchange were collected through

14

continuous observation and frequent participation by the
researcher who often acted as a buyer, and on several occasions
as a seller.

The purpose of the community survey questionnaires was to
determine the role of petty trading and marketing in household and
community life. The communities selected were Isiuwa Village and the
three adjacent villages of Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen.

Isiuwa Village is located within NIFOR and all the housing
units have been built and are maintained by the Institute. There were
655 housing units in the village at the time of the study, though
more have been added since. It was decided to select a sample of 25%
of the housing units, this being as large a sample as could be
handled given the available time and resources. Units which were known
to house bachelors were excluded leaving a population Of 637 units from
which a sample of 160 was drawn randomly. Of these 160, 24 were later
found to be single-male households and were replaced, leaving the
sample size at 160 housing units which contained 186 women. These
women were visited at home and interviewed concerning their economic
activities. In Isiuwa, a housing unit corresponds to a household, as
NIFOR forbids occupants to rent rooms to tenants. This fact, plus the
orderly numbering of units greatly facilitated the sampling procedures
and the identification of household groups.

Uwan Village, where Ugbogiobo Market is located, was intended
as the second community for study. Preliminary investigation revealed
that the three adjacent villages of Uwan, Ugbobiobo and Iguoyemwen are,

in many respects, one socio-economic community despite rivaling

15

political factions in Uwan and Ugbogiobo. It was decided, therefore,
to include all three villages in the study. No housing list was
available and houses were not numbered in any orderly manner. The
Iyekuselu District Council very kindly prepared a complete ennumera-
tion of houses in the three villages. From this list of 266 houses,
a sample of 25% or 67 houses was selected randomly. Most houses were
large with several rooms rented to tenants. In some cases the
proprietor lived elsewhere and rented the entire house to tenants.
The 67 houses contained 356 households. In most cases, particularly
in tenement houses, the household groups were small and easily
identifiable. In compounds housing members of large extended
families, the entire group was regarded as one household unless the
members of the group stated otherwise. Of the 356 households, 73
were found to be single-male households. There was no way of
randomly replacing the single-male households in these villages
because the housing list provided was of houses, not of households.
Therefore, 73 single-male households were dropped reducing the
sample to 283 households. This means that the sample was reduced to
roughly 20% of the households in the community. The 283 households
contained 366 women who were interviewed concerning their economic
activities.

The purpose of the marketplace survey questionnaires was to
outline the main social and economic parameters of the agents of
exchange, i.e., the traders. Isiuwa Market is the smaller of the two
marketplaces chosen. It is located in the NIFOR junior staff

community and has approximately 150 traders. It is a local village

16

market and attracts few outside consumers. The larger market,
Ugbogiobo Market, has approximately 500 traders and is located about
two miles from Isiuwa Market, on a main road in the village of Uwan.
It is a regional market attracting women from all the surrounding
villages, and performs both wholesale and retail functions. Both
Isiuwa and Ugbobiobo are periodic 4-day markets. The days of the
traditional Bini week are Eken, Ekioba, Ekenaka and Agbado.
Ugbogiobo Market meets on Ekiobo (i.e., day #2) and Isiuwa Market
meets on Agbado (i.e., day #4).

The following data were collected in these two marketplaces:

a. Diagram of the physical layout, count of the number
of traders, and commodity inventory once a month in
each market for a 12-month period (January to
December, 1972);

b. Isiuwa Market first interviews (155 interviews) which
included basic data on each woman, her family situation
and a brief trading history;

c. Ugbogiobo Market first interviews (491 interviews)
which were the same as the Isiuwa Market first
interviews;

d. Isiuwa Market restudy after a 6-month interval (139
interviews) which included questions about changes
made during the interval, opinions and comparisons of
several markets, and estimates of profits and growth
of business;

e. Interviews with male traders in both markets (38
interviews) which were similar to the first interviews
with the female traders and were done for comparative
purposes.

The population in the marketplaces is not fixed. While the

majority of traders attend regularly, some go to market only
occasionally. Although we attempted to interview all the traders,

there were undoubtedly some that we missed. The procedure used was to

17

go through each market systematically, section by section. After all
sections had been covered once, we then went back, looking for women
who had not been interviewed the first time round. We continued re-
checking until the number of women interviewed in a section coincided
roughly with the number of women counted each month in that same
section. I believe that the total sample is very close to 100%.

The interview schedules for both the community and the
marketplace surveys were printed in English, but were administered in
Bini or Pidgin-english. I speak Pidgin-english, but not Bini. My
research assistants, both of whom are Bini, acted as interpreters for
me when necessary. Most women in the area speak Pidgin-english
except for some elderly ones. All interviewing of non-Bini women was
done in Pidgin-english. In the few cases where we could not make
ourselves understood, we called upon other women to interpret in the
vernacular of the woman being interviewed. After an initial training
period of several weeks, the research assistants were permitted to
conduct interviews on their own, but their work was closely super-
vised at all times.

(Throughout the period of the research, an attempt was made to
identify scientifically the numerous plant and animal species seen in
the marketplaces. My success was limited. I have included the list
in the Appendix because it may be useful to others interested in
tropical foods.

Intensive interviews were conducted with a sample of 52
traders in Ugbogiobo Market. These 52 women were not selected

randomly, but were those who volunteered to be interviewed in exchange

18

for a free ticket to a "lucky chance" lottery. Women were interviewed
on a first-come, first-serve basis, and as the date for drawing the
lucky numbers was pre-arranged for December 20, 1972, interviewing

had to stop at that time. One research assistant occasionally acted
as an interpreter, but all the interviewing was done by me.

Thirteen women were asked to keep daily records of their
trading transactions over periods ranging from 4 to 9 months. The
13 recorders were paid £1 a month for their work. Eight conscientiously
recorded their transactions, while the other five failed to keep
regular accounts. Three of the 13 wrote the accounts themselves,
while the other 10 are illiterate and were helped by their husbands
or children. A considerable amount of time was spent checking these
account books and working out different recording systems to suit each
woman's needs and capabilities.

Case study information was obtained from these 13 plus an
additional 7 women. These data were collected over the entire period
of the research. The husbands of these 20 women were asked to
participate by providing information on their personal incomes and
expenditures to supplement the data on household budgets obtained
from the women. The women whom I call case studies are simply those
traders whom I know best and whom I frequently visited at home and
regularly chatted to in the marketplaces.

Supplementary background and historical material was obtained
from The Ministry of Economic Planning and Reconstruction in Benin
City, The Iyekuselu District Council in Ekiadolor, and The NIFOR files

and annual reports. Conversations with NIFOR senior-staff employees

19

of long-standing, and with life-long residents of the communities
were of great assistance in helping me to understand the history

of the region and the present relationships between the Institute and

the surrounding villages.

CHAPTER II

THE SETTING

Nigeria

Nigeria is frequently referred to as ”the Giant of West Africa“
due to its size, large population, and wealth of natural resources.
Despite the recent civil war, the economy is buoyant and expanding
rapidly.

The agricultural sector is by far the largest, employing the

labor-power of over two-thirds of the population. In the colonial era,
agricultural products constituted the main export commodities. The
policies of the British colonial government fostered agricultural
development by effectively excluding foreign settler-farmers and
encouraging agricultural production by indigenous farmers, by
developing local agricultural techniques in the production of export
crops, and by replacing foreign trading firms with government marketing
boards well before independence (Eicher, 1970). Industrial and
mining development in the early colonial era were slow, and were not
actively encouraged by the British Government (Liedholm, 1970).
These sectors advanced rapidly in the pre-independence years, however,
and continue to occupy key positions in the Nigerian economy. In the
late 1950's petroleum was discovered in what is now Rivers State, and
since that time the export of petroleum has occupied a position of

increasing importance in the economy (Iloeje, 1972:117). During the

20

21

civil war oil production in Rivers and East-Central States came to

a halt but prospecting increased in the Mid-Western and South-Eastern
States. Four new fields were discovered in the Mid-West and are
presently being exploited. The petroleum industry is owned by

foreign companies. The government has very little control over the
industry but revenue paid by the oil companies to the government is
substantial. Although the development of the petroleum industry is
largely outside the control of the federal and state governments, its
growth bolsters the economy by providing large reserves of foreign
exchange and substantial internal revenues which can be used to develop

_the other sectors of the economy (Pearson, 1970).

The Midwestern State

 

The Midwestern State of Nigeria lies approximately between
longitudes 5°00'E and 6°45'E and latitudes 4°45'N and 7°30'N and
encloses an area of 14,922 square miles. It is the eighth largest of
the 12 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and borders on Kwara,
Western, East Central and Rivers States. It has an 80 mile coastline
in the southwest and south where it is bounded by the Bight of Benin.
TheState is divided into 14 administrative divisions and has a total
population of roughly 2.5 million with an overall population density
of 170 persons per square mile. The climate is tropical and is
characterized by two main seasons. November to April are generally dry
months, particularly December to February when the dry harmattan winds
lower the humidity and bring dust storms from the Sahara carried by the
northeast trade winds. April to October are wet months. Average annual

rainfall ranges from 100 inches in the south to 60 inches in the north,

22

  
 
 

    

 

  

 

 

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23

   

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24

'and most of this falls between April and October. The annual average
temperature is 80°F. Vegetation zones from south to north range from
a mangrove belt in the south, through a fresh water swamp belt in the
Warri area, followed by high forest in the central area, and in the
most northerly divisions open savanah grassland (Iloeje, 1972:70).

The Midwest State is part of the Benin Empire and most areas
were controlled, in the past, by the Oba of Benin. Almost all the
ethnic groups in the State still owe allegiance to the Oba. The
present administrative capital of the State is Benin City which was
also the center of the old Benin Empire. Until 1963 the area was part
of the Western Region of Nigeria and was administered from the Western
Region capital of Ibadan. In 1963 the Midwest was established as a
separate region. At the beginning of the civil war in 1968, the
entire Federation was divided into 12 states, the present Midwest
State corresponding roughly to the former Midwest Region.

In the Midwest State, as in the rest of Nigeria, agriculture is
the largest sector of the economy. Almost all agricultural production
in Nigeria, both of export crops and domestic food crops, is by
peasant farmers on small holdings. Plantation production is
relatively unimportant. "Nigerian economic growth has been led by
peasant agriculture" (Hellenier, 1966:44). The principal export crops
of Nigeria are cocoa, rubber, cotton, palm products (palm oil, palm
kernels and kernel oil) and groundnuts. All of these crops also have
a domestic market, though in the case of cocoa this is as yet poorly
developed. The Midwest State is noted for rubber and accounts for

roughly 85% of the nation's rubber production (Federal Department of

25

Agriculture, 1971). The great majority of all rubber production (98%)
takes place on small peasant holdings. Blanckenburg (1962:16) has
indicated that most peasant plots in the Benin area are no more than

3 to 4 acres, while total individual holdings are often roughly 20
acres of which rubber comprises about half. However, a later survey
conducted by the government in l966-67 indicated that total individual
holdings in Benin Division were frequently under 15 acres (apart from
10 large rubber plantations) and of this only about 50% were being
tapped (Mid-Western State of Nigeria, 1968:73). Recently, the State
Government has attempted to persuade farmers to consolidate holdings
into 100 acre blocks on a cooperative basis, and substantial incen-
tives have been offered to achieve this goal (Federal Department of
Agriculture, 1971:10). The technology of peasant rubber production

is at a low level and for this reason the quality of rubber produced
is generally of low grade. Many Midwestern rubber farmers employ
itinerant tappers, mainly Ibos, who often damage the trees through
careless slashing. In addition the peasant methods of processing the
latex frequently result in a low grade of rubber which is unacceptable
for export. The system of share-cropping in areas where land is
scarce frequently leads to overtapping and neglect of the trees. The
civil war damaged the rubber industry in the Midwest, not only because
some areas were occupied by troops, but also because the itinerant Ibo
tappers were no longer available for employment. However, the State
Government has taken a keen interest in the rubber industry and is
implementing programs of expansion and improvement of peasant produc-
tion and of encouraging domestic industries utilizing domestically

produced rubber.

26

Oil Palm is the second major cash crop of the Midwest State
whose production accounts for roughly 19% of the nation's industry.
Until the late 1950's, palm oil was one of Nigeria's principal exports.
The Eastern States have always been the prime producers of palm oil
and palm kernels, but oil palm is nevertheless an important crop in
the Midwest. Palm oil is a basic item in the Nigerian diet and a
substantial amount of Nigerian palm oil has always been produced for
the dofimstic market. In the past decade, oil palm production has
declined drastically and at present the majority of Nigerian palm oil
is consumed within the country and is not exported. The bulk of oil
palm production comes from semi-wild palm groves cultivated by peasant
farmers (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1970). Many of these groves are
old and relatively unproductive. Farmers have been unresponsive to
government schemes for replanting existing groves and expanding
acreage, due mainly to the inadequate price paid for palm oil by the
Marketing Board (Ogor, 1969).

Of Nigeria's other export crOps, cocoa is grown mainly in the
Western State with the Midwest producing only about 3.2% of the total,
cotton is grown mainly in the North, and groundnuts, almost exclusively
in the North.

The main staple food crops grown in the Midwest State are yams,
cassava, rice and maize. The predominant method of cultivation is
"bush fallow" which is characterized by "rotation of fields rather than
of crops; clearing by fire, . .‘. and short periods of occupancy and
long periods of fallow” (Buchanan and Pugh, 1958:103). This method is

eminently suited to areas of low population density where land is

27

plentiful. In heavily populated areas, the system tends to break down
and the period of fallow is shortened, thus leading to progressive
deterioration of the soil and low yields per acre. In areas where

the land is cultivated primarily by peasant farmers, i.e., proprietors,
farmers have shown remarkable adaptability to changing ecological
conditions and have adopted new crops and techniques (Mabogunje and
Cleave, 1964:1-15). In areas where land is leased by the peasant-
proprietors to semi-proletarian workers, less care is taken and soil
fertility deteriorates more rapidly. The practice of mixed cropping
makes it very difficult to estimate the acreage of individual crops.
Individual holdings planted in annual crOps vary greatly in size
throughout the State.

The Midwest State as a whole must be regarded as a food-
deficient area since production by local farmers is inadequate to feed
the population, and food crops must be imported from other States
(Information Department, Benin City, 1971:11). Roughly 80% of the
working population is engaged in agriculture and most of these are
peasant farmers (Mid-Western State of Nigeria, 1968). Nonetheless,
production is low due to fragmented holdings and the low level of
technology.

The land tenure system in the Midwest conforms to the general
pattern prevalent throughout Southern Nigeria. According to
Oluwausanmi:

land is conceived as the inalienable property of the
community. The peasant cultivator has unlimited right of
user by virtue of his membership of the community . . . .

In the Benin kingdom where administrative control was once
more centralized than elsewhere in Southern Nigeria all

28

land was claimed as the property of the Oba. The claim

must of course be understood to mean that control of land

was vested in the Oba for common use (1966:37).
Throughout the Midwest State land is still considered to be the
property of the Oba of Benin whose representatives administer its
use for the good of the communities. The present laws of Nigeria
empower the government to acquire lands for public purposes upon
payment of adequate compensation in cases where the land is occupied.
Despite the fact that there is, theoretically, no open market for
land, the commercialization of economic life has resulted in signifi-
cant changes in the rules of customary tenure and in the lapse of
strict prohibition on the sale of land.

In urban areas as well as in rural communities adjoining

them, commercial, industrial, and governmental activities

have conferred upon land economic values hitherto unknown

in the indigenous economic system. In these areas land

has become a negotiable property freely transferred by

sale, mortgage or lease (Oluwasanmi, 1966:41).
It is still true to say, however, that in most rural farming areas,
land is generally not transferred by direct sale to outsiders, other
than to government or large-scale industrial capitalists. Outside
farmers frequently obtain usufruct rights over farmlands through
petitioning the head of the community, and these rights often result
in semi-permanent tenure particularly if the tenant is permitted to
plant tree crops such as rubber or cocoa. It is generally understood,
however, that the community retains the ownership of the land and the
outsider tenant is not free to dispose of it. The customary system
of land tenure in the Benin Empire should be regarded as one of

patrimonial domain (cf. Wolf, 1966). Ultimate ownership of the land

was vested in the Oba who retained the right to exact tribute. In

29

some areas the Oba placed members of the royal family as custodians

to administer land distribution and use. In other areas the head of
the community and custodian of the land was a commoner whose position
was not hereditary but who was nonetheless answerable to the Oba.
Mercantile domain (Wolf, 1966:53) is increasingly common as land comes
to be regarded as a commodity, and administrative domain has, from the
beginning of the colonial era, existed alongside patrimonial domain.
At the present time, the state claims ultimate sovereignity over the
land, but customary procedures are respected, and particularly in
rural areas, the customary land tenure system is upheld. At the
village level, the head of the community is either a member of the
royal family, or a commoner chosen by the elders and approved by the
Oba. The head f9 the community administers the distribution of
community land. The modern administrative sector works through the

traditional community leaders but does not supplant them.

The NIFOR-Area

 

The Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research was established
by the British Government in 1939 with the aim of creating ". . . an
establishment capable of helping Nigeria meet the increasing competi-
tion from palm oil producing countries in the Far East" (NIFOR, N.D.:1).
In the early 1950's the station was transformed into the West African
Institute for Oil Palm Research, and its program was expanded to meet
the needs of the oil palm industry in Ghana and Sierra Leone, as well
as Nigeria. At the end of the colonial era, research became more
regionalized and in 1964, WAIFOR became NIFOR and was from thenceforth

entirely under the control of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

30

 

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31

NIFOR is located in the oil palm belt of southern Nigeria, but
is on the periphery of the major palm oil producing regions which lie
to the east. The site was chosen because the area was not densely
populated. The Nigerian Department of Agriculture required a large
block of land, and locating the Institute in the heavily populated
former Eastern Region would have meant serious disruption of village
life. Through consultation with the Oba of Benin, the present site
was selected. Two villages which were located on the expropriated
land were relocated, and villagers were given grants of land nearby.
In addition, the Institute agreed to hire as wage-laborers, as many as
possible of the men from the relocated villages. NIFOR comprises
4,285 acres of which roughly 3000 are presently under cultivation.
NIFOR is not a plantation geared to oil palm production. It is a
research institute whose goal is to improve the oil palm industry in
the country, specifically to improve the productivity and efficiency
of small-scale farmers who supply the vast majority of all palm
products. It is located in the periphery of the main oil palm pro-
ducing area, in a region which is noted for rubber, not palm oil.
NIFOR is a Federal Government institution and is financed by both
Federal and State funds. Its roughly 1600 employees are drawn from all
parts of the Federation. Employees are classified into two general
categories: permanent staff which includes junior and senior staff,
and daily paid workers which include artisans or skilled laborers,
semi-skilled laborers, unskilled or general laborers, and casual
laborers. At the end of May, 1973, the NIFOR payroll included 452

permanent staff members and 1134 daily paid workers. Because the aim

32

of the Institute is to undertake basic research and provide necessary
materials and information to producers, the number of relatively
highly trained personnel (permanent staff) is large. All the above
facts tend to differentiate NIFOR from commercial plantations in
Nigeria (of which there are very few) and in other tropical and sub-
tropical regions. Nonetheless there are definite similarities between
NIFOR and the large capitalistic estates which Wolf (1959) character-
izes as "New-Style Plantations.”

According to Wolf, the "New-Style” plantation is a class-
structured organization in which the owners are capitalists who possess
the objective conditions of production (land and tools or instruments),
and the workers are free laborers who exchange their labor-power for
wages. In the case of NIFOR, the owner is the Federal Government and
all employees are free laborers. There is a definite class structure
based on civil-service grades. All employees are government civil
servants. Upward mobility from laboring grade to senior research or
administrative grade is dependent upon educational qualifications,
length of service and performance. This class structure has its
spatial aspects at NIFOR in much the same way as the plantations
described by Wolf. Senior grade employees are housed in a separate,
isolated area. Junior employees are housed in the community of Isiuwa
where the several grades of housing reflect the civil service grades
of the occupants. The satellite communities house lower—grade daily-
paid laborers only. This is because housing within the Institute is
vastly superior to housing outside, and permanent employees are

ensured housing within the Institute. Daily-paid workers are given

33

housing in Isiuwa on the basis of employment grade and length of
service. Most artisans and semi-skilled laborers are housed on the
plantation. Many general laborers and all casual laborers are
housed in the villages surrounding the plantation. The permanent
staff is a multi-ethnic group. The daily-paid group is predominantly
Bini, but there are large numbers of outsiders employed as general
laborers. Although the original policy of the Institute was to hire
local labor, this is no longer the case. Many of the local men left
their jobs at NIFOR in the early 1950's at which time there was a
"boom" in the rubber industry. Local men found it more profitable to
return to their rubber farms. The Institute then began to recruit
labor from other areas, particularly from the Ibibio and Efik areas
in the east. The number of outsiders has grown, and many of them
have more seniority than local Bini workers who came back to the
Institute when the "rubber boom" declined.

In terms of the disposal of surplus, NIFOR embodies aspects of
both ”Old-Style" and "New-Style” plantations. NIFOR is not a
capitalistic plantation geared to production. Although 3,000 acres
are under cultivation, all of the palms are used for experimental and
research purposes—-there is as much labor expended on poor-producing
varieties as on good-producers, and failures yield as much valuable
information as successes. Nonetheless, the large acreage of palms
produces vast quantities of palm bunches, the oil from which is
extracted at the NIFOR oil mill and delivered to the Marketing Board

for export.

34

The government is concerned with self-maintenance of the
Institute staff and not only is palm oil sold to employees at a cheap
rate, but in addition and of much greater importance, a substantial
amount of the Institute's budget is expended on housing and community
facilities. Isiuwa, which is located at the southeast end of NIFOR,
is a model village, well built and maintained and attractively
planned. In addition to low rental housing with water and electricity,
the Institute has provided the community with schools, churches,
recreational and sports facilities, a medical dispensary, a maternity
hospital and a marketplace. The rent for housing units is fixed at
6% of the occupant's salary, and units have from one to five rooms,
depending on the grade of house.

Wolf has drawn a distinction between the personalized relation-
ships of the "Old-Style" plantation in which the plantation owner
entered into face-to-face relationships with his workers primarily "to
underline the dependent position of the laborer in contrast to his own
status of dominance” (p. 138) and the impersonal relationship of the
"New-Style" plantation in which the personalized ties between labor
and management are minimal. NIFOR must in general be classified as a
"New-Style" plantation in terms of the quality of the relationships
between labor and management. However, in the African context where
extended family and ethnic group ties are strong, elements of both
types of relationships are apparent. Although the Federal Government
is the owner 6f the Institute, and the Director is the ultimate
manager, the entire body of the senior staff constitutes the upper

class of the community. The senior staff is multi-ethnic in composition,

35

and while management officially adopts a policy of impersonalized
relationships with labor, individual senior staff members relate to
members of their extended families and ethnic groups in the lower-
class in highly personalized ways. The official policy of
impersonalized relationships between labor and management has
resulted in the formation of a labor union which unites members of
the junior staff and daily paid laborers in an effort to exert some
control over management. The existence of personalized relationships
between individual members of the upper class and individual workers,
has resulted in the formation of active ethnic associations which
cross-cut class barriers and offer the laborer both security among
his fellow laborers and the chance of upward mobility through activating
the obligations of his senior staff relatives.

Before the establishment of NIFOR, the region was one of
relatively low population density but was nonetheless an area of
political importance in the Benin Empire. The community of Uwan,
which is one of the villages included in the present study, is listed
among the earliest of Bini settlements (Egharevba, 1968). Remains of
an earth wall and ditch similar to the Benin City fortifications and
probably dating from the same period (12th to 15th century) have been
found enclosing a large area around the present site of Uwan. Uwan
is headed by two members of the Oba's royal family. This means that
the community was considered of sufficient importance for the Oba to
send first one member of his family and later a second to administer
the community on his behalf. The descendant of the first enggig_is at

present the head of the community, while the descendant of the second

36

gnggig_is his deputy. The two adjacent villages of Ugbogiobo and
Iguoyemwen are of later origin and are headed by commoners. The
other satellite communities of NIFOR, Evboneka, Isiukuhu, Abumwere,
Ekowe, Okeodobo and Okunuvbe are headed by commoners (the latter two
being the villages which were relocated at the establishment of NIFOR).
All of these communities were, until the establishment of NIFOR,
peasant-farming communities inhabited by Bini people. Rubber has
been the main cash crop in the area since the turn of the century
(Blanckenburg, 1962), though oil palm has always been of considerable
importance due to the large numbers of semi-wild palm groves. Though
historical studies of the NIFOR region are lacking, it is probable
that even before the establishment of NIFOR there was a considerable
influx of outsiders into the region. Ibos from the densely populated
Eastern regions came as itinerant farm laborers, and Urhobos and
Ikuales came from the south of the State seeking farmland. Due to
the customary land tenure system these outsiders were not able to
buy land but often obtained usufract rights. Land continued to be
the property of the Bini communities and outsiders could rarely rise
to positions of political importance within the communities. Popula-
tion migration into the study area, therefore, dates back to pre-
NIFOR days and was the result mainly of land pressures in other
regions.

The establishment of NIFOR as a large—scale research-oriented
plantation considerably altered the political economy of the area.
Large numbers of free laborers migrated to the area seeking employment.

Many local peasant farmers partially abandoned farming in favor of

37

wage-employment. The farming communities adjacent to NIFOR have
gradually become satellites of NIFOR. Not only do many men in these
communities work for the Institute, but the communities, particularly
Ugbogiobo, Uwan, and Iguoyemwen, house large numbers of NIFOR

workers from outside the area, and local land-owners rent farm land

to NIFOR workers who cultivate garden plots primarily for subsistence
purposes. The majority of NIFOR employees are not local people but
are migrant workers, both Bini and others, who have left their own
areas. The distinction between NIFOR workers who are also local
peasant farmers and NIFOR workers who are migrant laborers is not

very great. Both groups should be regarded as semi-proletariats.
Workers from other areas lead a proletarian existence while at NIFOR,
but studies of migrant laborers and townsmen in other parts of Africa
(for a summary see Mayer, 1962) reveal that the wage-laborer retains
strong ties to the land in his home area and is considered to be a
legitimate land-owner, though temporarily absent. By virtue of this
membership in a clan or lineage of his home area, he retains rights
over community or village land. Often members of his extended

family cultivate his land for him and he makes frequent trips home to
oversee his holdings. NIFOR workers who are local peasant farmers can
more easily manage their dual existence, but are not necessarily any
more committed to peasant-farming than their fellow-laborers in Isiuwa.
The existence of a large, landless community of workers at NIFOR has
provided a market for food crops in the area much greater than ever
before. Although almost all NIFOR workers rent garden plots from

local Bini land-owners, the produce from these plots is insufficient

38

to feed the average worker's family. The majority of the worker's
subsistence requirements must be purchased in the local marketplaces.
Although there has been no study of peasant-agriculture in the NIFOR
area it is probable that the effect of NIFOR on the immediate area
has been to reduce the amount of land planted in rubber and increase
the acreage of food cr0ps. Holdings have been increasingly fragmented
as local residents divide their property into small garden plots which
they rent to workers. Cultivation of garden plots tends to be done
largely by women who grow mainly cassava, cocoyam, cowpeas, and
vegetables. Some men who presently reside in Isiuwa have relatively
large holdings (several acres) which they possess by virtue of being
members of the local satellite communities (though resident in Isiuwa).
These men cultivate rubber and oil palm in addition to food crops,
mainly yams. The Isiuwa village survey sampled 160 households which
contained 173 adult men. Of these, 95.4% or 165 men work at NIFOR
(164 employees and one teacher). Five others work outside the
Institute as artisans or laborers, and three are unemployed. Forty-
two men in the sample (24.1%) listed farming as a secondary occupation
and have substantial land holdings in the immediate area.‘ Nine
Isiuwa men listed artisan trades as secondary occupations, two are
traders, one is a landlord and one is an unskilled agricultural
laborer.

A The extent to which the communities bordering on NIFOR are
satellites of the Institute did not become apparent until a survey of
households was conducted in the three adjacent villages of Uwan,

Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen. These three villages are located about one

39

mile southeast of Isiuwa village on a tarred road which until 10 years
ago, was the main road joining Benin City to Lagos and Ibadan. A new
highway has since been built, but the road through the villages is
still a busy one. A small side road leads up to the NIFOR boundary,
and from there it is only a few hundred yards to the edge of Isiuwa
village.

Uwan is the largest, and, as stated previously, the oldest of
the three villages. Iguoyemwen is a small village (19 houses) at the
southwest end of Uwan. Ugbogiobo joins Uwan on the east side. It
began as the farm of a famous herbal doctor and has since grown into
a large village.

The three villages have two primary schools, several churches
and a large marketplace, but there is no piped water, electricity, or
medical dispensary. Farm land surrounds the villages, but the
majority of men work at NIFOR and farm as a secondary occupation.

The sections of Uwan which border directly on NIFOR, Ozolua Road and
Iyamu Street, contain tenement houses owned by landlords who live at
NIFOR or elsewhere in the villages. Most of these houses have been
built specifically as tenements to house NIFOR workers from other
areas. The houses tend to be large with up to 15 rooms, each of
which is occupied by a separate household. At the time of the study,
the rent for a single room was L1 to Elle a month.

The other sections of Uwan, and Ugbobiobo and Iguoyemwen
contain a higher proportion of local residents. Most proprietors
live on the premises, and although almost all rent rooms to outsiders,

the number of tenant households in a house is usually less.

40

Although Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street were known to house many
NIFOR workers, it was thought that the other sections of this three-
village community would contain a large number of self-employed
farmers. This was not the case. The sample of 283 households con-
tained 289 men. Of these, 74.4% (215 men) listed NIFOR employment as
their primary occupation, and only 13.8% (40 men) listed farming.
Only one self-employed farmer lives in the Ozolua Road section of
Uwan. In fact Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street are obvious out-growths
of the NIFOR housing community since 118 out of 122 men in this
section of the sample work at the Institute. It is surprising,
however, to find only 39 self-employed farmers in the rest of the
sample. However, 32 other men in the sample (11.1%) list farming
as a secondary occupation and 29 of these live in the Ozolua and
Iyamu sections. This means that farming is either a primary or a
secondary occupation for 25.8% (72 men) of the men in the sample.
Almost all the women in these households, as in Isiuwa households,
cultivate garden plots.

The wives of the 40 self-employed farmers were asked to list
the crops grown by their husbands and those grown by themselves.
Women cultivate cassava, cocoyam, maize, melon, plantain and banana,
okro, tomatoes, leaf vegetables, capsicum peppers, sugarcane, and ,
sometimes rice and beans. Men always own the yams. In addition, they
cultivate cassava, rice and beans. Citrus, rubber and oil palm are
only semi-cultivated, but men plant and own the trees. Women gather
wild plants in the bush. Men hunt or trap wild animals. Either may

own poultry or goats.

41

Local Bini land-owners rent out garden plots by the season.
Land is cleared by burning towards the end of the dry season in
February and early March. The rains usually begin towards the end
of March or early in April. Planting commences with the onset of
the rains. People still discuss the farming calendar in terms of
yams, despite the fact that drought-resistant cassava is now the
main staple food. Yams have greater cultural value but cassava is
the main-stay of the diet.

Other primary and secondary occupations listed by men in the

three-village sample were as follows:

 

 

 

Occupation Primary_0ccupation Secondary Occupation
Landlord 2 men 44 men
Artisan 16 men 10 men
Teacher or

Office Worker 4 men --

Trader 8 men 7 men
Unskilled Labor 1 man --

Preacher -- 1 man
Unemployed 2 men --

A landlord is a house-owner who rents rooms to tenants. In
most cases, this involves little work other than collecting monthly
rents. Artisans include barbers, goldsmiths, carpenters, bicycle and
watch repairmen, and shoe-makers.

NIFOR is located 18 miles north of Benin City, the state
capital and largest urban center in the state. Although the NIFOR
community is relatively self-contained, it is nonetheless strongly

tied to Benin City, but because it is basically a Federal Government

42

institution it is also linked, administratively, with the Federal
capital of Lagos. Administrative policies come from the Federal
capital, but from the point of view of the members of the NIFOR
community, Benin City is the central place supplying the social
services of banking, sophisticated medical services, a wide range of
post-primary educational institutions and a wide range of consumer
goods, both imported and domestic. Benin City was, in the past, the
capital of the Benin Empire and is therefore the center of both the
modern state administration and the traditional politico-religious
structure. The Oba's palace is located in the heart of the city in
close proximity to the offices of the military governor.

NIFOR is not an administrative center for the region and pro-
vides only minimal central-places services to its satellite communities.
'The district in which NIFOR is located is administered from the
district headquarters at Ekiadolor some six miles from NIFOR. The
NIFOR satellite communities have easy access to Benin city due to
the excellent transport facilities between NIFOR and the state capital.
The development of NIFOR has not led to a corresponding development
in the surrounding area mainly because NIFOR is located in a rubber-
producing region. The achievements of the Institute's research program
on oil palm have been felt most strongly in the Eastern states which
are the principal oil palm areas of the country. It is probably true
to say that the major effect of NIFOR on the immediate area has been
to increase the demand for food crops to feed the large semi-
proletariat population located in Isiuwa and the surrounding villages.

The wages paid by NIFOR increase the buying-power of the average

43

laborer above that of the average peasant-farmer, so that the demand
for consumer goods in general (not only food) is high. Increased
demand and buying—power of consumers has undoubtedly stimulated the
expansion of the regional marketing system. Food crops produced in
the area were formerly bulked in the rural marketplaces and trans-
ported to Benin City to feed the urban population. The growth of
the NIFOR community has resulted in increased local demand for these
products. The existence of a large wage-earning community in the
area has also increased the demand for manufactured goods which are
brought primarily from Benin City but also from other urban centers.
These demands are met primarily by women-traders who dominate the
internal marketing system in this area as they do in most other parts
of West Africa, excluding the Moslem areas.

In the semi-proletarian communities attached to NIFOR, it is
primarily men who exchange their labor-power for wages. These wages
are exchanged for commodities which in most cases are consumed
directly. It is a case of simple circulation. In the peasant-farming
sector, both men and women produce commodities which are exchanged for
money. Once again simple commodity circulation is the common
practice as the money received from the sale of produce is exchanged
for consumer goods or used as a replacement fund for the farm. In
both cases, however, examples of capitalistic circulation can be found.
The focus of this dissertation is on the emergence of capitalistic
commodity circulation among traders in the internal marketing system.
Since women dominate this system we necessarily focus on women and on

the wide range of their trading activities.

44

The Trading Activities of Women
ii the Communities

 

Trading is the main money-making activity of women in the area,
and indeed throughout Nigeria. Farm women produce for market sale as
well as home consumption. Non-farm women buy goods for resale. Wage-
paying jobs for uneducated women in the area are virtually non-
existent. An untrained woman who wants to earn money, as all Nigerian
women do, has no choice but trade. Some educated women prefer
trading to other occupations, and others, who cannot find jobs, are,
like the uneducated women, left with no other choice.

Trade is conducted primarily in the marketplaces but also at
home. Rural marketplaces have no lock-up stalls, so traders must
transport goods to and from the marketplace every market day. Some
traders sell only at home and do not carry goods to the marketplace.
Others avoid the main market site and station themselves at strategic
points on well-travelled roads or footpaths.

The combined samples from Isiuwa and Uwan, Ugbogiobo and
Iguoyemwen villages contained 552 women in 443 households. Of these
women, 316, or 57.3%, were engaged in some type of trading at the time
of the study. Two hundred thirty-six women or 42.7% were non-traders
and three-quarters of these (168 women) said they had never engaged in
trade. The other non-traders (63 women) had been traders in the past.
Five of the non-traders were employed by NIFOR in secretarial or
clerical jobs. No other women in the sample had a wage-paying job.

The goods which marketplace traders sell will be discussed at
length in the next chapter. The majority of traders who sell only at

home deal in "provisions," cooked food, bread, or "articles."

45

Provisions include tinned food such as evaporated milk, tomato paste
and fish, packaged food such as sugar, coffee powder, tea, biscuits
and sweets, and other factory-produced items such as cigarettes and
soap powder. "Articles" means non-edible household items such as
candles, cutlery, towells, electric light bulbs, needles and thread,
paper and pencils, and cosmetics. Many traders sell both provisions
and articles. Cooked food includes rice and stew, akarg_(made from
beans or sometimes corn), akasan_(made from corn), moi-moi (made from
beans), buns (made from wheat flour) and several other items. Bread,
which is consumed in surprisingly large quantities, is made by
commercial bakeries, not by individual traders.

The two most common services performed by home traders are
sewing, which includes mending as well as dressmaking, and hairdressing.
Home traders rarely sell farm produce or unprocessed food items.

Table 1 shows the occupations of the 552 women in the sample.
Home traders are those who stated that they trade only at home. Those
who stated that they trade both in the marketplace and at home have
been classified as market traders. The following is a list of the

goods and services sold by the 60 home traders in the sample:

 

Item No. of Home Traders
Provisions 17 women
Sewing 14 women
Cooked food 6 women
Hairdresser 6 women
Bread 6 women
Articles 3 women
Prostitute 2 women
Eggs 1 woman
Kerosene l woman
Snuff 1 woman
Uncooked Rice and Beans 1 woman
Dried Fish 1 woman
Yams l woman

46

TABLE l.--Classification of Community Women by Occupation and Village.

 

 

- Market Home NIFOR House-
V1llage Trader Trader Employee work Total
Isiuwa Village (51.1%) (13.5%) (2.7%) (32.7%) (100%)
95 25 5 61 186
Uwan, Ugbogiobo and (44.0%) (9.6%) -- (46.4%) (100%)
Iguoyemwen Villages 161 35 O 170 366
TOTAL (46.4%) (10.9%) (0.9%) (41.8%) (100%)
256 60 5 231 552

 

All of the goods and services sold by home traders can also be
found in the marketplace. Prostitutes do not perform their service in
the marketplace, but certainly solicit business there.

As can be seen from Table l, the proportion of Isiuwa women
who trade is slightly higher than that in the three-village community.
The percentage of Isiuwa women engaged in either market trader or home
trade is 64.6%, while only 53.6% of the other women do so. The Ozolua
Road and Iyamu Street women do not show any marked differences from the
total sample of Uwan, Ugbobiobo and Iguoyemwen women, and are therefore
not treated separately.

That a higher proportion of Isiuwa women are traders can be
partially explained by the fact that it is usually the primary woman in
the household who trades. In households having more than one adult
woman, the mistress of the house is usually the trader and the other
women are given the jobs of caring for children, cultivating the garden
plots and doing most of the housework. In households having only one

adult woman, the mistress of the house must do all these chores herself

47

with the help of her children and often a housegirl. She nevertheless
finds time for trading. Second wives, adult daughters, and elderly
grandmothers do trade, but to a lesser extent than senior wives or
female household heads.

The three-village sample contains more secondary adult women
than the Isiuwa sample. Of 186 women in Isiuwa, 26 or 13.9% are
secondary women living in households run by other women. Of 366
women in Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen, 22.9% (83 women) are secondary
women. Most secondary women are junior wives (14 in Isiuwa and 54 in
the three villages). The rest are sisters or sisters-in-law, mothers
or mothers-in-law, or adult daughters of the senior wife. One house-
hold contained two prostitutes who are not related to each other.

From Table 2, which shows the occupations of the secondary
women in the two communities, it can be seen that over half the

secondary women in both samples stay at home and do not trade.

TABLE 2.--Classification of Secondary Women by Occupation and Village.

 

 

. Market Home NIFOR House-
V1llage Trader Trader Employee work Total
Isiuwa Village 6 4 2 14 26
Uwan, Ugbogiobo and
Iguoyemwen Villages 28 2 O 53 83

 

In addition, it is apparent that people in Isiuwa enjoy a
slightly higher standard of living than people in the three villages

(whether these be peasant farmers or wage-laborers) due mainly to the

48

many free services and facilities provided by the Institute. This
means that husbands in Isiuwa are more likely to be able to provide
their wives with capital for trading.

Therefore, a slightly higher proportion of Isiuwa women are
traders because firstly more of the Isiuwa women are the primary
women in their households, and secondly Isiuwa is a wealthier
community in which there is more money available for transformation
into trading capital.

It has been pointed out that Isiuwa, and to a lesser extent
the villages of Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen are multi-ethnic
communities due to the attraction of NIFOR employment and due to the
government's policy of "non—tribalism" in hiring procedures. It is to
be expected that the various ethnic groups may differ in terms of
trading practices. Table 3 shows the ethnic composition of the sample
of women. Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street women are categorized
separately since this section of Uwan houses a large number of out-
siders. As is to be expected, the largest group in each community is
Bini. Ishan women are Midwesterners but are shown separately because
they form the second largest group. The category called "Other Mid-
westerners" includes people belonging to the following ethnic groups:
Urhobo, Itsekiri, Isoko, Ika, Igbanke, Ikuale, Afemi, Otma, Ora,
Auchi. The category called "non-Midwesterners" includes a few Yorubas
and Ibos, and a large number of Efik and Ibibio peoples from the
Southeast State who refer to themselves as "Calabar people." NIFOR
has a sub-station at Abak in the Southeast State in the heart of the

oil palm belt. Most of the "Calabar people" are either workers from

49

TABLE 3.--Classification of Community Women by Ethnic Group and Present

 

 

Other Non-
Village Bini Ishan Midwest- Midwest- Total
ernerS' erners
Isiuwa Village (30.2%) (17L7%) '(27.9%) (25.2%) (100%)
56 33 52 45 186
Ozolua Road and (47.0%) (21.5%) (11.4%) (20.1%) (100%)
Iyamu Street 70 32 17 30 149
Ugbogiobo, Iguoyemwen (76.0%) (8.8%) (9.7%) ' (11.1%) (100%)
and part of Uwan 165 19 21 24 217
TOTAL (52.8%) (15.2%) (16.3%) (15.7%) (100%)
291 84 90 87 582

 

the Abak station who have been transferred to NIFOR, or workers who
were recruited during the "rubber boom" of the early 1950's at which
time many local Bini workers left their jobs and returned to full-time
rubber farming. There were no northerners in the sample, and no

women from outside Nigeria.

Table 3 shows, not unexpectedly, that while the largest group
in all the communities is Bini, other ethnic groups are significantly
represented. The section called "Ugbogiobo, Iguoyemwen and part of
Uwan" is the least multi-ethnic of the three areas. Three-quarters of
these women are Bini. In fact many of them have lived all their lives
in the villages. Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street contrast sharply with
the rest of Uwan, and are not significantly different in ethnic
composition from Isiuwa which has a surprisingly low proportion of

Bini women.

50

The outsider who comes to this area as a NIFOR laborer is not
insured housing in Isiuwa unless he is a permanent employee. Isiuwa
housing is allotted on the basis of employment grade and seniority.
While waiting to become eligible for housing in the NIFOR staff
community, the worker usually rents a room for himself and his family
in a nearby village. Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street border on NIFOR
and are the most convenient housing areas for NIFOR workers outside
of Isiuwa. Most outsiders, particularly non-Bini people, will try the
Ozolua/Iyamu section first and will take a room farther away in Uwan
or another village only as a second choice. Bini people also prefer
the convenience of Ozolua Road and Iyamu Street, but as many of them
have friends or relatives in Uwan, they are more likely to accept the
inconvenience of travelling farther to work. Ugbogiobo, Iguoyemwen and
part of Uwan which together constitute an old Bini settlement, quite
naturally have a predominantly Bini population.

Table 4 shows the 552 women by ethnic group and occupation.

The proportion of Bini women who engage in trading either at home or in
the marketplace is higher than that of the other groups. Ishan women
are the next largest group of traders, followed by the other Mid-
westerners. A rather high percentage of Non-Midwestern women stay at
home and do not trade. This is not surprising. Bini women are at

home in Bini marketplaces, and Bini traders can communicate easily with
traders and buyers in the area. Ishan people are closely related to
the Binis and speak a dialect of Edo very close to that spoken by

Binis.

51

TABLE 4.--Classification of Community Women by Ethnic Group and

 

 

Occupation.
Other Non-
Occupation Bini Ishan Midwest- Midwest- Total
erners erners
Market Trader (54.3%) (48.6%) (35.6%) (28.7%) (46.4%)
158 41 32 25 256
Home Trader (9.3%) (9.5%) (14.4%) (13.8%) (10.9%)
27 8 13 12 60
NIFOR Employee (0.3%) O (3.3%) (1.2%) (0.9%)
l O 3 l 5
Housework (36.1%) (41.7%) (46.7%) (56.3%) (41.8%)
105 35 42 49 231
TOTAL (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
291 84 90 87 552

 

Calabar, Yoruba and Ibo women have a cultural barrier to over-
come in this area and therefore fewer of them trade. It is sometimes
more difficult for them to obtain goods from wholesalers or farmers,
and to secure regular customers to sell to.

Age seems to influence women's trading activities more than
ethnicity. Table 5 shows the age and occupation of the 552 women in
the sample.

It can be seen that of the 284 women under 30 years of age,
half stay at home and do not trade, about 15% trade only at home, and
a third trade both at home and in the marketplace. Among the women 30
years and over, a third stay at home and do not trade, only 6% trade at
home and almost two-thirds are market traders. It is more common,

therefore, for young women to stay at home, or to engage in some type

52

TABLE 5.--Classification of Community Women by Age and Occupation.

 

 

Market Home NIFOR House—
Age Trader Trader Employee work Total
Under 30 (33.4%) (14.8%) (1.8%) (50.0%) (100%)
95 42 5 142 284
30 and Over (61.5%) (6.1%) - (32.4%) (100%)
152 15 O 80 247
Don't Know 9 3 O 9 21
TOTAL 256 60 5 231 552

 

of trade which does not take them away from the house for long
periods.

Most women in this area do not marry before the age of 19 or
20. Only 26 women in the sample were under 20 years of age. Women
between the ages of 20 and 30 tend to be busy with small children. A
young family needs constant attention, but is not a great expense.
Older children cost more to feed and clothe and, as most people place
great value in education, school fees must be paid.

Women of 30 and over are not necessarily free of small
children because most continue to have babies until around 40 years of
age. However, if they want their children to be clothed and educated,
they must contribute money to help their husbands, many of whom are
unable to meet the expenses of a growing family. If the husband
marries a second wife, the senior wife is certainly freed from many of
the household chores and can spend more time trading. But even in
monogamous households, financial pressures often force busy mothers to

leave the household chores to the children and go out to trade.

53

Ethnic differences notwithstanding, it is generally a man's
responsibility to feed and house his family, provide basic items of
clothing, and pay for the education of his children. Many men are
unable to do all of these things. Men are not expected to provide
luxury items such as cosmetics and fancy clothes for the wife, toys
and sweets for children, school uniforms, books and pencils. Some
men can and do pay for these extra items, but many are unable and
some are unwilling. A woman is expected to use her own money to buy
these non-essential items for herself and her children. When
necessary, she is also expected to contribute towards the basic up-keep
of the family and help out in emergencies. In addition, both husband
and wife have separate responsibilities to their own kin groups and
must contribute towards birth, death, and marriage ceremonies and other
religious and cultural festivals. The husband is not expected to give
his wife money to finance her ceremonial fund. She should use her own
resources.

It is the husband's responsibility to see that the wife has
capital to start her trading. Many men provide the wife with money,
while others provide land on which she can grow produce to sell. A
considerable number do not fulfill this responsibility, and the wife
must look elsewhere. If the family is poor, which many are, the wife
may not look for trading capital until her children are of school age
and in need of books and clothing. However, if the husband is able to
provide a young wife with trading capital, she considers herself
fortunate and willingly makes time in her busy schedule for trading

activities. Table 5 has shown that in general, young women are less

54

likely to be traders than those of 30 years and over. From Table 6,
however, it can be seen that Isiuwa and the three villages contrast

markedly in this respect. While only 41.4% of the "under 30" category
in Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen are traders, the proportion of young
women traders in Isiuwa is 60.2%. This supports the earlier conclusion

that the higher standard of living in Isiuwa enables more husbands to

provide young wives with trading capital.

TABLE 6.--C1assification of Community Women by Age, Occupation, and

 

 

 

 

 

Village.
Uwan, Ugbogiobo, Iguoyemwen Isiuwa
Don't Don't
Under 30 3O & Over Know Under 30 30 & Over Know
Market (27.0%) (63.4%) (44.7%) (57.3%)
Trader 49 109 4 46 43 6
Home (14.4%) (4.7%) (15.5%) (9.4%)
Trader 26 8 O 16 7 2
NIFOR -— -- (4.9%) -_
Employee 0 O 0 5 0 0
House- (58.6%) (31.9%) (34.9%) (33.3%)
work 106 55 9 36 25 0
TOTAL (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
181 172 13 103 75 8
Summary

The purpose of this chapter has been to lay the background for
the study of the regional marketing system in the NIFOR-area. It has

been shown that although the general region is one of peasant

55

agriculture, NIFOR and its satellite communities constitute a prole-
tarian enclave within the peasant environment. The Institute employs
a relatively large number of highly trained research and administra-
tive personnel who constitute the middle and upper classes of the
society. The NIFOR community is a wage-labor community and the
satellite communities contain few peasant producers and large numbers
of wage-laborers. Nonetheless the majority of wage-laborers are only
sefim-proletarians and most of them retain strong ties to their
peasant holdings whether these be in the immediate region or, as is
the case with the majority, in other parts of the state or nation.
The consumer needs of the wage-labor population are met by the activities
of female traders.

Trading is by far the most important money-making activity of
women in the area and more than half the women in the communities trade
either at home or in the marketplaces or both. Women from outside the
state trade less than Midwesterners because they are less familiar with
the local customs. Junior wives and other secondary women in house-
holds are less likely to be traders than senior wives or female house-
hold heads. Young women in general are somewhat less likely to trade
than middle-aged women, as their financial responsibilities to their
children are less than those of women with older families. However,
the data indicate that when trading capital is available, young women
as well as middle—aged women find time for trading activities.

Women trade because they need money. They need money because
the responsibility for the reproduction of the family does not rest

entirely with the male head of the family.

Economic development and modernization have produced a large
number of new needs and wants, the filling of which requires money as
a necessary medium of exchange. The peasant farmer is intrinsically
tied to the monetized market economy. He must increasingly exchange
his products for money in order to meet the requirements of modern
life. So too his wife must increasingly find ways of acquiring money
in order to fulfill her obligations to the family. The proletarian
or semi-proletarian family is relatively divorced from the objective
conditions of production. The local or migrant laborer must meet
almost all his subsistence needs through the exchange of his labor-
power for wages. His wife must continue to contribute to the repro-
duction of the family and since in most cases she is unemployable, her
only means of acquiring money is through trade. With this introduction
which has emphasized the importance of the trading activities of women
in the study area, we can now turn to an examination of the regional

marketing system.

CHAPTER III

THE REGIONAL MARKETPLACE SYSTEM

Introduction

 

This chapter will describe the regional marketplace system in
the NIFOR area, and will discuss the general characteristics of market-
place traders. The focal points of the discussion are Isiuwa
Marketplace and Ugbogiobo Marketplace.

Wolf (1966:40-41) has drawn a distinction between "sectional"
markets in which a set of communities are dependent upon each other for
production and exchange within the marketplace of specialized commodities,
and "network" markets in which there is no closed regional system and no
customary monopolies.

Cook (In pressz70) has pointed out that this distinction is
primarily an analytical one, and is a difference of degree rather than
kind. Within any one market exchange system, one can find instances of
both ”sectional" organization and "network" organization. Analytically,
the sectional aspect of market organization is closely related to the
locational dimension of the exchange process, i.e., the movement of
commodities and individual actors through space and time. Analysis of
the network aspect of organization is closely related to the trans-
actional dimension of the exchange process, i.e., price formation and

bargaining behavior between the participants in exchange.

57

58

Belshaw (1965:40) and Cook (In pressz72) have both suggested
that market exchange systems in West Africa tend towards ”sectional”
organization, and are relatively closed systems in which individual
economic units have severely limited flexibility of choice of pro-
duction and exchange actions. This conclusion is undoubtedly based

on the material presented in Markets in Africa (Bohannan and Dalton,

 

1962) which is the most comprehensive collection of studies of
African marketplace systems published to date. As Polly Hill points
out, however (1963:443), this book "includes nothing on the huge and
growing markets of the expanding cities of the forest zone of West
Africa . . . ," and, we might add, little on the marketing systems

of their closely-linked rural hinterlands. Modernization and economic
development in the forest zone, and the growing "pervasiveness of the
market principle” (Bohannan and Dalton, 1962 25) have increasingly
drawn these areas into an open or ”network" system of exchange. Such
changes have not, however, decreased the importance of marketplace or
site-confined exchange (as Bohannan and Dalton seem to suggest,
1962:25). Marketplaces in West Africa continue to be important focal
points of exchange and there is every reason to suppose that the
marketplace systems in both urban centers and rural hinterlands are

expanding rapidly. Specific papers in Markets in Africa support this

 

conclusion for Southern Dahomey (p. 90), and the Afikpo Ibo area

(pp. 118-169), as do Hodder's later workers on markets in Yoruba land,
and Ukwu's analysis of the marketplace system throughout Ibo land
(Hodder and Ukwu, 1969). Herskovits (1962:97) points out that in
general the marketplace tradition has "not only retained its

vitality but flourished in the new situation."

59

' 5’

Analysis of the trading activities of female traders in the
NIFOR-area, therefore, of necessity focusses primarily on the market-
place system. The locational dimension of marketplace exchange is
discussed in terms of spatial movements of goods (and of the
individuals who move them) within the structure of the regional
marketing system. The transactional dimension is analyzed in terms

of price formation and bargaining behavior.

The System of Marketplaces

 

Isiuwa Marketplace

 

Isiuwa Marketplace is located at the southwest corner of Isiuwa
village and was opened in 1956. It consists of 40 concrete covered
stalls in two blocks, an open section at the front and a group of
home-made covered sheds at the back. The concrete stalls were built
by the Institute and are rented to NIFOR workers. The covered sheds
at the back were built by private individuals who collect a monthly
rent from anyone who uses them. The open section is rent-free, but
offers no shade or protection from sun and rain (see Figure 4).

Isiuwa Market is a local village market which was started by
the Institute for the benefit of the NIFOR community. It has approxi-
mately 140-150 traders which makes it one of the larger village
markets in the area (other local village markets visited had from 30
to 70 traders). It is a periodic 4-day market and meets on Ekioba,
the first day of the traditional Bini week. It was purposely
scheduled on Ekioba so as not to coincide with the older, established

markets in the area. Although all other markets in the area begin in

60

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61

the morning, Isiuwa Market does not start until one or two in the
afternoon. This is because the marekt is intended to serve the NIFOR
employees most of whom do not finish work until mid-afternoon.

Isiuwa Market, then, meets every fifth day on Ekioba and is an after-
noon market which begins between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. and finishes
between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.

Payday Market is held on the same site as Isiuwa Market and
occurs twice a month when NIFOR workers receive their pay. NIFOR
payday occurs at the middle and the end of each month. The day for
paying the workers is not fixed and, in fact, is kept secret. This
is to discourage robbers from stealing the payroll which is brought
from Benin City every payday. The mid-month payday may occur anywhere
from the 13th to the 17th of the month and the end—of—the-month payday
may be on the last two or three days of the month or the first two days
of the next month. Payday Market falls on payday regardless of whether
or not it is the scheduled day for Isiuwa Market. It has approximately
160-170 traders. Traders are not told in advance when Payday Market
will occur, but the news spreads rapidly when the Institute staff
begins preparations to pay the workers early in the morning on payday.
All regular Isiuwa Market traders attend Payday Market, plus 20-30
other traders many of whom are Ugbogiobo Market traders. Payday
Market may fall on any day of the traditional 4-day week, but as it is
an afternoon and early evening market (2:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.) it does
not seriously interfere with other markets meeting on the same day.
Traders can and do attend another market in the morning and Payday

Market in the afternoon.

62

Ugbogiobo Marketplace

Ugbogiobo Marketplace is located in Uwan village at the
junction of the main tarred road and the small side road leading up
to NIFOR (Ozolua Road). It is less than two miles from Isiuwa
Marketplace. The market has been in existence for roughly 70 years
and was started to meet the needs of outsiders who used to come for
treatment to Ugbogiobo, the farm of a famous herbal doctor. The.
site was chosen because it was a resting place for women carrying'
goods to Ekiadolor Market, some six miles away. Ugbogiobo Market is a
large regional market with approximately 450-500 traders. It attracts
traders and consumers from all the surrounding villages and also some
from other areas. It is a 4-day periodic market and falls on Agbado,
the third day of the traditional week. The market is government-
controlled and consists of 20 concrete covered sheds each of which is
divided into 10 sections. At the time of the study, traders paid
2/6 per month to rent one section of a shed. In addition there is a
large open section at the east end of the market. Traders pay 1d per
market day to sell in this section (see Figure 5). There is a market
master who is appointed by the local District Council and whose job it
is to collect rental fees, settle disputes, and keep order in the
marketplace. Ugbogiobo Market begins between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.
and finishes between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. as do all other markets in
the area except Isiuwa Market.

The residents of Uwan and Ugbogiobo villages have an on-going
dispute centering on the marketplace. Uwan people feel that because

the marketplace is located in Uwan village it should be called Uwan

63

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64

Market. Ugbogiobo people feel that the market was named after the
famous herbalist and should not be re-named despite its location.
Several years ago the people of Uwan lodged a formal complaint with
the local District Council and requested that the market be re-named.
The Council refused whereupon the Uwan villagers boycotted the market—
place and started a new market on Ozolua Road roughly 100 yards from
the old marketplace. They built a number of covered sheds and placed
a sign on the main road pointing the way to "Uwan Market." However,
despite these efforts, Ugbogiobo Marketplace continued to be the
center of trading activities because the majority of sellers and
buyers attending the market are not residents of Uwan and had no wish
to boycott the old market site. Uwan women have gradually drifted
back to Ugbogiobo Market. However, Uwan Market still stands and
there are 35-40 Uwan women who still refuse to enter Ugbogiobo
Marketplace. The villagers are encouraging their leaders to formally

remove the boycott but so far this had not been done.

Other Marketplaces in the Area

 

Uwan Market and Payday Market have already been discussed.
Evboneka Market is a small village market located on the main road
about two miles from Isiuwa Market and about two miles from Ugogiobo
Market. It meets on Ikenaka (day number two) and attracts 50-60
traders. Osasimwinoba Market is located about eight miles beyond
Ugbogiobo on the main road. It is a regional market, and it meets
on the same day as Evboneka Market. Odighi Market, another regional
market of medium size is about eight miles beyond Osasimwinoba on the

main road. It meets on Ekioba the same day as Isiuwa Market.

65

Okokhuo Market which is smaller than Ugbogiobo Market is about

seven miles northwest of Isiuwa and can be reached from Isiuwa and
Uwan only by footpaths. It meets on Eken (day number 4). Ekiadolor
Market is about the same size as Ugbogiobo Market. It is the oldest
and best known market in the district and is located at the district
headquarters. However, it is about 6-7 miles from NIFOR and it
meets on Agbado the same day as Ugbogiobo Market. It therefore

does not attract many women from the NIFOR-area. Ataka Market is a
small market of 30-40 traders which meets in one of the side streets
in Isiuwa Village. It meets at the same time as Ugbogiobo Market and
began as a resting place for women treking from the Okokhuo area.
The story of its beginning is an interesting one and probably
representative of many small village markets.

Women coming from the Okokhuo area and from the waterside
villages near the north end of NIFOR must walk four to eight miles to
reach Ugbogiobo Market. They stop to put down their loads and rest
at several points along the way. One such resting spot used to be at
the northwest edge of Isiuwa Village. One day in 1957, a NIFOR worker
named Ataka approached a group of women and told them that if they
would carry their loads a short distance further to his house in
Isiuwa, he and his neighbors would buy their produce, thus sparing
them the task of carrying their loads to Ugbogiobo Market. This they
did and continued to do every Ugbogiobo Market day. One day as they
were resting in front of Ataka's house, a cow wandered into the
"marketplace,” fell down and died. Ataka rushed out with his cutlass,

cut the cow's throat and allowed the blood to run out on the spot.

66

The site was thus consecrated and has been considered by the people
to be a legitimate marketplace ever since. Ataka later moved to
another housing unit and has recently retired from NIFOR and gone
back to Calabar, but Ataka Market continues on the original site.

It is a small market and is not likely to grow much larger because
Ugbogiobo Market attracts most of the customers. Nonetheless, quite
a number of Okokhuo farm women prefer to sell their goods there
rather than carry them on to Ugbogiobo, and some Isiuwa housewives
and traders find it more convenient to attent Ataka Market than walk
down to Ugbogiobo Market.

Ataka Market, then, began as a resting place for women treking
to Ugbogiobo Market. There is another resting place on the same route
between Okokhuo and Ugbogiobo, which is presently an incipient market-
place. This spot which is near the NIFOR offices and laboratories, is
called "Head Office Junction,“ and is at the top of a steep hill which
runs down to the river. Every Ugbogiobo Market day NIFOR office
workers and senior staff housewives who live nearby come to this spot
to buy farm produce. ”Head Office Junction" will never evolve into a
legitimate marketplace because the head office population will not
grow much larger than it is at present. However, if there were a
growing consumer population near the spot, it is conceivable that the
junction might become a marketplace in much the same way as Ataka
Market evolved.

There are other small village markets in the area, but they do
not attract many women from Isiuwa and the three villages of Uwan,

Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen. Aihuobebakun is one such village market

67

about three miles from Ugbogiobo on the main road. It meets on the
.same day as Isiuwa. Although it is not far from Ugbogiobo few
Ugbogiobo women attend it. Village markets have very small
"catchment" areas. Isiuwa Market is somewhat unusual in this
7 respect because firstly Isiuwa is a large community of wage-
laborers and secondly it is a relatively wealthy one. Even Isiuwa
Market, however, attracts few outsiders except on payday. Regional
markets have large catchment areas and attract a large number of
outsiders. Village markets evolve into regional markets as the
population of an area grows. Regional periodic markets evolve into
daily markets in urban areas. Several markets in Benin City meet
daily, but they are also periodic markets. The Oba Market in Benin
City, for example, is a daily market, but there is a noticeable
increase in the number of traders and customers attending the market
on Ekioba.
The Spatio-Temporal Locations of
Marketplaces and the Movements
of Traders

.The following chart shows the markets that women in the
study area attend, and their approximate distances from Ugbogiobo
Market. As Smith (1971:322-323) has pointed out, most of the Bini-
Edo region is characterized by a 4-day market week. The NIFOR-area

is certainly included in this belt of 4-day markets.

“1,"?

 

68

Isiuwa Market, 1% miles
- Odighi Market, 16 miles
- Aihuobebakun Narket - 3 miles
- Benin City Markets - 16 miles

Ekioba - Day 1:

Ekenaka - Day 2: - Evboneka Market - 2 miles
- Osasimwinoba Market - 8 miles
- Benin City Markets - 16 miles

 

Agbado - Day 3: - Ugbogiobo Market
- Ekiadolor Market - 6 miles
- Ataka Market - 1% miles
- Uwan Market - 100 yards
- Benin City Market - 16 miles

 

Eken - Day 4: - Okokhuo Market - 7 miles
- Benin City Markets - 16 miles

 

The fact that rural markets are periodic has led to the con-
clusion that, in a given locality, the markets constitute a ring.
Skinner (1964) has shown how the marketplace system in rural China
evolved into a series of connecting rings with several village markets
and one regional market in each ring. Because market rings impinge
upon each other, each market belongs to several adjacent rings.
Therefore, the ring which an investigator describes in a given area is
relative to the place at which he starts. If, for example, Ugbogiobo
Market were taken as the starting point, the market ring described
would consist of the three village markets of Aihuobebakun, Isiuwa
arwi Evboneka, and Ugbogiobo regional market. In fact, however, only
ten of the women interviewed in Ugbogiobo Market regularly attend

Ai huobebakun Market.

69

If Isiuwa Market is taken as the starting place, the market
ring of which it is a part includes the two village markets of
Isiuwa and Evboneka, and the two regional markets of Ugbogiobo and
Okokhuo. However, although Okokhuo Market is well-known by Isiuwa
Market traders, few of them regularly attend it because it is too
far and can be reached only by footpath.

Theoretically, in an area of 4-day periodic markets, every
market ring should consist of four markets. If a village market is
taken as the starting point, the ring should contain two village
markets and two regional markets. If the regional market is taken as
the starting point, the ring should contain one regional market and
three village markets. Generally speaking, the marketplaces in the
study areas appear to conform to this theoretical pattern. In the
theoretical model, marketplaces are located within walking distance
of each other so that the movements of traders should be predictable
on the basis of the spatio-temporal distribution of the market sites.
In actual fact, however, the presence or absence of motorized
transport is a key factor influencing the movement of traders.

Given the availability of motorized transport, a trader may have a
choice of several marketplaces each day. Her decision of which
Inarket to attend is then based on her evaluation of the various
Inarketplaces accessible to her.

All the female-traders in both marketplaces were asked to
nanm~the markets which they regularly attend. There were 491 women
interviewed in Ugbogiobo Market and 155 in Isiuwa Market. There is

auo overlap between the two marketplaces as many women were interviewed

70

in both places, but the two populations are treated separately.

Table 7 presente the responses to this question.

TABLE 7.--Marketplaces Regularly Attended by Female Traders in Two

 

 

 

 

Marketplaces.
Ugbogiobo Market Isiuwa Market
491 Women "155 Women

Ugbogiobo Market 346 129
Isiuwa Market 135 122
Evboneka Market 25 9
Okokhuo Market 20 15
Aihuobebakun Market 10 -
Ekiadolor Market 21 4
Odighi Market 30 l
Osasimwinoba Market 12 -
Uwan Market -

Ataka Market - 12
Benin City Markets 39

Other Markets 8 -
TOTAL Responses 646 296

 

The most obvious conclusion that can be drawn from Table 7 is
that Isiuwa Market and Ugbogiobo Market are the most closely linked
of the markets in the two theoretical market rings previously
described. Of 155 women in Isiuwa Market 83.2% (129) regularly
attend Ugbogiobo Market. Approximately 10% regularly attend Okokhuo

lWarket which is the other regional market in the Isiuwa market ring,

71

and only nine women attend the small village market in Evboneka.
That only a small number of women regularly attend Okokhuo Market
can be explained by the fact that there is no motorized transport
from Isiuwa to Okokhuo. Evboneka Market attracts few Isiuwa traders
because it is a small village market.

Isiuwa is the market mentioned most frequently by Ugbogiobo
Market traders. While Aihuobebakun is theoretically included in the
Ugbogiobo market ring, only ten women in the marketplace mentioned
attending this market. It may be that Aihuobebakun villagers prefer
the regional market at Osasimwinoba. Although only 25 women said they
trade regularly in Evboneka Market, this accounts for roughly half
of the total number of traders in Evboneka Market which is a very
small village market. Ugbogiobo Market traders mentioned no other
village markets, but a significant number attend other regional
markets (Okokhuo, Odighi and Osasimwinoba) as well as the daily
urban markets in Benin City.

It is interesting to note that less than 10% of the Isiuwa
Market traders (13 women) reported that they attend only Isiuwa
Market while in Ugbogiobo Market as many as 46% of the traders
(229 women) said they attend only Ugbogiobo Market. Ugbogiobo Market
is a large regional market and it is in such markets that rural
traders make most of their sales. Many traders feel it is a waste of
time to attend local village markets.

The catchment area of a rural market depends on the distance
which women are willing to walk to attend it or the availability of

motorized transport to carry them to the marketplace. Local village

72

markets attract few consumers and therefore traders are not willing
to walk long distances to attend them. Regional markets are worth a
long walk or a lorry fare because the trader is almost certain to
sell more goods and, in addition, she as a consumer has a wider
choice of goods to buy. Table 8 lists the approximate distances
from the marketplaces which traders live, and the presence or
absence of motorized transport. (Traders were not asked, however,

whether they regularly used the transport available to them.)

TABLE 8.--C1assification of Female Market Traders by Distances of
Home Villages and Availability of Motorized Transport.*

 

 

 

 

” Ugbogiobo Market Isiuwa Market
Distance from Home
12.11.2391? WON .. N. ““1531 1
p ce Transport Trangport Transport Trangport
Under 1 mile 195 -- 94 --
1-2 miles 102 -- 46 --
2-3 miles 52 3O 3 --
3-4 miles 7 28 -- --
4-6 miles 1 3 -- 2
6-8 miles -- 5 -- 1
8-10 miles -- 12 -- --
Over 10 miles -- 45 -- --

 

* I . o
Nineteen women refused to name the1r home v1llages.

Isiuwa Market attracts only a few women from more than two
miles away. All but six of the traders live less than two miles

from Isiuwa Marketplace. Ugbogiobo Market attracts many more women

73

from distant villages, but a considerable number of these take buses,
lorries or taxis to reach the market. The walking distance for women
carrying headloads to Ugbogiobo Market is four miles, with the
exception of women from Okokhuo (only one was interviewed). Most
Okokhuo women sell their produce at head office junction or Ataka
Market. Many continue on to Ugbogiobo Market but enter the market-
place as consumers, not sellers. The great majority of women trek
two miles or less to Ugbogiobo Market. Those who live more than four
miles away trek to the main road and then take a lorry or bus.

Table 9, which presents these same data in a simplified form,
clearly shows that the service area of the regional market is much
larger than that of the village market. In Ugbogiobo Market, 39.7%
of the traders (195 women) live in the three-village community in
which the market is located. In Isiuwa Market, on the other hand,
as many as 60.6% of the traders (94 women) live in Isiuwa Village.
The proportion of traders in Isiuwa Market who live in the three-
village community is roughly the same as the proportion of traders in
Ugbogiobo Market who live in Isiuwa Village--about 20% in both cases.
In other words 20% of the traders in each market come from the
neighboring community. In Ugbogiobo Market the proportion of traders
from other villages is as high as 37.3% (183 women), while Isiuwa
Market traders from other villages are only 13.5% of the total.
Payday Market at NIFOR attracts more outside traders but the exact
number is not known.

The above data account for only part of the movement of

female traders. Women leave their home villages and travel to other

74

TABLE 9.--Home Villages of Female Traders in Two Rural Marketplaces.

 

 

 

 

Home Village Ubgogiobo Market Isiuwa Market
Isiuwa Village 102 (20.8%) 94 (60.6%)
Uwan, Ugbogiobo and

Iguoyemwen Villages 195 (39.3%) 33 (2.13%)
Other Villages 183 (37.3%) 21 (13.5%)
Refused to Answer 11 8

TOTAL 491 (100%) 155 (100%)

 

communities and marketplaces not only to sell but also to buy goods
for re-sale in their own locality. Table 10 lists the places where
women obtained the goods they were selling at the time they were
interviewed, and the approximate distances of these places from the
general Isiuwa/Ugbogiobo area. Unfortunately those who said their
produce came from farms were not asked where the farms were located,
so it is not possible to calculate the distances which these women
travel. The number of responses is greater than the number of traders
because many women named several places where goods were obtained.

As is expected, the largest group in Ugbogiobo Market are
those who obtain produce from farms. Some of these women are middle-
men who buy from farmers, but the majority are farm women selling
their own and their husbands' produce. While the exact location of
the farms is not known, the majority are undoubtedly within a few
miles of the marketplace. Few Isiuwa Market traders obtain produce

from farms. In this respect, Isiuwa Market differs from most local

I.“

75

TABLE 10.--Classification of Traders by Marketplace and Distances
Travelled to Obtain Commodities.*

 

Ugbogiobo Isiuwa
Market Traders Market Traders

 

Farms-~distance unknown 168 20
Ugbogiobo Market or Village 125 82
Isiuwa Market or Village -- 6
NIFOR slaughter-house or oil mill--

less than 2 miles 6 2
Odighi or Okokhuo Markets--6—16 miles 4 3
Benin City Markets--15-18 miles 135 87
Sapele, Warri, Akure, Ifon--50-100 miles 11 6
Ibadan, Ilorin, Ilesha, Lagos or Onitsha

Markets--lOO-200 miles 29 7
Kano Markets--450 miles 2 --

 

*
Eleven women are seamstresses or hairdressers who do not sell
commodities, and 18 women refused to answer.

village markets because Isiuwa Village is a wage-labor community unlike
most rural villages. A large number of women in both marketplaces

buy goods in Benin City markets. These goods are mainly items which

are not produced in the study area but are imported from other parts of
Nigeria or from other countries. However, local middlemen complain that
produce grown in the study area is bought by urban wholesalers and
transported to Benin City creating shortages in Ugbogiobo and Isiuwa

and forcing local traders to travel to the city to buy back the same

produce. Nevertheless a large amount of the produce carried to

76

Ugbogiobo Market by local farm women is wholesaled to local middlemen
who then retail it in the same marketplace or in Isiuwa and other
village markets. More traders in Ugbogiobo Market travel long
distances to other parts of the country to obtain goods. Isiuwa
Market has fewer long-distance traders.

Each month the traders in each market were counted and an
inventory of their goods taken. Table 11 shows the monthly variations
in the numbers of traders. There is a seasonal variation in the
number of traders in Ugbogiobo Market but not in Isiuwa Market.
Ugbogiobo Market has less traders during the last half of the dry
season in January, February, and March. November and December are
also dry months, but farm produce is still being harvested at that
time and, in addition, the Christmas season is always a busy one.

The market has more traders in the rainy season, but heavy rain on
market-day reduces the number of traders. In Ugbogiobo Market,
therefore, the number of traders varies with the season and with the
weather. I

Isiuwa Market does not show any consistent seasonal variation
in numbers of traders. Payday Market, however, is larger than Isiuwa
Market, and the day after Payday, the market is noticeably smaller.
As is the case in Ugbogiobo Market, a rainy market-day deters some
traders. In Isiuwa Market, therefore, the number of traders is
influenced by NIFOR payday and by the weather.

The range of commodities sold in rural marketplaces is very
1vide indeed. The full commodity inventory is presented in Appending

al<3ng with descriptions of commodities which are likely to be

77

TABLE ll.--Numbers of Traders in Two Marketplaces over a lZ-Month

Period.

 

 

Ugbogiobo Market

 

Isiuwa Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female Male Female Male
January 392 23 153 7
Unseasonal Rain
123 8
February 398 24 .......
143 9
Payday
186 27
March 391 22 .......
153 9
April 427 27 130 8
Heavy_Rain
May 389 27 150 11
Rain and Day
Before Payday
June 480 36 128 9
Heavy Rain
118 8
July 484 33 .......
Payday and Rain
172 31
_Haavy Rain
443 29
August ------- 132 8
Sunny
509 29
September 461 31 144 23
October 465 26 154 9
November 481 32 126 11
December 493 45 132 6

 

78

unfamiliar to non-Nigerians. The reader is asked to refer to this
key in order to identify particular items discussed in the text.
Table 11 shows the extent to which women dominate rural marketplace
trade. Male middlemen are restricted to a few commodities, namely,
rice, beans, groundnuts, cloth and clothing items, china and glass-
ware, hardward and raphia products, provisions and articles, and
fresh beef. Male peasant farmers rarely sell their own produce in
the marketplace though they frequently attend market. A male
peasant farmer generally commissions his wife to sell his produce for
him; she at the same time, will often sell her own produce, but will
keep the gains from such sales separate. Therefore, while primary
and secondary farm produce is sold almost exclusively by women, some
of these commodities, particularly yams and palm oil, are in fact
usually owned by men.

Among middlemen, it is only in the selling of fresh beef,
clothing, articles and provisions that men can be said to compete
with women. As in the rest of Nigeria, the cattle trade is dominated

by Hausa men who control the local butchers (Cohen, 1965).

Characteristics of the Agents of Exchange

 

Female Traders

 

In this section, the female traders in both marketplaces will
be described in terms of the commodities which they sell, ethnic
grouping, extent of wholesaling and retailing activities, age, and

education.

79

Tables 12 and 13 classify the female traders in the two
marketplaces by commodity and ethnic group. Each woman has been
classified according to the majgr_commodity which she sells. Many
women sell several items but often specialize in one commodity.

Many others, however, sell "small market" which means they sell a
number of commodities but do not specialize in any item. Women who
sell "small market" sell small amounts of a lot of different items
the most common of which are egeusi seeds, ogbono, salt, okra, cotton
seed, maggi cubes, capsicum peppers, tomatoes, onions and dried

fish. They also frequently add seasonal fruits and sometimes buy
small amounts of other farm produce for resale.

The commodity groupings are, in general, the groupings found
in the marketplaces. Farm women sell primary farm produce and also
sell home-made soaps, local butter and clay pots. They are producers
not middlemen. Women who sell garri and cassava starch are also pro-
ducers, but they tend to specialize in these two commodities and do
not often sell other farm produce. Women selling palm oil are also
producers, but like the garri sellers, they too tend to specialize in
one commodity.

Most rice, beans and groundnuts are imported from the north
(the exceptions being the locally grown upland rice and Phaseolus sp.
beans). Women selling these commodities are usually middlemen, as are
"small market” traders who buy from primary producers or from wholesale
middlemen. Some women specialize in rice, beans, and groundnuts while
others sell these commodities plus "small market." Fish and meat

sellers are usually middlemen and tend to Specialize, although many

80

TABLE 12.--Isiuwa Market Female Traders by Ethnic Group and Commodity.

 

Other Non—
Bini Mid- Mid- Total
Westerners Westerners

 

Primary farm produce, local
soaps, butter and clay

pots 23 3 3 29
Rice, beans, groundnuts,

and "small market" 43 25 5 75
Garri and cassava starch l 12 1 14
Palm Oil 1 — - 1
Fish and meat 8 5 3 16

Local medicines and
condiments 3 - - 3

Clothing, gold and coral
jewelry and tobacco l — - 1

Provisions and articles 4 — l 5

Enamelware, plastics,

dishes, baskets and mats 3 - l 4
Cooked food 4 2 - 6
Sewing and hairdressing - 2 l 3
TOTAL 91 (58.7%) 49 (91.6%) 15 (9.7%) 155 (100%)

 

"small market" traders also sell small amounts of dried fish. Local
medicines and condiments are a specialization of elderly women who
gather or cultivate some items and buy others.

Cloth, clothing, jewelry, and tobacco are often sold together,

though some women specialize in one or two of these items. These women

81

 

 

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Fae N _N om mm o_m 4<Hop
m u 1 u N o mcwmmmcucwm; new mcwzmm
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m— 1 F m P m mme Ucm mumxmmn
.mmcmwu .muwpmmpa .mcmzrmEmcm
m a 1 u m N mmwuwpcm new mcowmw>oca
0N — 1 F m _N ouumaoa vcm
chmth _mcoo cam “pom .mcwzpo—u
a u N - - N mpcmawucoo use mmcwuwume PmUOA
«m P N N m mm Home cam cmwd
m_ m 1 o 1 m Fwo EFma
mm 1 N MN me o :ocmpm m>mmmmu vcm wccmw
Nfim. I _.~ PM N mm __u.wv_LmE F—mEm:
vcm muscncsocm .mcmmn .mowm
FN_ N _ q _ m__ moon sa_a use cabana
.mamOm _muo_ .mozuoca acme memewca
Pouch cmzmc< oh mcmccmummz mcmccwummz 0205;: wam xywuoEEou

ummswmm unwincoz auwz cmzpo

 

.xuwcoesou use qsocw owccum >3 mcmumcp mpmemu “oxen: onowmonm211.m_ m4m<H

82

are all middlemen, as are the sellers of provisions and articles.
Enamelware, plastics, and dishes are often sold together; baskets
and mats are sold separately but have been included in this category
because there are so few women selling them.

Cooked food sellers are generally not primary producers as
they usually buy their cooking ingredients.

Tables 12 and 13 show that while both marketplaces are pre-
dominantly Bini, other ethnic groups are significantly represented.
There is a large number of Urhobo women in Ugbogiobo Market, most of
whom sell garri and cassava starch. These women come from several
Urhobo communities south of Ugbogiobo. Few of them attend Isiuwa
Market, but even there the garri trade is dominated by non-Bini women
most of whom are Ikuale and Ishan. Bini women do not like to sell
garri because it is regarded as a low-status commodity, despite the
fact that it is the staple food of most households. Bini people look
down on Urhobo and Ishan people and on the selling of garri. Urhobo
women trading in the study area have taken advantage of this attitude
and dominate the large garri trade. Urhoboland in the southern part
of the Midwest state is noted for fish production (particularly in
the Sapele area) as well as cassava. Urhobo women dominate the fish
trade in their own marketplaces, but in the NIFOR-area very few of
them specialize in fish. Bini women dominate the trade in farm
produce, clothing, jewelry and tobacco, and cooked food. Other
commodities are more evenly split between the various ethnic groups.

Within Ugbogiobo Marketplace, Urhobo garri sellers tend to

cluster at the northeast corner of the market in blocks P, T, and part

83

of S (see Figure 5). Urhobo women selling other commodities also tend
to sit in this same section of the market. In Isiuwa Market, most
garri is found in section V (see Figure 4) where it is sold by Ishan
and Ikuale women. Most Isiuwa garri sellers are middlemen who buy

from Urhobo women in Ugbogiobo Market.

1

The other commodity clusterings evident in the marketplaces 3

are:

a. Palm 011 behind block B in Ugbogiobo Market;2

b. Primary farm produce in section U and the adjacent
sections of block A, E, I, M, and Q in Ugbogiobo Market;

‘rum—m Til—T. I

c. Fresh beef in block 0 in Ugbogiobo Market and sheds 21
to 26 in Isiuwa Market;.

d. Frozen fish in block L in Ugbogiobo Market and section U
in Isiuwa Market.

Other commodities are located fairly randomly throughout the market-
place.

Clustering of women by ethnic grouping is not noticeable,
except for the above-mentioned Urhobo women in Ugbogiobo Market.
There are many small ethnic clusters of two to five women scattered
here and there in the marketplaces, but traders choose their location
firstly on the basis of accessibility to buyers, secondly with a view
of the weather, and only lastly for socio-cultural reasons.

When Tables 12 and 13 are compared with Table 3, it can be
seen that while only 30.2% of the women in Isiuwa Village are Bini,
58.7% of the traders in Isiuwa Market are Bini. In Ugbogiobo Market,
on the other hand, 64.3% of the traders are Bini while as many as 76%
0f the women in the three-village community are Bini. These facts

Can be explained by reference to Table 14. The majority of the non-Bini

84

TABLE l4.--C1assification of Female Traders by Ethnic Group, Village
and Marketplace.*

 

 

Bini ‘ Non-Bini

 

 

Ugbogiobo Isiuwa Ugbogiobo Isiuwa

 

Market Market Market Market
Isiuwa Village 42 41 60 53
Uwan, Ugbogiobo and
Iguoyemwen Villages 160 28 35 3
Other Villages 114 19 69 2
Refused to name village 0 3 4 4

 

*
Seven women in Ugbogiobo Market refused to answer these
questions.

traders in Isiuwa market live in Isiuwa Village. Only five non-Bini
Isiuwa traders are from outside Isiuwa Village. There are, however,
a significant number (47) of Bini traders from outside Isiuwa Village,
and it is this group of Bini outsiders that accounts for the relatively
high proportion of Bini traders in Isiuwa Market.

Table 14 also shows that the non-Bini traders in Ugbogiobo
Market come mainly from Isiuwa Village and from the several Urhobo
Villages south of Ugbogiobo. These two groups of outsiders account for
the relatively high proportion of non—Bini women in Ugbogiobo Market.

It has been pointed out that local village markets are mainly
retail centers which cater to the consumer needs of local housewives,
while regional markets perform both retail and wholesale functions.
Gloria Marshall (1964:112) has pointed out that in their wholesale

function, rural regional markets tend to act as feeder markets for

85

urban centers. It is also true, however, that regional markets are
feeder markets for local village markets. Table 15 clearly shows
that the wholesale function in Ugbogiobo Market is much greater than

in Isiuwa Market.

TABLE 15.--Classification of Wholesalers by Commodity and Marketplace.

 

 

 

Ugbogiobo Isiuwa
Market Market
Primary farm produce, local soaps,
butter and clay pots 85 12
Rice, beans, groundnuts and "small market” 12 9
Garri and cassava starch 67 6
Palm oil 8 -
Fish and meat 11 2
Local medicines and condiments - -
Clothing, gold and coral jewelry,
and tobacco 12 -
Provisions and articles - -
Enamelware, plastics, dishes, baskets
and mats 3 1
Cooked food 1 -
Sewing and hairdressing - -
TOTAL 199 (40.1%) 30 (19.4%)

 

86

Of 491 female traders in Ugbogiobo Market, 199 or 40.1%
engage in wholesale as well as retail trading. In Isiuwa Market, on
the other hand, the proportion of women who wholesale is only 19.4%.
Wholesalers in Ugbogiobo Market sell mainly to Benin City middlemen,
to Isiuwa Market middlemen, and to Ugbogiobo Market middlemen.

Wholesalers in Isiuwa Market sell only to Isiuwa Market middlemen;

3:?

almost all produce wholesales in Isiuwa Market stays in the market
and is not carried to other market centers. Produce wholesaled in

Ugbogiobo Market is retailed in Ugbogiobo Marketplace and in Benin E

 

City, but in addition, a surprisingly large amount of it is retailed if
in Isiuwa Market. Table 10 shows that 73 middlemen in Isiuwa Market
buy all or part of their commodities in Ugbogiobo Market. It must

be remembered that Isiuwa Market is atypical of local village markets
because Isiuwa village is a wage-labor community not a farming
community, and therefore, Isiuwa traders must buy primary farm produce
which they do not themselves grow. It is also evident, however, that
many of the goods which are bought in Ugbogiobo Market for resale in
Isiuwa Market are items imported from other parts of Nigeria (e.g.,
rice, beans, groundnuts, onions, dried fish) and not necessarily
primary farm produce grown in the immediate area. The main exception
to this is garri which in a ”typical" farming community would probably
be produced by local villagers. It is probable, therefore, that
traders in most local village markets are dependent on wholesalers in
regional markets to supply them with commodities produced outside their
own area. The regional market, therefore, is a two-way feeder market.

Primary and secondary produce from the immediate area passes through

87

the regional market to the urban center and primary and secondary
produce from other areas passes through the regional market to the
local village centers. V
It was pointed out in the preceding chapter that while over

half the women in both the study communities engage in trading
activities (the proportion being slightly higher in Isiuwa than in
the three-village community) there is a tendency for young women to
stay at home and for middleaged women to be more active in market-
place trading. Table 16 supports this conclusion. The age break-down
of female traders in the two marketplaces is almost identical. In
both cases approximately 35% of the women are under 30 and approxi-
rnately 61% are 30 years of age and over. The higher proportion of

young traders in Isiuwa Village is not reflected in Isiuwa Market.

'TI\BLE l6.--Classification of Female Traders by Age and Marketplace.

 

 

Don't
Under 30 30 and Over Know Total
Ugbogiobo Market 176 (35.8%) 30 (61.1%) 15 491 (100%)
Isiuwa Market 54 (34.8%) 95 (61.3%) 6 155 (100%)

\

Traders were asked at what age they first began trading and,
SL"“[3risingly, in both markets roughly two-thirds said they had started
it"siciing before the age of 30. This indicates either a significant
Ci‘iirige in behavior or inaccurate responses. It is my opinion that
"“3SYt women answered inaccurately because although young women gave
pr'ecise answers, middle-aged and elderly women answered vaguely (e.g.,

|I o
‘2() years," at least 15 years, "Since youth," etc.).

...‘x

Luna- ATP
.. ;'

V‘s—.1“ v-f‘ I“)

88

Table 17 shows the classification of marketplace traders by

age and commodity. There is a marked tendency for local primary and

secondary farm produce to be sold by women in the 30 years and over

age range. These commodities include the first category of farm

produce, local soaps, butter and clay pots, and the fourth category

. #7,:1

of palm oil. The great majority of the women selling these commodities

are producer-marketers, local farm women who make or grow the items

In most farming households, young women are

 

which they sell.
assigned the household and farming chores and middle-aged women are

1*; ”“1111. h. " “ .‘f‘ l

freed for market-trading. Most women selling garri and cassava

starch are also producer-traders but young women predominate in this
'trede. The reason for this is unclear, but may be related to the
fkact that Urhobo women in this area appear to marry at a younger age
'tfian Bini women, and therefore become senior wives at a younger age.
()rl the other hand, it may be that frying garri, which is a hot, time-
<2<3risuming and tedious job, is left to the younger women while older
WCJmen busy themselves with other less arduous tasks.

Rice, beans, groundnuts, and "small market" are sold by both

£3SJEE groups. Most of these women are middlemen who trade with small

amounts of capital. “Small market" is small business. Most middlemen
begin their trading activities selling "small market" and the majority
never acquire enough capital to change to more profitable commodities.

-rT‘€! same is true of cooked food which is sold by equal numbers of

YOUng and middle-aged women.

89

TABLE l7.--Classification of Female Marketplace Traders by Age and

 

 

Commodity.
Ugger 3oovearnd Eggwt Total

Primary farm produce, local soaps,

butter and clay pots 27 112 3 150
Rice, beans, groundnuts and

"small market" 93 117 5 215
Palm oil 2 16 1 l9
Garri and cassava starch 51 34 5 90
Fish and meat 19 48 3 70
Local medicines and condiments - 7 - 7
Clothing, gold and coral jewelry,

tobacco 2 23 2 27
Provisions and articles 10 - - lO
Enamelware, plastics, dishes, »

baskets and mats 2 13 2 l7
Cooked food 15 15 - 30
Sewing and hairdressing 8 3 - 11
TOTAL 230 395 21 646

 

To specialize in fish and meat, a trader needs at least £15 to
£20 capital. It takes time to accumulate this amount, and therefore,
most meat and fish specialists are in the 30 years and over age
range. Enamelwares, plastics, and dishes also require substantial
amounts of capital and are also traded mainly by middle-aged women.

Provisions and articles are sold in the marketplaces

exclusively by young women despite the fact that this trade requires

90

at least £20 capital. In actual fact many middleaged women do

sell these items, but not in the marketplaces. Young women who sell
provisions and articles usually begin trading with a relatively
large amount of capital. They sell both in the marketplace and at
home. By the time they are middle-aged their business has either
failed and they have stopped selling these items, or they have
prospered enough to set up small shops or ”kiosks" in their compounds.
In either case they do not sell in the marketplace. Most provisions
and articles are sold in small shops.

Local medicines are sold by old women who cultivate herbs or
gather them in the bush. In the urban markets in Benin City, young
women as well as old sell herbal remedies and "ju-ju" items, but in
the rural markets this trade seems to be restricted to the elderly.

Most women who sit in the marketplace sewing are young. Many
middle-aged women are seamstresses but few of them carry their sewing
machines to the market, preferring to sew at home for an established
clientele.

Cloth, gold and coral jewelry, and tobacco are the highest-
status and most expensive commodities sold in rural marketplaces.
Most women selling these items have at least E100 capital invested
in stock and many have a great deal more. Almost all cloth and
tobacco sellers are in the 30 years and over age range.

3 As was pointed out in the preceding chapter, uneducated women
in Nigeria are for the most part, unemployable, and trading is
virtually the only money—making occupation available to them. It is

not surprising to find, therefore, that only 16% of the female

91

traders in both marketplaces have been to school (70 women in
Ugbogiobo Market and 26 women in Isiuwa Market). Of these 96 women,
only six have post-primary education which in all cases consists of
three years of secondary modern school; two of the six have

received additional training as nurses. Women with primary school
education have no skills which help them to secure wage-paying jobs,
and, therefore, have no occupational choice but trading. Women with
secondary modern education (or more) have a better chance of
securing wage-paying jobs. Even when they are unemployed, however,
they often feel that marketplace trading is beneath their dignity
unless they can sell cloth or tobacco which are high-status
commodities requiring at least E100 capital. For this reason, very
few modern school graduates are marketplace traders. Formal educa-
tion is no great advantage to a market trader who, if she is clever,

can easily learn by experience the necessary trading skills.

Male Traders

 

Thirty—eight male traders were interviewed in Ugbogiobo
Market. Twenty-four of these are full-time traders who attend
several othermarkets. The others are part-time traders for whom
trading is a secondary occupation. Twelve of the part-time traders
are farmers and two are NIFOR employees.

There are three main groups of male traders in Ugbogiobo
Market. The first group consists of young Ibo men, mostly unmarried,
who sell ready-made clothing, shoes and articles. All of them are

full-time traders who attend the several regional markets in the area

92

and also sell in Benin City. Some of them are local residents and
some live in Benin.

The second group consists of middle-aged men, mostly Bini and
Urhobo, who live in the three-village community or in nearby villages,
and sell cloth, palm oil, provisions and articles in Ugbogiobo,
Isiuwa and Evboneka markets. Most of these men are part-time
traders who have farms in the area.

The third group consists of butchers. Butchers who sell
fresh beef in Isiuwa and Ugbogiobo markets are members of a union
headed by a Hausa man who buys cattle from Hausa cattle-traders in
Benin City. The cattle are slaughtered at the NIFOR slaughter yard
and the head butcher sells meat to the members of his union. The
members of the union are all local residents and are full-time
traders.

The other male traders who cannot be categorized in the above
groups consist of one Yoruba shoe repairman, two Ibo men who sell
baskets, mats and hardware (hoes, cutlasses, etc.) and two Bini men

who sell rice, beans, and groundnuts.

Isiuwa Market Restudy

 

The aims of the Isiuwa Market restudy were firstly to document
changes in the marketplace during the six to seven month interval
since the end of the first study, and secondly to obtain additional
information about the economic activities of female traders.

Of the 139 women interviewed in the restudy, only 63 (or 45%)

had been interviewed six months earlier. Although 94 women (64%)

93

§a1g_they attend the market regularly, in fact only 45% had been
there during the two-month period of the first study. Although 75%
or 122 of the women interviewed in the first study §a1g_they attend
the market regularly, in fact only half of them were still
attending regularly six months later. In other words, the turnover
of female traders in Isiuwa Market in a six-month period was as
high as 50%.

Table 11 has shown that in the entire year, Isiuwa Market
did not increase or diminish significantly in overall size (despite
the fact that traders consistently said it was "going down").
Consumers who regularly attend the market say that it has not changed
much in the past few years. There is no reason to suppose, there-
fore, that this high rate of turnover is unusual. Studies of
peasant marketing systems in other areas have noted the ease and
frequency with which petty traders enter and leave the system or
move from one trading activity to another. Traders in Isiuwa Market
conform to this general pattern.

Of the 76 traders who were not interviewed in the first
Isiuwa study, only 13 are new traders who began selling in the market-
place after the completion of the first interviews. The other 63
women are experienced market women who for various reasons were not
attending Isiuwa Market at the time of the first study. The
following are the reasons they gave for their temporary absences.

Six were ill at the time or had sick children, and three had

new-born babies, an event which keeps a trader at home for three to

94

five months. Births, illnesses, or deaths in a family are common
occurrences which force women to temporarily abandon trading.

Five women had travelled to their home villages. Women from
outside the area frequently return home and stay for several months
at a time.

Fourteen were farm women who said they attend Isiuwa Market
only occasionally when they have produce to sell.

Ten said they were trying new marketplaces at the time. It
is common for a trader to visit new marketplaces; if she finds a
marketplace in which her commodities sell quickly she will probably
add this market to her "market-ring" and abandon another in which she
sells less. However, the farther away the new marketplace, the more
she must sell in order to justify her time and travel expenses.

The largest group of women (26) explained their absence from
Isiuwa Market by the fact that the market was not "moving" well.
Women explained this as meaning that, at the time of the first study,
they were not selling enough in Isiuwa Market to justify the time
spent sitting there all afternoon.

Traders were asked what changes (apart from their temporary
absences) they had made in their trading practices during the pre-
ceding six months. Excluding the 13 new traders, the 126 experienced
traders gave 140 responses to this question. Fifty-six women or
44.4% of the experienced traders said they had made no significant
changes, but the remaining 70 women (55.6%) reported the following

changes.

95

Changes in seating location within the marketplace were
mentioned by 40 women or 31.7% of the experienced traders. Women
changed their seating locations mainly because of the weather (too
much rain or sun), but also in order to improve their accessibility
to buyers. However, unless a woman is very badly located to begin
with (i.e., on the periphery of the market) she does not like to
move far because she fears that her regular customers may not find
her.

Changes in commodities were mentioned by 26 or 20.6% of
experienced traders. Most women added or dropped particular items,
but some switched to an entirely different line of goods.

Changes in marketplaces attended were mentioned by 18 or
14.3%. Several women said they had switched from Uwan to Ugbogiobo
Market; others mentioned trying Ataka Market and Okokhuo Market;
others said they had travelled to a number of other regional markets.

It is obvious then, that market traders make frequent changes
in their trading activities. While some of these changes are
attempts to maximize profits, a considerable number are cost-
minimizing efforts, and still others are responses to outside family
and community pressures.

When women were asked to rank the markets in the area,
Ugbogiobo Market was ranked first among the regional markets,
followed by Ekiadolor Market and lastly Okokhuo Market. Isiuwa
Market was considered the best of the village markets despite the
tunmerous complaints by traders that it is "a useless place." Traders

in Isiuwa Market consider it a poor market because their initial

96

reaction is to compare it to Ugbogiobo Market. When it is compared
with other village markets, however, it ranks high. Ataka Market
was ranked second and Evboneka Market third among the village
markets. Other markets were mentioned by only a few women.

Other data derived from the Isiuwa Market restudy will be

presented in the following chapters.

CHAPTER IV

MARKETPLACE TRANSACTIONS

Price Formation

 

The marketplaces in the NIFOR-area, and indeed most retail
marketplaces throughout the Federation are price-setting markets.
There is, at present, no government control of prices at the level
of the local marketplace. Marketing Boards control the price paid
to the producer for most export crops and import tariffs tend to set
the price of imported goods for the wholesale importer. Within the
local marketplace, however, prices for most commodities are set
mainly by supply and demand,

Money is the universal medium of exchange and no instances
of direct barter were observed. When produce is exchanged for
produce, traders calculate the money-value of their respective items,
and the trader with the lowest-value goods adds the requisite amount
of cash (or is extended the requisite amount of credit) before the
transaction is completed.

To say that prices in the marketplace are set by supply and
(iemand implies perfect competition.

Perfect competition can be defined as a state of business in
which no one buyer or seller can influence the market price

for the commodity in question by altering the amount which he
himself buys or sells at one time . . . . Imperfect competition
exists in any market when any one buyer or seller can, by
alterning the amount bought or sold in a unit of time,
influence the price at which he buys or sells (Wetham and

Currie, 1970:74).
97

98

The physical structure of regional and village marketplaces
lends itself to competition. Large numbers of independent buyers
confront large numbers of independent sellers. Sellers of the same
commodity often cluster together. Information concerning market
trends spreads rapidly within a given marketplace (though less
rapidly between marketplaces). Haggling gives both buyer and seller
the opportunity to seek the best price for each transaction. None-
theless, several factors operate to produce conditions of imperfect

competition.

Traders' Associations

Ilori (1970:110) has stated that in Western Nigeria "There are
strong traders' associations in almost all staple foods," and that
these associations exert effective controls over their members "and
consequently over marketing activities and policies." In the NIFOR-
area traders' associations are minimal. The only two which
effectively control the activities of their members and regulate
prices are the Butchers Association and the Ice-fish sellers
Association. The latter association completely monopolizes the trade
in ice (frozen) fish in both Ugbogiobo and Isiuwa Marketplaces. It
effectively bars non-members from selling in these two marketplaces
aand controls the amount of ice-fish offered for sale. In September, .
'1972, the association had 21 members. Sales in Ugbogiobo Market were
lirnited to seven boxes each marketday. Each seller was permitted
tx) sell only one box of frozen fish each marketday. Theoretically

thETl, each member could sell ice-fish only every third marketday.

99

In practice, individual traders manipulate these controls. Some
members never sell frozen fish because they spend their time selling
other commodities. A non-active member can commission an active
member to sell for her, taking only about one-fourth of the profit
from the day's sales. Thus active members can often increase the

volume of sales without over-stepping the rules of the association.

‘1. ‘Y
_w‘ i.

The tight controls exerted by the association place definite
limitations on competition in the ice-fish trade to the disadvantage

of the consumer and the protection of the seller. The association

‘F-‘T—‘fl fiti

is in a position to inflate prices through collusion among members,
and such behavior was observed on two occasions. Both times ice-
fish sellers informed consumers that they had purchased fish from a
new source (which was true as could be clearly seen from the labels
on the boxes) and had paid dearly for their "experiment" (which was
not true as the new wholesaler had sold them fish at the same price
that they usually paid).

I have less information on the functioning of the Butcher's
Association but it does not have a total monopoly and must deal with
competition from non-members who bring beef from outside the area.

It is headed by a Hausa man who is the sole purchaser of the cattle
1which are slaughtered at NIFOR for sale in Isiuwa and Ugbogiobo
Adarkets. Cohen (1965) has pointed out that the cattle trade throughout
lVigeria is controlled by Hausa men. The head butcher in the NIFOR/
thbogiobo Association is part of this nationwide system and buys from
otruer Hausas in Benin City. He wholesales beef only to members

accc>rding to his assessment of the demand in the area. Non-members

100

occasionally bring beef from Benin City and have been observed to

under-cut the local butchers. This competition exerts some control

over the price of beef in the market but the number of outside

sellers is small as is the amount of beef they bring from town.

The market for fresh beef in the NIFOR-area is therefore close to

though not entirely monopolistic. f?
A third traders' association, the Cloth-Sellers Association,

has a much less formal structure and appears to be of a more social

 

nature. Cloth-sellers in the marketplace are not required to join

 

‘fivaQ-t .v n

this organization or "meeting” and its main economic function is as

a rotating credit association. However, occasionally its members do
band together to attempt to limit unfavorable competition by
outsiders. On one occasion an outsider arrived at Ugbogiobo Market
with a large amount of cloth brought from Yorubaland. She

stationed herself in a strategic position in the open section of the
marketplace (section U in Figure 5) and began to call attention to
her wares by ringing a large bell and loudly calling out to passers-by.
She actively advertised the fact that her cloth was cheaper than that
sold by other traders in the market, and attracted a large number of
buyers. No immediate action was taken by the local cloth-sellers
(other than grumbling among themselves) but on the third marketday,
the association lodged a complaint with the market-supervisor that
this woman was "spoiling their market." The market-supervisor was
faced with a dilemma, because the outside seller had every right to
enter the marketplace and could not be legally evicted as she had

paid the rental fee for entry. Nonetheless in the interests of peace

101

and quiet he was obliged to take some action, and responded to the
pleas of the local sellers by requiring the outsider to rent a shed
inside the main market because, as he told her, "you are crowding

up the place and no one can pass" (which was not actually true).

The only vacant sheds were at the southwest end of the market
(sections 0 and H) which are poor locations as many buyers do not
pass these sections. The woman removed her wares to the back of the
market, and though she continued her loud advertising techniques,
her sales dropped considerably. After three months she abandoned
the venture and has not been seen in Ugbogiobo Market since.

The NIFOR-area is a multi-cultural or pluralistic region, and
ethnic associations are active in Isiuwa community. They are not,
however, active in the marketplace as price—setting groups. The
three traders' associations are multi-ethnic in composition, and are
based solely on trading interests and similarities. Only one
instance of a sizeable ethnic clustering within Ugbogiobo Market has
been cited (Urhobo women), and this is also, to a large extent, a
commodity cluster (garri sellers). Traders' associations, therefore,
are best regarded as institutions within the economic field, because
as functioning groups they appear to have no significant linkages

with other activity fields.

;[rading Partnershipa

 

Almost all studies of internal marketing systems in developing
areas have reported the existence of enduring trading relationships

between buyers and sellers. Salisbury (1968 118) has defined a

 

102

trading partnership as a relationship between a buyer and a seller
which persists beyond a single transaction. Mintz (1960) has
stressed the importance of trading partnerships in peasant-style
economies, and has described their structure and function among
Haitian market women who term such relationships "pratik." "Pratik"
relationships can be advantageous to both buyer and seller because 51
through mutual loyalty and goodwill, the buyer is assured of good
quality produce at a fair price, and the seller is assured an

outlet for her goods. Such relationships cut the risks for both

 

buyer and seller and reduce the effects of the competitive situation. A}

Among NIFOR-area traders, trading partnerships are common,
and occur between traders of the same class (horizontal exchange)
and between traders of different classes (vertical exchange)

(cf. Mintz, 1959). The Pidgin—english term for a trading partner is
”customer," and all traders are anxious to secure and maintain
customer relationships. ”Customer" also refers to a consumer-buyer
who patronizes a particular trader.

In a study of rural hawkers in Barbados (Spence, 1964), I
found that trad1ng partnerships tended to be of relatively long
duration. Traders went to great lengths to maintain such relation-
ships through granting extensive favors, and credit and price
concessions. In the NIFOR-area, while trading partnerships are a
characteristic feature of market exchange, such relationships seem
to be less binding and are frequently of short duration. This
would seem to be a funct1on both of the social relations character-
izing food production in Nigeria, and of the absolute size and level

of development of the internal marketing system.

103

A decade ago in Barbados, the great majority of arable land
was planted in sugar-cane and plantation agriculture was the
dominant system of production organization. Although plantation
managers were required by law to plant 12% of their arable land in
food crops, many attempted to avoid doing so, and those who complied,
exhibited little interest in such crops. The island was a food- #8
deficient area and large amounts of foodstuffs were imported.

Peasant production of food crops for market exchange was minimal.

 

Ruralhawkers who dealt in food crops were therefore dependent upon a
plantation managers as their primary source of supply, and since the IL?
number of plantation managers relative to the number of rural hawkers
was extremely small, personalized, enduring relationships between
plantation managers and rural hawkers were of great importance to
the hawkers. In addition, there were, at the time, only two urban
centers on the island containing foodstuff marketplaces, with three
officially-recognized plus one "incipient“ foodstuff marketplace.
There were no rural marketplaces. Rural hawkers were therefore
severely limited in their alternatives, and survival in the system
required the establishment and maintenance of trading partnerships
with both urban hawkers and urban consumer-buyers.
The Nigerian situation contrasts sharply with the Barbadian
one. In Nigeria the production of food crops is almost entirely by
peasant farmers. The ratio of producers to petty traders probably
approaches equality in many rural areas allowing greater flexibility
both to the trader and to the peasant farmer. While the relative

number of urban centers and urban marketplaces may be small, their

104

absolute number is large and in addition, the widespread system of
rural marketplaces is highly developed. Marketplace exchange is by
no means restricted to the urban centers. Traders therefore have a

greater degree of flexibility in their choices of alternative

patterns of trading.

.3

This does not mean, of course, that trading partnerships are

w

not important to Nigerian, and more specifically, to NIFOR-area

ywmn:m

traders. As Belshaw (1965:80) has pointed out:
. no economy in the world can be based entirely or even L,

largely on nonpersonalistic relationships, for this would
be the negation of continuity and security and would be -
atomistic behaviour rather than behaviour in society. '

What it does mean, however, is that such relationships are not very

binding and are often of short duration. This again reflects the

"network" organization of the system in which, as Wolf (1966:42)

says, “market ties are inherently subject to the entry of third

parties-~other producers, middlemen or consumers . . . ."

The very fact that trading partnerships exist, however,
places limitations on the model of pure competition. The buyer
looking for a particular commodity tends first to approach her
regular supplier and if the quality and price of the item are
satisfactory, she will rarely look further but will complete the
'transaction. If, however, she finds quality or price not to her
'Tiking she may shop around and approach other sellers, but if no
'items of higher quality and/or cheaper price appear to be available,
she tends to return to her regular seller. In some cases, she will

patnconize the regular seller despite an unfavorable price in order

to sstrengthen the relationship. It is less usual for a buyer to

105

accept inferior quality produce in order to maintain the ties of the
"customer" relationship. The seller, on her part, is almost always
willing to extend credit to "customer" buyers, but though sellers
frequently tell regular buyers that they are being granted preferential
prices, observations support the conclusion that this is rarely the
- case. Sellers do, however, endeavor to provide regular buyers with
a regular supply of high quality produce in order to strengthen the
relationship.

The insistence of Polanyi, gt_al, (1957) and his followers
that West African economies are "embedded" in society has led to a
widespread belief that ties of family and ethnicity in particular,
but also of religious and political groupings, place considerable '
restrictions on the competitiveness of West African marketplaces.
Buyers and sellers in "embedded" exchange systems are assumed to
behave more "irrationally" than their counterparts in so-called
market economies. The validity of the concept of "embeddedness" as
a distinguishing feature of different economic systems has been
questioned, for as Godelier (1966:272) points out, all economies are
of necessity embedded in social structure by virtue of their
relation to the other socio-cultural systems, and as Cook further
argues (1973:33), "embedded suggests an absence of relations withig.
‘the economic field when, in reality, this relation exists in all
ssocieties." Similarly Godelier (1966:17-18) has demonstrated that the
[arinciple of "rationality" cannot be associated with any particular
echnomic system, nor in fact with behavior in the economic sector

alone. The rationality of individual actors should be judged

106

according to their intended goals, while the rationality of an
economic system as a whole (unintentional rationality) can be
compared with that of other systems along several dimensions, one

of which is its capacity to insure replacement of the society and/or
growth of the means of production (economic development).

In terms of the present analysis, the acceptance of the concept
of embeddedness as characterizing all economic systems, and of the
rationality of actors in pursuing ends coherent among themselves by
means appropriate to those ends, leads to the conclusion that socio-
cultural ties (i.e., ties of ethnicity, family, friendship, politics
and religion) limit competitiveness in any market-exchange system,
but further, the degree to which these factors inhibit the uninten-
tional rationality of market exchange systems in Africa would seem to
be less than has often been assumed by Polanyi and his followers

Ilori (1970:111) has stated that in his study of markets in
Western Nigeria, "we did not find that traders of staple foods prefer
to deal with one tribe rather than another." Similarly, Dean (1963)
reporting on price formation in markets in Nyassaland and Congo
Brazzaville, stressed the insignificance of group membership on price
determination. That most African marketplaces are "pervaded by the
market principle" (Bohannan and Dalton, 1962:1-2) is indisputable,
.and while socio-cultural ties restrict the competitiveness of the
rnarketplace, they do not eliminate price formation based on supply and
demand.

In NIFOR-area marketplaces, there is a tendency for buyers

anci sellers to patronize members of their own family and ethnic group

107

(and to a lesser extent, members of their own religious or political
group). In general, traders reported that at least half their
regular customers were women with whom they had dealings in other
activity fields outside the marketing system. However, the con-
cessions granted to friends and relatives were rarely observed to
take the form of preferential prices. Rather, traders were fre-
quently seen to save particular items for special customers, and to
freely extend short-term credit when this was requested.

To summarize, ethnic group, family, religious, political and
friendship ties are often the basis upon which trading partnerships
are established. Socio-cultural ties, as they function in trading
partnerships, are important in reducing the risks and uncertainties
for traders. Trading partnerships, therefore, while they are
regarded in this analysis as primarily economic institutions, also

have important linkages with other activity fields in the total

society.

Variety and Quality Differences

A general categorization of traders according to commodities
sold,presents an appearance of large numbers of traders selling
identical commodities, which is undoubtedly a high competitive
situation. However, as any experienced buyer knows (cf. Whitney,
1970) commodities differ considerably both in variety and in quality.
Thus in Ugbogiobo Market the seller of locally-grown upland rice is
nOt in direct competition with the seller of northern swamp rice.
Similarly, the seller of white yams is not in direct competition

Wit:h the seller of red yams. With most commodities, there is a

108

preferred variety of a given commodity within a given region. In the
NIFOR-area upland rice tends to be preferred to swamp rice but it is
also more expensive. White yams are not necessarily preferred to

red yams but the former are better for pounding. The buyer there-
fore seeks out the seller of the variety of commodity desired. In
addition and probably of more importance are the differences of
quality resulting from over or under ripeness, poor processing, or
damaging. Commodities which are easily recognized to be of inferior
quflhfity must be sold at lower prices. Sellers of these commodities
are competing directly with others selling low quality produce and
only indirectly with sellers of high quality goods. In many cases
traders attempt to disguise the low-quality of their produce. In
such cases competition is reduced when the buyer possesses inadequate
knowledge of the quality of produce he is buying. In Ugbogiobo
Market, for example, palm oil sellers will mix NIFOR oil (which
although of high quality for the export market is of low quality

for the domestic market which demands a high content of free fatty
acids) with "bush oil" (the preferred type) and sell the product as
"bush" oil increasing the price accordingly. Buyers are not always
able to distinguish between pure bush oil and adulterated bush oil

until they begin to cook with it.

Bargaining Behavior

 

Haggling is the customary procedure used for arriving at a
F""ice in a transaction. The seller generally begins by quoting a price
ST'ightly above what she expects to receive, and the buyer counters

Wii:h a price below what she expects the final selling price of the

109

item will be. Both continue to discuss the item and offer alternative
bids until a satisfactory price is reached; contrary to popular
belief, however, a large number of sales are made with no preliminary
haggling at all. (Christensen, 1961:128, makes a similar point with
regard to Fanti retail markets.) When buyers have full knowledge of
the quality of produce and of its "nOrmal" price there is no need to
haggle. An example is imported salt which in Ugbogiobo market sells
for 3d. a cup (a 6-3/4 oz. evaporated milk tin being the measure).
All local buyers know this and even when quality differs slightly
(coarse salt being slightly preferred to fine-grained) the price does
not vary. Haggling for salt occurs only when there is a rare
shortage, at which time either the price or the measure is altered.
Sellers of easily divisible commodities, e.g., okro, crayfish,
egeusi seeds, tomatoes, frequently display their wares in heaps or
‘bundles and the normal price for a heap is usually known by the buyer.
She can often at a glance and without asking, determine the price,
and her decision of whether or not to buy is then based on her
assessment of the quality. Some commodities, however, such as yams,
plantain and large whole fish (either smoked or fresh) are never
bought without haggling because these items are indivisible into
standardized measures, and therefore both the size and the quality
effect the buyer's assessment and she and the seller must reduce
these separate factors to a common monetary value.

Several factors influence the minimum price below which a
trader will not sell. Firstly the minimum price is based on cost

(which includes cost price and transport) plus profit margin, but

110

rarely labor as most traders did not report costing their labor.
Secondly,the minimum price is based on the degree of competition

between sellers. When the market is glutted with a particular commodity,
the competition is highland traders were observed to lower their prices.
In times of scarcity, traders (both middlemen and producer-marketers)
will double or treble their profit margin. Thirdly,the minimum

price is based on quality as traders were observed to lower the price
on low-quality goods. Fourthly, discounts are usually given to retail
buyers who purchase large quantities and who pay cash rather than

buy on credit. Discounts are almost always given to other traders

who are buying to sell again. Lastly, the minimum price appears to

be based on the seller's assessment of the buyer.

Osagie (unpublished manuscript) has distinguished four main
factors contributing to the seller's assessment of buyers or her
"segmentation of the market," namely ethnic differentiation which
results in higher prices being charged to individuals who cannot
haggle effectively in the local language, income group differentiation
which causes the seller to exploit the conspicuously wealthy and
favor the obviously poor, kin-group discrimination which forces the
trader to give preferential prices to relatives, and sex discrimination
which tends to disadvantage males. Ilori (1970:114) has added a
fifth, namely age discrimination with preferential prices being given
to the very young (children) and the elderly. While all of these
factors are undoubtedly of some importance in determining the
aspirations of the seller in separate transactions--i.e., the trader

is influenced by one or several of these factors in her split-second

111

decision of the hoped-for gain from a given transaction--it must
be emphasized that the actual price agreed upon is based to a
great extent on the haggling ability and degree of market knowledge
of the two interacting parties. As Uchendu (1967:47) has aptly
pointed out,
Haggling is to the peasant marketers what supply and demand
principles are to economists. It is a tool to test and
understand price behaviour--a tool that is fully exploited
where the "time cost" is low and where a marketing
situation permits the image or the assumption of a "range
in prices" for most commodities.

The pluralistic situation which characterizes the NIFOR-area
results in the widespread use of Pidgin-english as the lingua franca
of trade. Outsiders do not appear to be at any great disadvantage
in terms of language (though perhaps more so in terms of customs).
"Customer” relationships as well as isolated interactions frequently
occur between members of different ethnic groups with no apparent
disadvantage to the buyer.

On the basis of observations and the statements of traders,
it seems apparent that Ugbogiobo and Isiuwa Market traders do
differentiate buyers into income-groups but the high-income buyer
need not be disadvantaged if she possesses adequate market knowledge
and is well-practiced at haggling. In fact, obviously wealthy buyers
who habitually visit the marketplace are often favored because
traders are eager to secure them as regular customers. Obviously

poor people are definitely favored, as traders are sympathetic to

their economic conditions.

112

Although it seems to be a common belief that the strong
familial ties of the African extended family require business men
and women at all levels of enterprise to favor their relatives, my
own observations do not support this conclusion. Traders in the
NIFOR-area do feel obliged to extend credit to relatives, but very
rarely do they lower their prices. Haggling with relatives is
minimal as it is with close friends, for as one trader said "It is
shameful to drag with your own people." In transactions with
relatives, it is customary for the seller to state ”
his minimum or "last" price at the onset of the transaction and the
buyer accepts this (or not) without dispute. The same is true with
children and elderly people. It is improper for young traders to
haggle with elderly people and it is unfair to haggle with children
who do not know the value of money.

Sex discrimination occurs mainly because men are ill-
informed on the state of the market and are poor hagglers (excluding
of course male traders). Many of them feel uncomfortable in the
female-dominated marketplace and regard haggling as embarrassing
and undignified. However, the knowledgable male buyer who is willing
to expend time and energy haggling can easily purchase COmmodities
at the same price as the female buyer.

For rural petty traders, the marketplace is the major site
of exchange and it is in the marketplace that prices are set. It is
necessary to point out, however, that both petty traders and
capitalist traders engage in site-free exchange of commodities. In

the NIFOR-area, site—free transactions occur at the peasant farms and

113

in local proletarian communities (Isiuwa and its satellite
villages).

The number of "farm-gate" middlemen (cf. Anthonio, 1970)
who occasionally buy from peasant producers at the farm is small.
Peasant farmers, or more often their wives, frequently transport their
own produce to the marketplace for sale to middlemen. The peasant
farmer is generally kept up-to-date on market trends through his
frequent visits to the marketplace and it is doubtful whether the
"farm-gate" middleman is more informed on local supply and demand
than the producer himself. The "farm-gate" middleman travels to the
peasant farm to collect produce from the farm. In the NIFOR-area the
process is reversed in the case of garri. Some Urhobo and Ikuale
farm women who fry garri in large quantities carry garri to the
houses of middlemen in Isiuwa and wholesale this commodity on the’
doorstep, so to speak. The volume of garri exchanged in this manner
is relatively small (i.e., less than 5%) and the great majority of
farm-produced garri is exchanged in Ugbogiobo marketplace.

The NIFOR—area, particularly Isiuwa Village, has a large
population of migrant-labor families who retain close ties with their
home communities. Many of these outsiders have land-holdings at home
which are cultivated for them by members of their extended families.
The wives of the migrant-laborers make frequent visits to their home
villages, and if these women are traders (which many are), they
'invariably bring back farm produce (mainly yams) which they collect
‘Frwpm their own farms or buy from farmers in their home villages. Such

acrtivities should be differentiated from the activities of

114

long-distance middlemen who regularly visit distant market—centers
to buy large quantities of farm produce. Long-distance traders tend
to operate along set routes and keep to fairly regular schedules.
They almost always pruchase their goods in marketplaces and are not
"farm—gate" middlemen.

It was stated previously that while most traders in the NIFOR-
area are marketplace traders, some sell only at home, and in addition,
all marketplace traders sell at home as well as in the markets.

Home sales account for a sizeable proportion (TO-30%) of the total
sales of most marketplace middlemen (the main exceptions being
butchers who obtain beef from the slaughter-yard only on marketdays,
and ice fish sellers who collect fish from Benin City only on
marketdays. Ice fish traders sell at home only when they have not
been able to dispose of all in the marketplace and have smoked the
excess in order to preserve it). Consumers prefer to make the
majority of their purchases within the marketplace where they have a
wide choice of commodities and can easily select the type and quality
desired. Nonetheless, in communities such as Isiuwa and the three
villages of Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen, where over half the female
population engages in trade and where close to the entire population
is at least semi-proletarian, garden plots yielding only a small
amount of the average family's subsistence needs, there is a constant
demand for food and a ready-to-hand source of supply from traders.
Housewife-traders continually buy from and sell to each other at home.
Bachelors or men whose wives are absent (of which, as has been pointed

out, there are a sizeable number in both communities) are often unable

115

to attend market, and some of these make most of their purchases in
the community.

It must be emphasized that although site-free exchange of7
commodities in the communities is common, it is in the marketplace
that prices are set. Traders acquire information on the state of
the market (supply and demand) within the marketplace. Price informa-
tion for site-free transactions is based mainly on information
obtained in the marketplace (though the transmission of such informa-
tion often occurs outside the marketplace). Traders, when price-
haggling outside the marketplace, frequently quote the latest
marketplace price to bolster their arguments.

Socializing, Social Stratification, and
Social Mobility in the Marketplace

 

 

The function of the marketplace as a focal point of social-
izing, an occasion for meeting friends, exchanging gossip, displaying
new statuses and transmitting information concerning community
activities has been repeatedly reported in the literature on internal
marketing systems and marketplaces. Marketplaces in the NIFOR-area
fulfill these non-economic, socializing functions. Attending the
market is a social activity as well as an economic one. Women
look forward to marketday as a welcome change from household chores
and as a chance to meet friends and discuss community affairs. The
marketplace is never the same--new faces constantly appear,
unexpected incidents occur, births, deaths, and marriages are
reported. My own notebooks are full of headings such as "The day the

road woman appeared in Ugbogiobo Market," "The day the lorry overturned

116

while bringing traders from Benin City," "The day Mrs. x was .
robbed of £5 and publicly placed a curse on the thief,";§PReactions
of traders to the appearance and behavior of the new market-
supervisor," "The latest development in the NIFOR management—labor
dispute as viewed by the wives of some Union members."

While not meaning to minimize the importance of socializing
in the marketplace, it must be pointed out that the marketplace is
only one of many institutions fulfilling these same functions, and

that economic activity, buying and selling, is the raison d'étre

 

of the marketplace. Gloria Marshall (1964:133) has made this same
point with reference to Yoruba markets, "It should be stressed that
attendance at market is first of all an economic activity, notwith-
standing the social importance of the marketplace throughout Yoruba
country."
In discussing internal marketing systems as mechanisms of

social articulation, Mintz (1959:25) has said,

The internal marketing system provides a focus of convergence

of the interests of social and economic classes and their

representatives. As such it may afford a ladder of upward

economic mobility for members of different groups. It can

also serve as a device for the commercial exploitation of

one class by another. The market system may serve to level

classes or to make class levels more distinct.
Because the interests of various socio-economic classes converge in
the marketplace, exchange can flow both horizontally between class
equals and vertically between persons of superior/inferior status.
Such interactions result in the exchange of ideas and values, as well

as of commodities. Thus in terms of Redfield's folk-urban continuum

(Redfield, 1941) vertical exchange in the marketplace brings the two

117

extremes of the continuum closer together. Also, however, in
multi-cultural areas horizontal exchange can be as important as
vertical exchange in the transmissions of ideas and values, and may
help to unify the distinct ethnic groups within the region.

In the NIFOR-area the marketplace is a locus of vertical
exchange between the lower peasant and proletariat classes and the
upper traditional and upper modern classes, of horizontal exchange
between class equals, and of both vertical and horizontal exchange
between members of distinct ethnic groups. The internal marketing
system also provides a channel of socio-economic mobility for those
most active in it, namely female traders.

The system of socio-economic stratification among traders
within the marketplace is complex, and it is not only economic con-
lsiderations (i.e., degree of business success) which are important.
Nor is it possible to rank within one hierarchical system the entire
population of traders. The main factors influencing socio-economic
stratification in the NIFOR-area marketplaces are: ethnicity, age,
familial position, position in the traditional social system,
position in the modern social system, position in the internal
exchange system. It is the combination of these factors that
determine a woman's rank (i.e., superior, equal, or inferior) in any
given interaction. Nor is her position fixed, but of necessity must
vary according to the relative position of the people ’with whom she
interacts. No measure of the relative importance of these factors
was obtained, but several examples will serve to illustrate the

interplay of these position-determining factors.3

118

Mrs. A. is the senior wife of a chief of high standing in the
area. As such she is free to trade, but should restrict her
activities to relatively high-status commodities. She does in fact
deal in articles, which are considered acceptable commodities
(cloth, jewelry, or tobacco would be more acceptable for a woman of
her status but Mrs. A. does not have sufficient capital to invest in
these commodities). The deference paid her by others in the market-
place (both buyers and sellers, male and female) accrues from the
fact that she is a member of the traditional elite (cf. Leith-Ross,
1965:226). While Mrs. A.'s husband is a member of both the
traditional elite and the modern elite, being both a chief and a well-
educated, successful businessman, she herself though by no means
illiterate, is not a member of the sophisticated, intellectual "new
elite" (Leith-Ross, 1965:227); nor is she a highly successful "big
trader“ (Leith-Ross, 1965:227). Nonetheless her position vis-a-vis
these other two elite groups of women is one of relative equality.
Because she is advanced in years, all younger women respect her, and
because she is in addition a member of the dominant ethnic group in
the area (Bini) her high position is Strengthened (though members
of other ethnic groups do not necessarily like her).

’Mrs. B. is the senior wife of a middle-grade NIFOR employee.
Neither she nor her husband hold positions of importance in the
traditional society. Her husband occupies a middle—class position
in the modern system, but she herself is illiterate and unemployable.
Mrs. B. is middle-aged and has seven children. She is therefore

respected by younger women. She is, however, a member of an ethnic

119

group which is looked down upon by the dominant Bini group. None-
theless, through hard work and cleverness she has become a fairly
successful trader. Though she is not yet a member of the elite
group of "big" traders, she is half-way up the ladder and is
respected for her success.

Mrs. C. is the only wife of a Bini commoner who has no
position of importance in the traditional society. She herself,
however, comes from a well-known and respected family. In addition,
her husband has achieved a high position in the modern society. Mrs.
C. is advanced in years and has a "respectable" number of children
(i.e., she is considered to have been adequately fertile). She
herself is by no means a member of the sophisticated, intellectual
elite, being almost illiterate. Given these facts, one would expect
her position to be in the middle range, but on the contrary, Mrs. C.
is accorded a position of very great importance in the marketplace
because she is a highly successful trader. She is a member of the
elite group of female entrepreneurs, and within the marketplace she is
respected by all her colleagues, very many of whom (both Binis and
others) seek her advice and attempt to follow her example.

Mrs. D. is a young woman, the only wife of a young middle-
grade NIFOR employee. Although neither she nor her husband has a
position of importance in the traditional society, both are fairly
well educated--Mrs. 0. more so than her husband considering the fact
that women in general tend to receive less Western education than
men. Despite her qualifications, Mrs. D has been unable to find a

job in the NIFOR-area and has taken up trading as an alternative,

120

which to her is degrading and beneath her dignity. Because she lacks
capital, she deals in low-status commodities ("small market") and due
to lack of interest she is not a successful trader. Although she is
not Bini, her ethnic group is one which Binis respect. For Mrs. D.
the combination of rank-determining factors places her in a low
position even in interactions with members of her own ethnic group.
Not only is she young and from an unimportant family, but of greater
significance, she is relatively well-educated and has nonetheless
failed both in securing a job and in making a success of her trading
activities, the latter despite the reputation which members of her
ethnic group have for business success.

Mrs. E. is the junior wife of a Bini farmer in the NIFOR-
area. She is a commoner from a low-status Bini family and neither she
nor her husband has received any Western education. She is a middle-
aged woman with six children and is accorded the necessary deference
by younger women. She is primarily a peasant-producer and rarely
engages in middleman trading activities. Her position in the tradi-
tional, modern, and marketing systems is very low and she is regarded
by most as a "bush" woman. Her senior co-wife, however, while also
uneducated and of low traditional-status, is a fairly successful
middleman-trader who deals in rice, beans, and groundnuts. Due to
her trading successes, her position is much higher than that of her
junior mate and because, through her trading activities, she has had
more contact with the modernized urban society, she is never referred

to as "bush."

121

Leith-Ross (1965) who identifies the three elite groups of
Nigerian women as (a) the traditional elite, (b) the elite of wealth
as exemplified by the "big" women traders, and (c) the "new" elite of
the sophisticated intellectuals, points out that the first of these
groups is likely to die out while the third is undoubtedly assuming
more importance and power. She further notes (1965:227) that the
second group of big traders, "might easily amalgamate with the
nascent group of the 'intellectual' elite, taking an equal part in
the setting of standards“ and embodying some of the major ideals and
aspirations of the people. As Lloyd (1967:148) notes in a later
publication, signs of this amalgamation are clearly evident amongst '
women in Ibadan. "The Nigerian Women's Association does endeavour
to bring together the wealthy but often unschooled market women and
the University graduates, to promote schemes of social improvement."

The implications of this trend for female petty traders are
obvious. Although modern education is considered the main "key" to
success, it is not the only means of upward class mobility for women.
The internal marketing system provides an alternative channel.
Business success is rewarded not only with money-wealth, but also
with socio-cultural gains.

Members of the marketplace elite are clearly recognized by all
as being successful traders. They are respected for their successes
and are distinguished by the fact that they have a large amount of
money-capital which they manipulate in a capitalistic way. They are
referred to as "big traders." Those at the opposite end of the scale

are called "petty-petty traders.” They are distinguished by the fact

122

that they have very little money-capital which they invest in small

amounts of cheap commodities.

The Marketplace "Big Trader"

 

Thirty-three big traders in Ugbogiobo Market were interviewed
in an attempt to isolate distinctive characteristics of successful
marketplace business women. These women were selected as big
traders on the basis of the type and/or amount of their stock, and by
what had been learned about them from previous interviews, observa-
tions, and the comments of other traders. The estimates they give
of their present trading capital ranged from £60 to £800 with a
mean of £150.4 1

Those at the upper end of the scale are always referred to as
big traders, while those at the lower end (£60 to £100 capital) are
called big traders by their less successful colleagues, but are said
by more successful women to be "coming up.”

Traders in general tend to be secretive about the true state
of their business affairs, but this is particularly true of "coming
up“ traders. Wealthy women are expected to be generou5' with their
money, not in business transactions, but in family and community
affairs. Big traders are renowned as shrewd businesswomen and are
expected to maximize profits in business exchanges. They are also
expected, however, to assist less wealthy friends and relatives by
contributing generously to group ceremonial funds and village,
neighborhood, or kin-group improvement funds. "Coming-up" traders are

often reluctant to be classes as big traders because they begrudge the

123

concomitant expenditure of money which they prefer to invest in their
business.

Two-thirds of the big traders (22) are urban women who live in
Benin City and trade daily in one or more of the urban marketplaces,
as well as making regular visits to one or several regional rural
markets. All of these Benin City women have employees or apprentices
who help with the business. Apprentices are rarely sent to the rural
markets, but rather, are left to sell in the urban markets while the
trader travels out to sell or to buy stock.

All of the 11 locally-based big traders sell in other
regional and village markets in the area, and three have apprentices
who sell for them daily in Benin City.

Table 18 classifies the 33 big traders by home area and
commodity. From Table 18 it can be seen that local primary or
secondary farm produce is not sold by any of the women who have been
singled out as big traders. As has been pointed out in the preceding
chapter, local primary and secondary farm produce (which includes yams,
cocoyams, fruits and vegetables, garri and cassava starch, palm oil,
home-made soaps, local butter and clay pots) tends to be sold almost
exclusively by farm women who are peasant-marketers. These women
spend a relatively small amount of their time trading and rarely trade
outside their own local market ring. There is a group of outside
traders who perform the functions of balking farm produce and
transporting it to other market centers (mainly to Benin City).

These wholesale traders are full-time middlemen, but they are difficult

to locate in the rural marketplace because they are buyers, not sellers,

124

TABLE 18.--C1assification of 33 Big Traders by Home Area and Commodity.

 

 

Benin City Local
Cloth, gold and coral jewelry, tobacco 12 4
Enamelware, plastics, dishes 2 2
Fish and meat, or rice and beans 6 3
Other (articles, or combinations of the above) 2 2

 

and are easily confused with the retail buyers. There is also a small
group of local middlemen who retail farm produce which they have
bought wholesale from peasant-marketers. None of them appears to be
a big trader. Big traders do not sell local primary and secondary
farm produce because it is not a profitable business. Farm women sell
these commodities because they grow or make them, and farm women are
basically peasant-producers, not middleman-specialists.5

Half of the 33 big traders (16) sell cloth, gold and coral
jewelry and/or tobacco. These are high-status, expensive commodities.
Because capital investment in these items is high, most women who sell
them are big traders. Cloth and tobacco sellers who are not presently
big traders are women whose businesses are failing. They either lack
entrepreneurial skills or they are too old to make the necessary
efforts to maintain their businesses. They are not "coming-up"
traders. All of them are or have been relatively wealthy women.

The other 17 big traders deal in commodities which are sold by
both big and small traders. Household wares and non-local or imported

primary and secondary produce are sold by middlemen, some of Whom are

125

capitalist or potential capitalist traders, but the majority of whom
will never be big traders. Big traders selling these commodities
have a lot of stock; small traders have very little.

There are, therefore, three definite categories of commodi-
ties: firstly, those which are sold almost exclusively by peasant-
marketers; secondly, those which are sold by middleman-traders, some
of whom are big traders and some of whom are small; and thirdly,
those sold almost exclusively by big traders or ex-big traders.

It is not possible for peasant-marketers to become big
traders unless they acquire a fund of money-capital and become
middleman-specialists. Most peasant-marketers have no money-capital
and engage only in simple commodity circulation (C-M-C). Some
female peasant-marketers, however, are the wives of enterprising
capitalist rubber farmers.‘ Such women can often acquire a fund of
money-capital either as a direct gift or loan from the husband, or by
virtue of the fact that the husband can provision the family's
subsistence/replacement fund from his own income thus enabling the
wife to save the profits from her marketplace sales and accumulate
money to invest in trading stock.

Women selling commodities in the second category are already
middlemen who operate with a fund of money-capital. It is possible
for them, without switching commodities, to become big traders. Most
of these women, however, have difficulty increasing their fund of
money—capital because their profits must be removed from circulation

and used to provision other funds.

126

Women selling cloth, gold and coral jewelry and/or tobacco
are already big traders--i.e., they have a relatively large fund of
money-capital. Almost all of them manipulate their money in ;
capitalistic ways. There are a few, however, who have been set up
in business by a wealthy relative but do not possess the energy or
skills to maintain or expand their capital.

Table 19 shows that two-thirds (21) of the big traders have
always sold the commodities which they now sell, while one-third (12)
started their trading careers selling other commodities and later
switched into their present line of business. No woman reported
having switched out of cloth into another line of goods, though
some cloth sellers did mention having added jewelry and/or tobacco.
Others started with tobacco and added cloth or jewelry later. Eight
of the 12 who started in commodities other than their present goods
said they first sold "small market" and gradually accumulated enough

capital to specialize or switch into other commodities.

TABLE 19.--C1assification of 33 Big Traders by Present Commodities
and Original Commodities.

 

 

Same Other
Cloth, gold and coral jewelry, tobacco 12 4
Enamelware, plastics, dishes 3 1
Fish and meat, or rice and beans 5 5

Other (articles or combinations of the above) 1 2

 

127

Big traders tend to be middle-aged, experienced traders.

Only four of the 33 are under 30 years of age, and only six of them
have less than five years' experience. However, the majority of all
marketplace traders are middle-aged and relatively experienced. Big
traders, therefore, do not differ from the rest of the trading
population in these respects. While most big traders say they were
trained by an older female relative (usually the mother), most
petty traders say the same thing. It is likely that the training
the big traders received was better, but I have no measure of this.
Training and experience, therefore, while they are relevant factors
in business success, are not in themselves defining characteristics
of big traders.

It has been pointed out that trading is an activity which
occupies more than half of all adult women in the NIFOR-area. It is
not surprising therefore that successful marketplace traders are
singled out as important women, and occupy high positions in the
social structure. Members of this elite group of big traders deal in
high-status expensive commodities or in large quantities of lower-
status popular commodities, and they are all full-time middleman
traders. The distinguishing feature of the capitalist trader is
that she possesses a large fund of trading capital which she manipulates
in capitalistic ways. In other respects, she differs very little from
the general population of market women.

The preceding discussion and analysis of the NIFOR-area and
of the internal marketing system within this area has emphasized the

major factors which determine the process of development from petty

128

trader to capitalist trader. It remains to analyze these factors
as a sequence of strategies and to show the manner in which the
potential capitalist trader can manipulate the socio-economic

environment to her own advantage.

CHAPTER V

THE DEVELOPMENT FROM PETTY TRADER T0
CAPITALIST TRADER

Introduction

 

It has been shown that the internal marketing system in
rural Benin is linked to a system of semi-capitalist production
modes. Production of food crops is essentially peasant production,
but many rubber farmers are small-scale capitalists. In the NIFOR-
area, the existence of a large-scale capitalist enterprise embodying
many of the characteristics of the "New-Style" plantation (cf. Wolf,
1959) has created a large multi-ethnic population of semi-
proletarians who are essentially daily-paid laborers, but many of
whom retain rights in land in their home communities. In addition,
there is a smaller but influential group of junior and senior grade
civil servants (permanent staff) who constitute the middle and upper
classes of the society. The large wage-earning community has
increased the demand both for food commodities and for other consumer
goods, and has stimulated the growth of the marketing system.

The internal marketing system is dominated by women who far
outnumber men as traders, or specialists in the market exchange
system. The marketplace, the site where buyers and sellers meet for
the purpose of exchange, is the focal point of the system. Analysis

of the spatial and temporal locations of marketplaces leads to the

129

130

conclusion that the internal marketing system can be viewed as "a
loose chain-mail pattern of rings" (Hodder and Ukwu, 1969:67).

While interaction between buyers and sellers does Occur outside the
site-confined marketplace, the majority of transactions are conducted
within the marketplace, and it is in the marketplace that prices are
set.

The main factors affecting price formation and placing restraints
on perfect competition have been identified as enduring relationships
in the form of traders' associations and trading partnerships, attempts
to cater to customer preferences in the choice of which commodities to
sell, and a set of socio-cultural factors on the basis of which the
seller "segments” the population of buyers into categories. These
socio-cultural factors exert some influence on bargaining behavior in
interactional exchange, and they are also the links between the market
exchange system and the other socio-cultural sub-systems of the society.

The adoption by female traders of a capitalist mode of
commodity circulation has been conceptualized as a sequence of
adaptive strategies (cf. Whitten, 1969). It is accepted (cf. Cook,
1973 and Godelier, 1966) that the economic field is "embedded" in
society, but that this characteristic feature implies both relations
within the economic field itself and relations between the economy
and other socio-cultural sub—systems.

The strategies adopted by those petty traders who are endeavor-
ing to become capitalist traders, therefore, include attempts to
manipulate a wide range of factors, some of which are primarily within

the economic field and some of which are primarily external to it.

131

All of the strategies with which we are concerned center around the
acquisition, accumulation, and manipulation of money-capital.

Traders usually have a very clear understanding of the
concept of money-capital, which they refer to as "trading money" or
simply "capital." Trading money is money which "works for you."
Traders distinguish between those women who "guard their trading
money well" or manipulate it in a capitalistic way, and those who
"rough" their trading money, i.e., spend carelessly and do not
provision an investment fund to expand their trade. There is wide-
spread agreement amongst traders that the primary strategy in market-
place trading is the accumulation of capital. There is, therefore,

a logical order in the developmental process from petty trader to
capitalist trader. Firstly, a woman must acquire an initial fund of
money-capital with which to begin her trade. Secondly, she must
manipulate this initial fund in capitalistic ways which result in its
growth. Thirdly, having/emerged as a big trader, a member of the
marketplace elite, she must continue to manipulate money-capital in
increasingly capitalistic ways in order to expand the scale of
marketplace trade and/or diversify and engage in other types of
business enterprise. Each of these steps is dependent upon the
business skills of the trader, her adeptness at managing and organiz—
ing her personal and business affairs, at innovating or synthesizing
in an imaginative way various components of her socio-economic
environment, at succeeding in expanding her business through increasing
her profits and investing them wisely (cf. Barth, 1966 and Marris,

1967). The importance of skill notwithstanding, it is also true that

132

circumstances favor some women and impede the progress of others,
particularly circumstances relating to the trader's role
obligations within the family.

The development from petty trader to capitalist trader has
been divided into three logical stages, and the analysis will proceed
as a discussion of the strategies and tactics employed by women at
each stage of the process. It is obvious, however, that these
stages overlap and that many of the strategies and tactics are
employed throughout the entire process. Strategies are viewed as
long-term objectives or plans of action, while tactics are defined
as short-term actions consistent with these objectives (cf. Whitten
and Whitten, 1972:248, 250). The adaptive process is a logical
progression and does not necessarily coincide with the actual
development of individual women from "petty-petty“ traders to "big
traders" and "business women." The strategies and tactics discussed
are constructs of the analyst, but they are based primarily on
strategies articulated by traders, and on tactical actions which
traders were observed to employ.

Stage One: The Acquisition of an Initial
Fund of Money-Capital

The first stage in the development from petty trader to
capitalist trader is the acquisition of an initial fund of money-
capital. In simple commodity circulation (C-M-C), money enters the
circuit as a commodity, but not as capital. Capitalist commodity
circulation (M-C-M‘), however, is dependent upon the transformation
of money into capital, and therefore, upon the initial acquisition of

a hoard of money-wealth.

133

There are two strategies women employ in order to obtain
their initial fund of trading capital. The first is the acquisition
of money through a gift or loan, and the second is the accumulation
of money for transformation into capital, by carefully saving and
investing the small profits obtained from petty activities. At this
preliminary stage in her trading career, the female trader can be
either helped or hindered by the degree of financial support she
receives from other members of her family, particularly her husband.

The Acquisition of Money
Through a Gift or Loan

 

 

The great majority of all market women receive their initial
trading capital from relatives. In most cases, the woman's husband or
mother gives or loans her the money with which to begin trading. Of
the 117 middlemen interviewed in the Isiuwa Market Restudy,6 93
received their initial tradingcapital in this way. Of the 33 big
traders interviewed in Ugbogiobo Market, 27 were given or loaned their
initial trading capital by relatives. There appear to be very few
tactics that a woman can employ to acquire an interest-free loan or
gift from relatives. In most cases she expresses the desire to begin
trading and approaches whichever individual she feels is most likely
to be both able and willing to help her. Not all women have to
request trading money, as husbands frequently provide it in fulfill-
ment of their recognized obligation to establish their wives in
business.

Very few women borrow from professional money-lenders or from

savings and loan societies in order to obtain initial money-capital

134

for trading. Similarly, very few beginning traders are able to, or
even desire to, obtain credit facilities from established whole-
salers. From the point of view of the borrower, it is shameful to
have a debt, and from the point of view of the loaner, the risks are
too great that an inexperienced trader may default. Only four of
the Ugbogiobo Market big traders and five of the traders in.the
Isiuwa Market Restudy obtained their initial capital from savings
and loan societies or from creditors. Savings societies which loan
money usually charge an interest rate of l/- per pound per month.
These societies obtain money from members who pay in as much as
possible each month. At the end of the year (or after a fixed
interval of time), each member withdraws all the money that he has
paid in, plus his share of the accumulated interest. The interest
money is usually divided evenly between all members of the society
according to the amount each member has paid in.

Some savings and loan societies will not loan money to non-
members, but many will, particularly if the non-member is a close
relative of a member who agrees to "sponsor" the non-member. Thus a
woman wishing to borrow from a savings and loan society will usually
employ the tactic of approaching the society to which her husband,
sister, brother, or parent belongs. Her chances of receiving the
desired loan then depend on her ability to find a willing sponsor,
and on the "credit rating" of the particular sponsor chosen.

Professional money-lenders are said to charge double the
interest rate of savings and loan societies. No professional money-

lenders were encountered in the study area. Wholesalers who extend

135

credit facilities do not charge fixed interest rates, but tend to
raise the price of items sold on credit. Traders who pay cash get
a reduced rate. Borrowing "interest-money'| for trading purposes is
a rare practice among both established and beginning traders.
Established traders do make use of credit facilities, because a
credit loan is not considered as shameful as a cash loan. Beginning
traders can obtain goods on credit only from close friends and
relatives. I did not encounter any women who began trading with no
money-capital at all, but simply by taking goods on credit from
established traders. Credit facilities are used extensively as a
means of adding to existing capital, but rarely as a means Of
acquiring an initial fund of money-capital.

The Accumulation of Money for
Transofrmation into Capital

 

 

Some women begin trading with minute sums of money which they
obtain either from selling small amounts of fruits or vegetables
grown in their kitchen-gardens, or small amounts of cooked food, or
from performing small-services for friends and neighbors.. Nineteen
of the traders in the Isiuwa Market Restudy, and two of the Ugbogiobo
Market big traders began in this way. Women starting with small
sums of money must invest their tiny profits extremely carefully. One
bad investment can destroy the entire trading capital. Almost all
such women employ the tactic of selling "small market," and invest in
several different commodities to spread their risks. The commodities
chosen are frequently those which are only semi-perishable, which are

known to "move well" and which can be purchased in small quantities.

136

Examples are bonga, mangala and crayfish, ogbono, egeusi seeds and
dried capsicum peppers. One woman said that she first began trading
by selling bailed maize cobs grown in her kitchen garden. After
roughly three weeks of sales, her money-capital consisted of 18/-
and her maize crop was finished. She then invested her 18/- in
egeusi, obgono and a small quantity of bonga fish. Another woman
planted tomatoes in her kitchen garden and sold the produce for 10/6
which she then invested in dried capsicum peppers, egeusi, and
additional tomatoes. Tomatoes are not always a wise investment
because they are highly perishable, but unless the market is glutted,
they sell rapidly as they are a basic soup ingredient. A third
woman was paid 12/- by a friend for extended baby-sitting services.
She invested this money in beans (cowpeas) and began her trading
career selling moi-moi.

Women who begin trading with minute sums are often quick to
join a marketplace rotating credit association through which they can,
fairly frequently, receive a relatively large sum of money to invest
in stock. This tactic is employed as a means of forced saving.

When profits are small, amounting to only a few shillings every
marketday, it is difficult to avoid the temptation to use these
profits as pocket-money. As one woman said, “When the money is with
you and the children beg for a shilling, you must give it." Money
paid into a rotating credit association is not available to be spent
little-by-little on small incidental items. Marketplace rotating
credit associations are composed of a fixed number of traders who pay
in a fixed amount of money every marketday. Members take it in turn

to receive the total money collected each marketday. Thus, if an

137

association has 12 members each of which pays 3/-, the sum of‘£lfi16
is collected each marketday, and members take it in turn to receive
this amount. Rotating credit associations are the most common type
of savings society and are found everywhere. Many women belong to
several which they use to provision various funds, one of which is
usually the trading fund.

By far the commonest source of initial trading capital is a
woman's relatives. Women with wealthy and willing relatives are
fortunate, and have a much better chance of success than women who
must slowly and painstakingly accumulate the capital needed to invest
in profitable commodities. Table 20 illustrates the importance of the

amount of initial trading capital.

TABLE 20.--Isiuwa Market Restudy Traders Classified by Initial Capital,
and Gain of Present Capital Over Initial Capital.*

 

 

. . . Gain of £5 Gain of Gain of
In1t1al Cap1tal or Less £6-20 Over £20
£5 or less 54 8 7
£5-20 19 11 C 5
Over £20 1 l 3

 

*
Twenty-two peasant-marketers, five new traders, and two who
refused to answer are excluded.

Sixty-nine women in the Isiuwa Market Restudy began trading
with £5 or less, and 54 of these have not managed to add more than £5

to their initial sum. Of the 35 who began trading with £6-20, 16 have

138

increased their capital by more than £6, but 19 have not been able

to significantly expand their trade. Of the 33 big traders inter-
viewed in Ugbogiobo Market, only five started trading with capital of
i£5 or less, nine started with £6-20, and the remaining 19 started
with over £20.

While these figures do not take into account the length of
time the women have been trading (apart from five very new traders
who are not included), they nevertheless support the conclusion that
women who start with small amounts of capital are much less likely
to become big traders than those who start with relatively large sums.

Stage Two: Accumulation of Capital and
Capitalist Commodity Circulation

 

Having once obtained her initial "trading money," the trader
must then attempt to make her capital grow. In order to do so, she
must not only engage in "potential"-capitalist commodity circulation
(M-C—MI), i.e., make a money-profit, but she must also find some
means of provisioning an investment fund for her trading, i.e., she
must invest at least some of her profits in her business.

There are three strategies employed by women in order to
increase their money-profits and accumulate money-capital. The first
is to minimize the competitiveness of the marketplace. The second
is to maximize profits in trading transactions. The third is to
allocate a portion of the money-profits to an investment fund for

trading.

139

The Minimization of Competition

 

The limitations on perfect competition within the market-
place have been identified in the preceding chapter as enduring
trading relationships in the forms of traders' associations and
trading partnerships, attempts to cater to customer preferences in
the choices of which varieties and qualities of commodities to sell,
and the influence of socio—cultural ties which limit atomistic
asocial interaction between buyers and sellers. The latter functions
as an aspect of trading partnerships, and will be discussed as such.

Membership in a traders' association is beneficial to the
trader to the extent to which it can actually minimize or eliminate
competition. I have previously described the only three traders'
associations which operate in Ugbogiobo and Isiuwa Marketplaces. It
has been shown that the Ice-Fish Sellers Association is monopolistic
and has totally eliminated outside competition; the Butchers'
Association is close to monopolistic; while the Cloth Sellers Associa-
tion is far from monopolistic but can nevertheless exert some
limitations on unfavorable outside competition. Membership in the
former two associations is limited and traders must apply for entry
and be accepted before joining. Membership in the Cloth Sellers
Association is theoretically unlimited, but because investment in
cloth requires a large amount of money-capital, membership is in fact
limited to relatively wealthy women.

Membership in a traders' association often secures for the
trader a regular and dependable source of supply, because the

association as a unit can exert influence over suppliers by virtue

140

of the fact that it buys large amounts at regular intervals. The
Ice-Fish Sellers Association oéprates in this way. Traders'
associations often place limitations on the amount of produce sold,
but it has been shown how expansion-oriented traders manipulate
these controls through the institution of active and non-active
membership. The tactic of securing membership in a traders'
association is definitely beneficial to the trader who is attempting
to minimize competition, but because these associations, at least in
the NIFOR-area, are few in number, this tactic is employed by
relatively few women.

It is much more common for traders to minimize competition
by establishing enduring dyadic relationships with particular
suppliers and particular buyers. Traders are unanimous in their
view that such relationships are beneficial, but not all are able to
establish or maintain trading partnerships. Of a sample of 52
traders in Ugbogiobo Market, 38 said they had succeeded in securing
a regular clientele of both suppliers and buyers. It is much less
common for traders to succeed in manipulating to their own advantage
the behavior of their suppliers, i.e., in "cornering" a supplier's
market. This is mainly because it is only big traders who have
enough money-capital to be able to exert any influence over their
suppliers. Traders' associations can regulate their channels of
supply because members band together and buy as a unit. Individual
traders cannot exert this degree of control unless they have buying-
power comparable to that of the associations. Only big traders have

enough money—capital to do so.

141

Trading partnerships are often formed on the basis of kinship,
ethnic or friendship ties. Since buyer and seller frequently have a
wide choice in a highly competitive situation, kinship, ethnic, and
friendship considerations often function as deciding factors in the
formation of enduring relationships. Trading partners rarely receive
preferential prices for commodities, but they are granted other
concessions. Of major importance to the trader who is endeavoring
to accumulate capital is the credit concession granted her by a
trading partner. By taking goods on credit, the trader is able to
substantially increase her stock and experiment with commodities
which she has not sold before. The credit system allows the trader
greater flexibility, and sometimes enables her to sustain short-term'
losses which might otherwise put her out of business.

In general, credit is extended only to trading partners, and
frequently only to local women or to close relatives. Most NIFOR-
area women can obtain goods on credit only from trading partners in
the local marketplaces (usually Ugbogiobo Market). Although NIFOR—
area women frequently visit Benin City marketplaces to buy stock,
they are rarely able to obtain goods on credit in the urban market-
places, despite the fact that most of them have trading partners in
Benin. Those who are extended credit facilities by Benin City
traders are invariably the close relatives of their urban trading
partners. The rationale behind this behavior is easily explained.
The trader who sells goods on credit is taking a risk, but if she can
easily locate the debtor, her risk is not too great. The seller who

extends credit to a buyer in Ugbogiobo Market knows that the buyer is

142

almost certain to visit the marketplace again soon because Ugbogiobo
Market is the major retail outlet in the area. In addition, the
seller usually knows or can easily find out where the buyer lives,
,and if the debt is not paid promptly, the seller can locate the
debtor at home and publicly disgrace her. The most common practice,
however, is for the buyer to take goods on credit early in the
morning on market day, sell them throughout the day, and pay her debt
to her trading partner before either of them leaves the marketplace
in the evening. Rural women who go to the urban marketplaces to buy
commodities rarely sell them in the same marketplace or on the same
day. The urban trader who extends credit to a rural trading partner,
therefore, runs a greater risk because her trading partner may
disappear from the marketplace and not return. It is difficult for
urban traders to follow rural traders to their villages and locate
them unless the rural trader is a close relative. For that matter,
it is equally as difficult for urban traders to locate other urban
traders within the city. In one case, an urban trader sold coral
jewelry worth £70 to an urban trading partner of long-standing. The
buyer placed a down-payment of £20, took the jewelry and left the
marketplace, promising to remit the sum of £50 the following week.
The seller has never seen her trading partner since. She knows that
the woman lives in Benin City, but she does not know where. She feels
sure that the debtor is still engaged in trade, but she does not know
in which of the many urban marketplaces to find her. In this case,
the two trading partners were not related and had no dealings with

each other outside the marketplace.

143

Thus, while the credit system can be of major assistance to
traders, it can also be debilitating unless it is wisely managed.
Those who extend credit to traders run the risk of losing their money,
and the main safety measure employed is to extend credit only to local
traders or to close relatives, i.e., women with whom one has dealings
outside the market and whom one can easily locate in the community.

Also in their dealings with consumer-buyers, most traders
feel obliged to extend credit to relatives and close friends, but the
same principles apply to interactions between trader and consumer-
buyer as between trader and trader. The trader gains little money-
profit from extending credit to consumer-buyers, but she does, through
granting this concession, succeed in strengthening ties with her
consumer-clientele. Traders who refuse to grant credit lose
customers. As one trader said, "If I don't sell credit, my customers
go buy from another one and will not buy from my hand again." Some
traders, however, appear to be less careful than others in their
management of the credit system. In a situation where no written
records are kept, the trader must remember each credit sale. For
traders dealing in a wide variety of commodities this involves
notable feats of memory. Traders who deal in provisions may make as
many as 15 separate credit sales on any one market day, and if they
are to recoup their losses, they must remember each debtor'and the
amount of each debt. Traders who deal in a limited range of com-
modities may have less trouble remembering who bought what, but their
accounting problems can be equally as cumbersome. For example, a

cloth seller makes fewer sales than a provisions seller, but each item

144

is sold for a relatively large amount of money. Rural consumer-
‘buyers rarely pay the full sum of cash for purchases of cloth at the
time of buying. Usually they make a down-payment and pay the balance
in small amounts over an extended period of time. The trader must
therefore keep a running mental account of the payments made by each
credit customer. Unless her memory serves her well, the trader is
prone to losses. The credit system, therefore, must be carefully
managed if it is to be of assistance to traders in their endeavors

to minimize competition in the marketplace.

Beginning traders frequently attempt to minimize competition
and cut their risks by investing in a wide variety of commodities.
Many "small market" traders work on the assumption that until one has
acquired experience and skill, it is unwise to "put all one's eggs
in one basket." While this basic tactic may be a sound one, in
order to accumulate capital, the "small market" trader must keep a
close watch on each commodity she sells and be prepared to make
frequent small changes in order to improve sales. The initial tactic
of spreading one's risks must be followed by tactics to improve the
quality of the commodities sold. If 45 women in the marketplace are
all selling capsicum peppers, egeusi seeds and salt, the 46th seller
of these commodities has not reduced the competitiveness of her
situation unless she sells superior quality peppers, egeusi seeds
and salt. Her initial decision to invest in these commodities may
have been based on her knowledge that these are items in continuous
high demand, but careful observation could lead her to conclude that

the money invested in salt might at times be better invested in

145

tomatoes or okra. Careful traders are constantly on the look-out for
fluctuations in supply and demand. Innovative traders are prepared
to make frequent small changes and are alert to customer preferences.
The careful trader watches closely which varieties or qualities of
each commodity her customers prefer, and makes efforts to secure
those types which "move well.“

The tactic of investing in a variety of different cOmmodities
is also based on the assumption that the average consumer-buyer
enters the marketplace looking for several different items. If she
wishes to purchase a number of basic dietary items, it saves her time
and effort if she can purchase several of them from the same seller.
The trader who stocks capsicum peppers, egeusi seeds and salt is,
therefore, likely to sell all three items at the same time. If, on a
given day, 20 consumer-buyers wish to purchase all three of these
items, the trader is in a position to make 60 sales. If she stocks
only salt, she cannot make more than 20 sales, and the 20 buyers will
purchase peppers and egeusi from other traders. This tactic must be
employed carefully, however, because traders with small amounts of
capital, if they invest in too many separate commodities, are able
to purchase and display only small amounts of each commodity. Buyers
like tO‘pick over merchandise and select what they consider to be the
best items. They are attracted to sellers displaying large amounts of
each commodity because they feel that the larger the amount to chOOSe
from, the better the chances of finding superior quality items. They
also frequently assume that the trader who has only a small amount of

any given commodity on display is selling off the last of her stock,

146

the'items which earlier buyers have rejected. The buyer, therefore,
often by-passes traders who have only small amounts of the commodities
she wishes to purchase. The careful trader will invest in several
commodities in order to increase her sales, but she will wisely limit
the number of separate commodities so that she can display a large
enough amount of each one to attract buyers.

The Maximization of Profits in
Exchange Interactions

 

 

As has been pointed out above, women trade because they need
money. While the marketplace fulfills some of the functions of a
socializing institution, it is, for the trader, primarily an economic
institution. Traders come to market to make money. In the NIFOR-area,
formal entertainments, social gatherings, and political meetings do
not take place in the marketplace. Informal socializing and spreading
of information and gossip does occur, but it is of secondary
importance to buying and selling behavior. People come to the market
to buy and to sell. If, incidentally, they meet friends and exchange
local news, so much the better, but if the buying and selling have
been successful, the time is considered well spent, and if the buying
and selling have not been successful, people will report that "market
was poor today,“ despite whatever interesting diversions attracted
their attention.

While all traders are concerned to acquire money—profits from
their trading activities, some are undoubtedly more profit—seeking
than others. There are three tactics which traders can employ in
order to maximize their profits in exchange interactions, namely,

aggressive and clever salesmanship and bargaining behavior in isolated

147

interactions, careful use of unconventional or dishonest practices,
and careful management of labor-time to increase the total volume of
. transactions.

It has been pointed out that haggling is the customary pro-
cedure for arriving at a price in a given interaction. Five
dimensions along which the seller segments the population of buyers
into categories have been identified, namely, differentiations based
on ethnicity, kinship, income-groupings, sex, and age. It has also
been stressed, however, that despite the influence of these factors,
the final price arrived at in any exchange interaction is to a large
extent a result of the knowledge and haggling ability of the buyer
and seller. In addition, a large number of sales are made with no
preliminary haggling, and therefore, salesmanship consists not only
of haggling ability, but also to the ability to initially attract
buyers.

Traders attempt to attract buyers by displaying their goods in
conspicuous ways, and by calling out to passers-by. Goods are most
commonly spread for display on raphia trays or wooden tables in the
case of foodstuffs, on racks in the case of cloth and ready-made
clothing, or on plastic sheets on the concrete floor of the shed or
on the ground in the case of household utensils and dishes. One
rarely sees unusual or eye-catching displays. It is common, however,
for traders to gradually edge commodities into the center of the
aisles so that buyers literally trip over items and cannot fail to
notice them. Periodically, the market-supervisor instigates clean-up

campaigns and goes through the aisles overturning trays and tables

148

and forcing traders to clear produce out of the way. Traders comply
for brief periods, but soon resume their practice of cluttering the
passage-ways.

Some traders frequently call out to passers-by encouraging
them to "come buy." Others do so less frequently and sit back
waiting for buyers to stop before beginning to encourage them. The
degree of aggressiveness of traders in attempting to initially
attract buyers is partly a result of individual personality dif-
ferences, but it is also related to the types of commodities being
sold. The majority of buyers on any given market day are looking for
food items. Household wares and clothing items are bought less
frequently. Sellers of foodstuffs tend to regard everyone as a
potential customer, and the more aggressive of them will call out to
anyone within earshot. Sellers of household wares and clothing items
tend to remain quiet until they observe a buyer who appears to be
examining, however fleetingly, their wares. It is only then that
they begin to encourage the potential buyer.

Once a buyer has begun to examine the items of a particular
trader, it is considered highly unethical for another trader to attempt
to entice the buyer away. The initiation by the buyer of interaction
with a particular seller, whether verbal behavior (i.e., asking the
price) or non-verbal behavior (i.e., picking up and examining items),
is the signal to other traders to cease activity designed to attract
that buyer. Traders who behave unethically are subject to strong
criticism. It is not uncommon for fights to break out between traders

based on accusations of the unethical practice of attempting to steal

149

customers. Traders distinguish between a joking attempt to steal a
customer (which is acceptable if not practiced too frequently), and
a serious attempt (which is neVer acceptable). For example, it is
acceptable for one trader to say jokingly to a buyer who is inter-
acting with another trader, "Why do you always buy from her when my
own are also good ones?" However, it is unacceptable to say, "Leave
that one, I can give you better one."

Having once attracted the buyer and enticed her to stop, the
seller must convince the buyer to complete the transaction. When the
price is known by the buyer, there is little price-haggling, but the
seller must nevertheless convince the buyer of the quality of the
item. Frequently, there is little verbal exchange between buyer and
seller, because the quality is readily observable—-e.g., any buyer can
tell at a glance or a pinch whether salt is fine-grained or coarse-
grained, or whether tomatoes are over-ripe or firm, or whether onions
are properly dried and preserved or soft and rotten in the center.
However, in the case of easily divisible items which are displayed in
heaps, the buyer and seller may argue over the items within the heap,
if not over the size or price of the heap. For example, traders
usually display heaps of tomatoes of mixed quality, i.e., if the
heap contains five tomatoes, it is common for three to be firm and
two to be over-ripe. The argument then centers around whether or not
the trader will exchange the two over-ripe tomatoes for two firm ones,
or whether she will add an extra one to compensate for the over-ripe

ones.

150

When items are not divisible, and vary significantly in size;
as well as quality, price-haggling is extensive. Haggling for
plantain or yam can be long and tedious. The buyer usually
examines the full range of items displayed and selects several
which appeal to her. She then asks the price of each item and begins
to argue with the seller about the respective merits of each one.

The first price quoted by the seller is usually based on her assess-
ment or categorization of the buyer. The first counter-price offered
by the buyer indicates to the seller the extent of the buyer's
knowledge of the current state of the market and of the quality of
the items in question. If the seller categorizes the buyer as a
foreigner, a member of a high-income group, or a man, she will often
inflate her first price. If the buyer counters with a "reasonable"
price slightly below the seller's minimum, she will quickly come
down, but will still try for maximum profit. The buyer who
perseveres and argues persuasively can usually bring the seller down
to her minimum price. 0n the other hand, the seller who perseveres
can often convince the buyer to pay a slightly inflated price. When
the seller says, l'bring money,’I this signals the end of bargaining,
i.e., the price is set. Having once said this, the seller cannot
change her mind and re—open negotiations. The buyer, however, is
still free to pay or not to pay. If the buyer is dissatisfied, she
will not “bring money," and will turn to walk away. The seller can
then call the buyer back if she chooses, and renegotiate a more

acceptable price.

151

Careful traders will spend time going round the market
estimating the supply of particular commodities and pricing items
before they begin to sell. Less entrepreneurially minded traders do
not pay as close attention to the fluctuating state of the market.
On one occasion, two women arrived in Ugbogiobo Market each with a
basket of okra purchased in Benin City for the price of E2zl0. The
first woman began to sell the okra, basing her price mainly on her
costs. She soon had to lower her price in accordance with the going
price of the day. The second woman spent some time walking through
the market, and noticed that there was a large supply of okra on sale
that day. After pricing okra in several places, she found she could
purchase for £2:OO the same amount as she had purchased the previous
day in Benin City for f2zl0. She therefore purchased a second basket
of okra for £2:OO, and sold this basketful throughout the day. The
okra she had bought in Benin City, she carefully hid at the back of
her stall and saved for sale in Isiuwa Market two days later. ~She
was able to sell the okra in Isiuwa Market at a higher price, and
therefore gained l2/- profit on her purchase of £2le. The first
woman who sold her Benin City okra in Ugbogiobo Market gained only
8/- profit because she did not bother to evaluate the state of the
market before beginning to sell.

Traders can maximize profits through the use of cheating
tactics, i.e., unconventional or deceitful practices. Examples of
cheating tactics include knowingly selling defective or substandard
merchandise, substituting smaller-than-standard measuring containers

(often called "magic cups"), purposely short-changing buyers, mixing

152

high quality produce such as "bush" palm oil with lower quality
produce such as NIFOR palm oil and selling the mixture as an
unadulterated high quality commodity. Attempting to inflate prices
is not cheating; it is considered perfectly honest and ethical to
over-charge buyers who have ample opportunity to haggle with sellers
and arrive at a satisfactory price.

Many traders define "cheating" as getting caught at dishonest
practices and thereby losing customers. Their attitude is that
cheating is an amoral tactic which can be used to increase profits.
The more astute are aware that careless and indiscriminate cheating
can drive away customers. Such women very rarely cheat regular
customers, and will usually cheat only those stranger-customers,
whom they assess to be either inobservant or unknowledgeable. Many
traders steadfastly maintain that cheating is bad for business, but
were nonetheless observed to employ cheating tactics. On one
occasion, a trader was accused by a buyer of using a "magic cup“ to
-measure rice. The trader verbally denied the charge, but quickly
produced another cup and began to re-measure the rice. When the
buyer turned away for a moment to greet a friend, the trader quickly
replaced the standard measure with the "magic cup" and continued
measuring rice. The buyer was none the wiser and left, satisfied that
she had successfully avoided being cheated. On another occasion, a
cloth seller measured three yards of cloth under the careful scrutiny
of a buyer. As she prepared to cut the three-yard piece, she deftly
moved her hand back and cut a piece which probably measured roughly

two and one half yards. The buyer did not notice at the time, and was

153

probably never aware of her loss, because according to the seller,
the woman did not return at a later date to complain.

There is no doubt that indiscriminate cheating on the part of
sellers will drive away customers. A buyer who discovers she has
been cheated will usually return to the seller and complain.
Invariably she will insist on compensation. Even when she succeeds in
exchanging the item, or obtaining the correct amount of change, she
will rarely continue to patronize the seller, and will tell her
friends to avoid the seller. Traders who cheat carelessly and
indiscriminantly tend to be young, inexperienced traders. They are
often lacking in self-confidence, and seem to be more concerned with
acquiring immediate profits than securing an established clientele.

There are some traders who view cheating as morally bad.
These women, although they freely inflate prices and attempt to
maximize profits through salesmanship and haggling tactics, are
prohibited by their moral codes and religious beliefs from employing
cheating tactics.

Traders can maximize profits through the careful management
of their own labor-time and the labor-time of other family members
who assist them. It has been noted that the regional marketing
system in the NIFOR-area is characterized by periodicity and loca-
tional spacing, which Smith (l97lz320) argues ". . . are two more or
less fundamental characteristics of West African markets." The Bini
market week consists of four days. All marketplaces in the NIFOR-area
(with the exception of Payday Market) meet once during the four-day

week. For the trader, this means that because the site of the market

154

moves daily, she must choose which marketplaces to attend during the
four-day week, and make the necessary arrangements to transport both
herself and her commodities to the chosen sites. Many NIFOR-area
traders attend two or three rural markets during the four-day week
and travel to Benin City once a market-week to buy stock. Others
attend only one rural periodic market, while others attend four and
rarely travel to Benin City to buy stock.

Peasant-marketers attend market as sellers irregularly. The
peasant-marketer who sells her own produce and does not have a fund of
money-capital is, of necessity, irregular in her attendance. She
comes to market to sell only when she has produce to exchange for
money. Until she can acquire or accumulate money-capital, it is
difficult for her to regularize her attendance.

Middleman-traders have funds of money-capital, and more often
attend market regularly. Nonetheless, some are frequently absent and
attend only sporadically. It has been noted that the turnover of
middleman-traders in Isiuwa Market in a six-month period was as high
as 50%. A large group of women in the Isiuwa Market Restudy explained
their absences from the marketplace six months earlier by the state-
ment that the market was not ”moving well." Profit-maximizers rarely
miss market, and when they do so, it is not because they "did not
feel to go." Similarly, they tend to avoid social gatherings whiCh
interrupt their trading routine. Expansion-oriented traders who find
they must be absent from market due to illness in the family or
unavoidable social commitments, frequently send a child or a friend to

sell for them. The more entrepreneurially-minded the trader, the more

155

conscientious she tends to be in her attendance. Trading partnerships
are based on regularized interactions. In order to maintain enduring
ties with suppliers and buyers, the trader must be consistent in her

movements and conscientious in her attendance at various marketplaces.

Many NIFOR-area traders complain that the periodic feature of
the rural marketing system results in cumbersome transportation and
organizational problems. Women who wish to expand their trade can do
so through visiting a series of marketplaces during the course of the
week, but the organizational problems often discourage those who are
not profit-oriented or those who have no one to assist them.

Mrs. X. is a profit-oriented trader who has managed to
organize her labor-time and the labor-time of her daughter to expand
her trading profits through increasing the volume of transactions.
Mrs. X. lives in Isiuwa Village and trades regularly in Ugbogiobo
Market and Isiuwa Market. She very rarely misses either of these
markets. Mrs. X specializes in rice and beans, but also sells "small
market" commodities, namely onions, maggi cubes, okra, egeusi seeds,
and occasionally ogbono, tomatoes and small amounts of garri. Mrs. X.
has a bicycle which she uses to transport commodities to and from the
marketplace. On the eve of Ugbogiobo Market, Mrs. X's daughter loads
the bicycle with goods and makes two trips down Ozolua Road to the
house of a friend who lives near Ugbogiobo Market. The goods are
stored in the house of the friend overnight. This is a very common
practice among Isiuwa Village traders, and many Ozolua Road women who
live near the market site charge small rental fees for this service.

Early in the morning on Ugbogiobo Market day, the daughter takes

156

another load down to the friend's house, and also goes to the market-
place and sweeps out her mother's shed. The daughter then returns to
Isiuwa and goes to school. Meanwhile, Mrs. X. does her household
chores and prepares food for the family. Around 9:00 a.m., Mrs. X.
loads the bicycle with the remainder of her commodities and cycles
down to Ugbogiobo Market. She deposits her goods in her shed and
then transports, usually by head-loading, the items which have been
stored in the friend's house. By around l0:00 a.m., Mrs. X. has
unpacked all her goods and has displayed them on a wooden table and
on the ground. She then leaves her shed in the care of the adjacent
seller and walks through the marketplace evaluating the supply of
various commodities, pricing items to learn the state of the market,
and making a few purchases for home use and for re-sale. She then
returns to her shed and rarely leaves it again until the afternoon.
Around l:OO p m., Mrs. X's daughter arrives in the marketplace after
school. Mrs. X. is then free to leave her shed, complete her
personal shopping and purchase some cooked food for herself and her
daughter. Sometimes the daughter is sent hone on the bicycle to
prepare food for the rest of the family. .At other times this is not
necessary as Mrs. X. has prepared a sufficient quantity in the early
morning. Most traders leave Ugbogiobo Market by about 4:30 to 5:00
p.m. Mrs. X., however, stays until 5:30 or 6:00. She has a few
regular customers who come to the marketplace late, after returning
from their farms. By staying an extra hour, Mrs. X. is able to
slightly increase the volume of her sales. By 6:00 p.m., she and her

daughter begin to transport commodities to the home of the friend.

l57

Between them, they usually carry two bicycle-loads back to Isiuwa
Village before dark. If anything remains, the daughter makes a
third trip down the next morning before school. Often this is not
necessary.

The day after Ugbogiobo Market, Mrs. X usually stays at home
and does her household chores. Although it would be easier for her
to leave her goods down at her friend's house after Ugbogiobo Market,
and collect them at her leisure on this free day, she prefers to
bring them home straight after market. This is because Mrs. X. makes
a considerable number of sales at home. Customers come to her house
to buy, and if she were to leave her goods down near Ugbogiobo Market,
she would lose these home sales.

The following day is Isiuwa Market day. Isiuwa Marketplace is
about a quarter of a mile from Mrs. X's house. She uses her bicycle
to transport her commodities to the market site. She does this
herself during the morning, as Isiuwa Market does not begin until
l:OO or 2:00 p.m. Mrs. X. carries smaller amounts of rice and benas
to this market as she makes fewer sales there. She likes to be in
the-marketplace ready to begin selling by l:OO p.m., and she usually
stays in her shed throughout the afternoon, as she rarely makes any
purchases in Isiuwa Market. Around 6:00 p.m. her daughter comes to
the market and helps Mrs. X. to transport the commodities back to the
house.

The day after Isiuwa Market, Mrs. X. usually travels to Benin
City to buy stock. She walks from her house to the north end of
Ozolua Road where this road meets the NIFOR boundary. Here she

catches the bus for Benin City. Mrs. X. usually leaves for Benin City

158

early in the morning and spends the entire day in town where she may
visit two or three marketplaces and several shops. She often takes
a taxi to transport her purchases from the marketplaces to the bus
stop when it is time to return home in the late afternoon. Her

daughter meets her at the NIFOR bus stop on Ozolua Road, and with

the help of the bicycle they transport her pruchases to the house. f‘

Mrs. X. usually goes to Benin City alone. She often meets friends E

at the bus stop, but avoids the company of friends while she is going

about the town making her purchases. She does not want her friends 1
i

 

to know how much money she spends, and she often lies when asked by ?
friends what price she has paid for particular commodities or from
whom she has made her purchases.

Mrs. X. rarely misses either Ugbogiobo Market or Isiuwa Market.
However, when Ugbogiobo Market falls on Sunday, which it does once a
month, Mrs. X. attends church in the morning and arrives in the
marketplace late, around noon. Her daughter usually takes care of
her shed and sells for her until she arrives. Mrs. X. never goes to
Benin City to buy stock on Sunday. When her regular Benin City day
falls on Sunday, she changes her schedule and travels to town earlier
in the market—week, on the day after Ugbogiobo Market.

Many NIFOR-area traders are not as conscientious and hard-
working as Mrs. X. In addition, most have no bicycle and some have
no child available to help carry goods. Those who must headload all
their commodities themselves are easily discouraged from expanding
their trade by the transportation problems. However, there are

usually solutions which profit-minded women can find to such problems.

159

The way in which a trader plans her market week and organizes the
labor-time available to her is of prime importance in her attempts
to maximize profits and increase sales. Given the features of
periodicity and locational spacing of marketplaces, as well as the
absence of lock-up storage facilities within the markets, the rural
trader is faced with irritating organizational problems. On the
other hand, the spatio-temporal distribution of marketplaces is
such that profit-oriented traders do have opportunities to expand

their businesses, provided they can manage the available labor-time

‘r—mn x :flnfifn .- 2 hf
' l

efficiently.

The Allocation of Monengrofits to
an Investment Fund for Trading

 

 

Middleman-traders who engage in capitalist commodity circula-
tion (M-C-M1) acquire money-profits, i.e., the value of M1 is greater
than the value of M. M1 as such is not capital; it is simply the
commodity of money having a given exchange-value. M1 consists of
the original money-value (M) plus the surplus-value (m), i.e.,

M1 = M + m. True capitalist commodity circulation requires that M

1

be transformed into capital and recirculated. Traders who continually
circulate M but use all their profits to provision subsistence/
replacement, ceremonial and rent funds, maintain their businesses at

a given level, but are not able to expand. True capitalist .
commodity circulation requires that the trader reinvest in her
business some portion of her trading profits. In their attempts to

provision investment funds and expand their businesses, women employ

the tactics of saving money in "meetings" and of investing, at a risk,

160

in what they hope will be more profitable trading commodities. The
extent to which female traders are able to allocate their money-
profits to an investment fund is primarily a result of the ability
of other family members, mainly the husband, to provision the
subsistence/replacement, educational and emergency funds of the
household. Women are frequently forced to use their trading profits
and sometimes their trading capital to meet family expenses which
their husbands are unable or unwilling to cope with.

In discussing support of the family, it must be pointed out
that in general husband and wife operate strictly separate budgets,
and when money moves from one budget to the other, the exchange is
usually very formal. A joint budget or informal pooling of money-
resources is almost unheard of. The incomes of man and wife are con-
sidered by each to be their own property to dispose of as they see fit
(in accordance with personal idiosyncracies, as well as in socially
sanctioned ways). While it is considered the man's responsibility to
provision the subsistence, educational and emergency funds, women are
responsible for assisting in basic support as well as in providing
luxury items for themselves and their children. Each adult partner
is expected to provision his own ceremonial fund (which in the case
of women is usually a small item in the individual's budget), and, to
the best of his or her ability, save money for future investment.

It is common for the husband to provide subsistence in the
form of an allowance given to the wife at regular intervals. This
housekeeping allowance is called "chop money." "Chop" is food, but

"chop money" is also used for inedible household items. The amount

161

given to the wife for "chop money" is rarely enough to buy all the
food necessary to feed the family, as well as essential household
items. Women supplement this fund with food crops from their
kitchen gardens, with foodstuffs from their trading stock and/or
with money from their trading profits. The amount of supplementing
which a woman must do depends both on the husband's ability to
provide sufficient ”chop money" and on his generosity. Money for
clothing and other miscellaneous non-household items is rarely given
to the wife in the form of a regular allowance. When such items are
desired, the wife usually asks the husband for money which is some-
times given and sometimes not. Women are often reluctant to ask
outright for money. They find this procedure humiliating, particu-
larly ifthey have been repeatedly turned down. The desire to avoid
"begging” the husband for money is a strong incentive for women to
acquire an independent income through trading. The fact that the
husband has a relatively high income himself does not always mean
that the wife will be given an adequate subsistence allowance. If
the wife is a trader and has a private income of her own, the husband
may reduce her subsistence allowance in order to be able to satisfy
other needs and wants such as school fees for his children,
ceremonial expenditures, personal savings funds, or the acquisition
of luxury consumer goods.

Theoretically, women married to men in the permanent staff
category of NIFOR employees (senior and junior staff) should receive
more subsistence money than women married to daily paid laborers. This

is often the case, but it is not always so. Permanent employees often

 

162

have larger immediate families for whom they are the sole provider,
as it is common for such men to have more than one wife, either
within the same household or in separate households. Those who are
monogamous frequently have extensive obligations to members of their
extended families. The number of pe0ple fully or partially

dependent upon these men is large. The extent to which the extended
family system in Africa drains the resources of individual members of
the salaried middle and upper classes has been frequently noted in
the literature (e.g., Comhaire, 1965:123; Kamarck, l972:64-66). The
debilitating effects of this drain may have been over-emphasized,

for as Marris (1967) points out, the extended family is part of the
social milieu with which the African is familiar, and the enterprising
individual can usually manipulate this familiar institution to avoid
serious barriers to progress. Nonetheless, it is evident that upward
social mobility increases a man's obligations to his less successful
kinfolk. Fulfilling these obligations of supporting aged parents,
paying school fees for young siblings and other relatives, and

making sizeable contributions to community activities do drain the
resources of the middle and upper class man. In addition, entry into
the middle and upper classes places stdrng pressures upon a man to
acquire certain luxury commodities which are symbols of his status.
In the NIFOR-area, a junior permanent staff employee is strongly
pressured to purchase a motorcycle, while senior staff members feel
obliged to have an automobile. The purchase payments and upkeep
expenses of these items constitute major expenditures in the budgets

of permanent staff employees. The subsistence expenditure item of a

163

man's budget is often more flexible than other items. If the wife
has a private income from trading, she can be counted upon to assist
in provisioning the subsistence fund, and the husband can reduce his
own subsistence payments, diverting these monies into other funds.

Most women, while they may have some idea of the husband's
income, have very little knowledge of his expenditures or savings
apart from the subsistence money they are given and the amount paid
out by the husband in school fees. Women frequently assist in the
paying of school fees which are excessively high in the secondary
schools. A man generally has fairly accurate knowledge of his wife
or wives' incomes, and therefore knows to what extent he can rely
on these incomes to assist in provisioning the subsistence fund of
the household.

Polly Hill (1963:452) has remarked on the "notorious

independence of the African woman trader,‘ and has suggested that
this may be strongly related to the fact that she has an exclusive
right on her profits. Undoubtedly the two are related, but it may be
that her "exclusive right on her profits" is over-emphasized because
this turn of phrase implies that there are virtually no restrictions
placed on the woman trader in the use to which she puts her gains.

In actual fact, observations in the NIFOR-area would suggest that men,
by withholding subsistence money, can seriously restrict a woman's
choice of what to do with her trading profits. Not all men do so,

and many who provide inadequate subsistence funds do so out of

necessity, not by choice. Nonetheless, it should be emphasized that

when women are trading with small amounts of capital which yield

164

proportionately small profits, the necessity to provision the house-
hold subsistence fund may restrict saving on the part of the female
trader, and therefore, may seriously inhibit capital accumulation.

In one case, a woman who trades in dried fish, was given only
£3 to £4 per month as "ch0p money" to feed herself, her husband,
and seven children. The woman supplemented this allowance with
food crops (mainly cassava) from her kitchen garden and with cash of
roughly £2 per month from her trading profits. In addition, she
frequently dipped into her stock of dried fish to the extent that in
a six-month period, her circulating capital decreased by EA. She
had, during this period, paid ElZ into a savings and loan society,
so she was not in fact losing money, but was actually saving £2 per
month. However, had she not been forced to provide roughly half the
subsistence fund for the family, her circulating capital would have
grown, or at least remained constant, and her savings might have
doubled.

In another case, a woman who trades in articles was initially
given £9 per month as a subsistence fund for herself, her husband,
and two children. Over the course of two years, the husband
increased thissum to fill per month as the cost of living rose and one
more child entered the household. This sum was adequate to meet
almost all the subsistence needs of the household. The woman
occasionally took items from her stock as she needed them, and
supplemented with food crops from her kitchen garden. She very
rarely used any of her trading profits in supplementing her subsistence

allowance, and her fund of money-capital increased rapidly.

165

Husband and wife provision separate ceremonial funds, though
they frequently belong to the same ceremonial groups. Unless a woman
has a private income, she is hard-pressed to find money to make
regular contributions to her ceremonial fund, and must usually take
money from her housekeeping allowance for this purpose. Borrowing
from the "chop money" is frowned on by the husband who may complain
that the standard of living (particularly of his meals) within the
household is deteriorating. Provisioning the ceremonial fund,
therefore, motivates women to acquire an independent income through
trading.

In the NIFOR-area, which is strongly Christian, the majority
of ceremonies performed for individuals, families or larger social
groupings, are conducted by churches and ethnic associations. Most
men and women make regular payments to religious and ethnic
associations which in turn assist the individual in financing the
more frequently occurring ceremonies. These are baptism and naming
rituals for babies, child burials, farming ceremonies associated with
planting and harvest, and the particular religious rituals specific
to each ethnic and/or church association. The minimum rate of payment
is often specified by the association, and individuals are expected
to pay this amount plus whatever extra they can afford. Minimum
payments for women range from 2/- to 5/— per month; those for men
from 5/- to lO/-. Additional payments range from nil to £5 per
month. Many people belong to both an ethnic association and a

religious association.

166

Most adults also contribute to ceremonial funds in their home
villages. These contributions rarely take the form of regular pay-
ments, but rather tend to be lump-sum payments which are petitioned
for specific purposes. Migrant-laborers are asked to contribute
towards ceremonies designed to ensure the well-being of the home
village and all its members. They are also expected to contribute
towards village improvement projects such as the building of a school,
medical dispensary, or marketplace. Once again, women tend to con-
tribute less to such funds than men.

Provisioning the educational fund for the children of the
family is considered to be primarily the responsibility of the
husband. However, both husband and wife are invariably unanimous in
their desire to provide the best education possible for their children.
Women are eager to assist in paying school fees, and men are rarely
too proud to ask for assistance from their wives when necessary. The
educational fund is frequently considered by household members to be
the most important savings fund, and money destined for school fees
is often placed in a bank savings account. Such money is diverted to
other funds only in dire emergencies. Money for school fees is
pooled by husband and wife at the time of payment, but is usually
saved separately by each member. Many female traders use a large
portion of their trading profits in paying school fees. Provisioning
the educational fund has the short-term effect of inhabiting capital
accumulation among traders, but the long-term effect is often the
reverse. The well-educated child stands a much better chance of

obtaining a good job than the poorly-educated one. He is, therefore,

167

in a better position to contribute to the educational funds of his
younger siblings and to pay back to his parents some or all of the‘
money which was invested in his education. In the case of female
traders, the educated child often provides his mother with a sub-
stantial sum of money for trading capital. Traders frequently
express the opinion that "money for school fees will come back to

you, and examples of this are common.

One woman struggled for years to contribute to the secondary
school fees of her two eldest children. Over half her trading
profits were diverted to the educational fund, and her business
expanded very slowly. Eventually, however, the eldest child gave
her the sum of £100, and soon afterwards, the second child added £60
to this. The woman invested this money in cloth and gold jewelry, and
almost overnight became a big trader and a member of the marketplace
elite. In another case, a woman who diverted most of her trading
profits to an educational fund for her eldest son was not given a sum
of trading money in return, but the son assumed the responsibility of
provisioning the educational fund of his younger brother. The trader
was thus able to invest her trading profits in her business and her
fund of trading capital grew rapidly.

The provisioning of what I have termed an emergency fund can
seriously inhibit the accumulation of capital by women traders. Day-
to-day subsistence can, to some extent, be planned for, and educational
expenses are known in advance, but the emergency is by definition

unexpected. 'In many households, incomes are too low to permit much

saving, though almost everyone, male and female, with any source of

168

income whatsoever saves money in a rotating credit association or
"meeting." In cases of emergency, people can usually redeem their
"meeting" payments fairly easily and can also borrow additional funds
from savings and loan societies (which are also called "meetings").
These monies must be paid back, however, usually with interest.

It is common for women to join several rotating credit
associations which they often view as funds destined for different
purposes. Ethnic and religious association "meetings" are viewed as
a ceremonial and entertainment fund. Marketplace "meetings" are
usually viewed as capital accumulation destined for investment in
stock. Neighborhood "meetings" are often regarded as pocket-money
funds destined to be spent on luxury items. Women rarely save
specifically for emergencies such as illnesses or disputes, but the
ceremonial fund is often used for such purposes, particularly the
ethnic association ”meeting." Ethnic associations readily come to
the assistance of members in need, but members must pledge continued
support of the association and pay back loans. When loans are
incurred in emergencies, savings from the marketplace and neighborhood
meetings are often diverted from their intended ends (i.e., investment
in stock and luxury consumption) and are used to repay money borrowed
in situations of emergency.

In one case, a dried fish seller who trades with roughly £9
capital and makes an average of £3le profit per month, became
seriously ill. Two of her children were also ill, and the husband
sent the wife and the children to a herbal doctor in his home village

where they recovered satisfactorily. The husband borrowed from a

169

savings and loan society to pay the medical expenses. For several
months afterwards, it was necessary for the wife to use almost all
her trading profits to repay the savings society loan. In another
case, the husband of a "small market" seller became involved in a
land dispute in his home village. The husband needed mOney to
persuade the adjudicator to decide the case in his favor. Although
he was able to obtain some of the money he needed from his ethnic
association, he still found it necessary to take‘fi9 of his wife's
trading money, which amounted to roughly half her trading capital.
In order to clarify the economic situation of female traders,
a number of household budgets are presented as case studies. As has
been pointed out above, man and wife operate separate budgets. This
study focuses on women, and details of incomes and expenditures of
female traders were relatively easy to obtain once rapport had been
established with the individual women chosen as case studies.
Details of incomes and expenditures of men were more difficult to
obtain. Wives have scanty knowledge of their husbands' budgets.
Husbands were reluctant to divulge such information to a young,
female researcher whom they suspected might pass on this information
to their wives or to other individuals whom they knew to be
participating in the study. I am indebted to my husband for
establishing rapport with male informants and assisting in the
collection of these data. Every attempt has been made to protect the
anonymity of individuals. To this end, the household budgets

presented are composite, in that each budget has been compiled from

170

several case studies, and therefore represents a type of household
budget rather than an individual case study. In the interests of
clarity, however, the material is presented as case studies. The
information obtained from male NIFOR employees is reasonably
accurate. The information obtained from males.who are not employed
at NIFOR, or who are employed by the Institute only occasionally as
casual laborers, is probably less accurate. Self-employed male
farmers, traders, and artisans keep no written records of incomes

and expenditures, and receive and spend money at irregular intervals.
It is extremely difficult to calculate monthly incomes and expendi-
tures for such individuals, and the data presented consist of
estimates made by individuals of their probable monthly budgetary
items. With respect to the female budgets, the data are highly
accurate as female traders were asked to keep written records both
of business transactions and of household incomes and expenditures
for extended periods ranging from four months to nine months. The
household budgets presented are those in which the wife or wives are
traders. It must be remembered, however, that in roughly 50% of all
households, the wife or wives do not trade and have no money income.
The five household budgets represent types, and the classification is
based on the income of the husband and the complexity and stage of
development of the family, which two factors are of prime importance
in determining the extent to which the female trader can allocate her

money profits to an investment fund to expand her business.

171

Household No. l.--This household is composed of two adult
members, man and wife, and three young children ranging in age from
two years to 10 years. One child attends primary school. The

husband is a daily-paid NIFOR laborer; the wife is a "small market"

 

 

 

 

trader.
. HUSBAND WIFE

Monthly Income

Salary £l2:l0 nil ‘

Trading Profits nil f Avg. £4:10
Monthly Expenditures

Housing Rent l3/- nil

Subsistence Fund 'ES Avg. £l:5'

Ceremonial Expenditures I2 In

Educational Expenses Avg. 8/— nil

Miscellaneous Avg. 9/- 5/-
‘Monthly Savings and

Investments

Rotating Credit Associations EA f2

Savings and Loan Society nil nil

Households of this type are common at NIFOR. The household
is small and simple. The husband earns a low salary, but is able to
provide most of the subsistence fund as well as the few educational
expenses. The wife uses part of her trading profits to supplement
thejubsistencefund. Both members finance their separate ceremonial
funds, and save in rotating credit associations. The money saved is
usually spent on consumer goods, particularly clothing and housewares,
and when necessary, for emergencies. The wife has difficulty

increasing her trading capital.

172

Household No. 2.--This household is composed of two adult
members, man and wife, and eight children ranging in ages from seven
months to 15 years. Four children attend primary school. The
husband is a daily-paid NIFOR laborer; the wife is a dried fish

seller.

 

 

 

 

HUSBAND WIFE

Monthly Income

Salary £15 nil

Trading Profits nil Avg. fst
Monthly Expenditures

Housing Rent lB/- nil

Subsistence Fund £5 Avg. £3

Ceremonial Expenditures ‘El ‘El

Educational Expenses Avg. Elle nil

Miscellaneous Avg. Elzl2 Avg £1
Monthly Savings and .

Investments

Rotating Credit Associations El £2

Savings and Loan Society £4 ‘El:5

The adult members of this household are approaching middle-
age. The husband earns a low salary, but his wife contributes
substantially to the subsistence fund. Both husband and wife save as
much as possible. The wife's savings are used to buy necessary
consumer goods, mainly clothing. Most of the husband's savings are
left in a savings and loan society, as he hopes to be able to send at
least one of his sons to secondary school. The wife uses a small
portion of her profits to augment her trading capital, as she hopes
to expand her trade so as to be able to assist the husband in paying

the secondary school fees.

173

Household No. 3.--This household is composed of three adult
members, a man and two wives, and 11 children ranging in ages from
three months to 17 years. Two boys attend secondary school, and
five children attend primary school. The husband is a NIFOR junior
staff employee; the senior wife sells dried river fish and the

junior wife sells "small market."

 

 

 

 

SENIOR 'JUNIOR
HUSBAND WIFE WIFE
Monthly Income
Salary £35 nil nil
Trading Profits nil Avg.'ElZ:5 Avg. E3le
Monthly Expenditures
Housing Rent f2 nil nil
Subsistence Fund £7 Avg. £5 Avg £1le
Ceremonial Expenses nil 5/- 5/-
Educational Expense £19 £3 nil
Expenses for Motorcycle E5 nil nil
Miscellaneous £1 16/- ll/-
Monthly_Savings and
Investments
Rotating Credit Associations ‘fiS most of £1:4 16/-
which goes
to school
5 fees
Savings and Loans Society nil £2 8/-

This household is large and complex. The husband earns a
good salary, but he has a large family and heavy educational expendi-
tures. The senior wife has a profitable trade in dried fish, and is
able to contribute substantially to the subsistence fund and assist the
husband slightly with school fees. The senior wife uses all her

savings to buy clothing for her children and is not able to reinvest

her profits in her business.

174

The junior wife has fewer children

and they are young ones. She does not contribute to the household

educational fund, but does supplement the subsistence fund. Most

of her savings are used to buy clothing, but she is able to reinvest

a small portion of her trading profits in her trade which is

gradually expanding.

Household No. 4.--This household is composed of two adult -

 

members, man and wife, two young children and a teenage newphew of

the husband. The husband is a part-time farmer, part-time trader.

He is assisted by his nephew.

marketplace, and provisions at her house.

school.

Monthly Income

 

Income from Farm
Trading Profits

Monthly Expenditures

 

Housing Rent

Subsistence Fund
Replacement Fund for Farm
Ceremonial Expense
Educational Expenses
Support of Aged Parents
Miscellaneous

Monthly Savings and
Investment

 

 

Rotating Credit Associations

Savings and Loan Society

Profits Reinvested Directly
in Trade

HUSBAND

Avg. £10
Avg. £15

I2z5

£10

Avg. £3
10/-

Avg. 8/-
Avg. 10/-
£1:7

nil

The wife sells "small market" in the

One child attends primary

WIFE

nil
Avg‘E5:lO

nil
nil
nil
nil
nil
ifille

nil

£2

175

The data from which this household budget has been con-
structed do not include any examples of full-time self-employed
farmers. I have very little information on farming household
budgets. Most of the farmers I encountered were part-time cultivators
and part—time wage-laborers, artisans or traders.

The members of household no. 4 derive more income from
trading than from farming. The household is small, and educational
expenses are minimal. Both husband and wife are able to invest
substantial amounts in trade expansion. The husband provides full

subsistence for the family.

Household No. 5.--This household is composed of three adult

 

members, a man and two wives, and nine children ranging in age from
three years to 18 years. Two children attend secondary school and
four attend primary school. The husband is a NIFOR permanent staff
employee with considerable seniority. The senior wife sells cloth
and tobacco, and is a seamstress. The junior wife sells rice, beans,
and groundnuts. '

This household is large and complex. The husband earns a very
good salary, and both wives, particularly the senior one, are
successful traders. The senior wife has, in the past, been able to
expand her business and is now preparing to branch out of marketplace
trade into real-estate. The husband is already a landlord, and
despite heavy educational expenses which are likely to increase as
his children become older, he is nevertheless able to save a con-

siderably amount of his salary for future investment.

Monthly Income

 

Salary
Trading Profits
Rent from Tenants

Monthly Expenditures

 

Housing Rent
Subsistence Fund
Educational Expenses
Support of Parents
Motorcycle Expenses
Ceremonial Expenses
Miscellaneous

Monthly Savings and
Investments

 

 

Rotating Credit Associations
Savings and Loan Societies

Bank Savings Account

Direct Reinvestment in Trade

176

HUSBAND

£5

£20 destined
for school
fees

£15 destined
for
automobile

nil

SENIOR
WIFE

nil
Avg. £40
nil

nil
Avg.
Avg.
nil
nil
ffl:lO
fflle

532%

IS

'£lO .
destined
for school
fees

£8le
destined
for
building

'£l:10

JUNIOR
WIFE

nil
Avg. £20
nil

nil
Avg.‘£3
Avg. £5
nil

nil
15/-

ID

£2:5

£5 destined
for
clothing
and trade

£3

nil

These five household budgets illustrate the ways in which the

household/families in the NIFOR-area manage their financial affairs.

The earning-capacity of the husband is a key factor influencing the

development of the wife from petty trader to capitalist trader. The

extent to which the husband can provision the subsistence, educational

and emergency funds of the family largely determines the degree to

which the female trader can allocate her money-profits to an investment

fund for expanding her business.

I know of no woman whose income

177

from trading is consistently and significantly greater than her
husband's income, though there is a widespread belief, particularly
among upper and middle-class people, that such cases are common.
The successful female traders in the NIFOR-area are wives of
successful government civil servants, not of daily-paid laborers.
It is my impression from talking to Benin City traders, that also
among urban female traders, the big traders are presently, or were
during the formative stages of their careers, married to successful
business or professional men.

The tactics most frequently employed by NIFOR-area petty
traders who desire and are able to provision an investment fund for
business expansion are firstly to save money—profits in "meetings,"
and secondly to invest, at a risk, in what are believed to be more
profitable commodities. This latter tactic sometimes requires the
trader to make major changes from one type of trade to another, but
sometimes requires her simply to expand her present line of business.

Female traders save their trading profits primarily through
regular payments made into rotating credit associations and into
savings and loan societies. The way in which these two types of
"meetings" function has been outlined above. It has been pointed out
that rotating credit associations are the most common type of savings
society, and that women frequently join several which they view as
funds destined for different purposes. Marketplace rotating credit
associations are frequently viewed by traders as savings funds

destined for reinvestment in trade.

178

While almost all middleman-traders make payments into
rotating credit associations outside the marketplace (i.e.,
neighborhood meetings, and ethnic or religious association meetings),
entrepreneurially-minded traders frequently prefer to provision their
trading investment fund through payments into a savings and loan
society rather than a marketplace rotating credit association. Such
women adopt a relatively long-range savings policy, and are generally
firmlyvcommittedto business expansion. Short-term savers join
marketplace rotating credit associations from which they receive
money back after a relatively short period of time. Money paid into
a rotating credit association is considered reasonably accessible.

If the woman wishes to redeem her payments, she simply convinces a
friend to change places with her in the rotation. Rotating credit»
association money does not accumulate interest--members receive back
exactly what they pay in. Usually, they wait no more than two to
three months for their turn in the rotation.

Expansion-oriented traders prefer savings and loan societies
because money paid into these meetings does accumulate interest.
Members must wait usually a full year before redeeming their payments,
but many feel this to be a far superior means of saving despite the
long wait. One woman who paid £18 into a savings and loan society
(£lle per month for 12 months) received back £23z8 at the end of
the year (i.e., her payments of £18 plus interest of‘£5:8).

Another woman paid a total of £24 into a meeting and received back
£29zlS, the interest in this case amounting to £5:15. Although

payments made into a savings and loan society can be redeemed at any

179

time, most women regard such monies as relatively untouchable.
Rotating credit association money is regarded as easily accessible,
but savings and loan society members are very reluctant to withdraw
their money in advance of the specified date of payment, because by
so doing they usually forfeit the interest. Expansion-oriented
traders do on occasion make payments into marketplace rotating

credit associations, but tend to do so only if they can convince

the organizer of the association to place them at the beginning of the
rotation. As one profit-seeking trader pointed out, "I must struggle
to be first or second so that I can take the money and make it work
for me before I begin to pay." In other words, rotating credit
association money has the advantage of being an interest-free loan,
but until such money is transformed into capital, it is "petrified
into a hord" (Marx, l930:lll). Savings and loan society money, on
the other hand, is continually accumulating interest and increasing
its value.

Traders accumulate money through saving their trading profits
in "meetings." They transform their money-savings into capital when
they invest in commodities for resale. In the preceding chapter,
the wide range of commodities sold in NIFOR-area marketplaces were
grouped into several categories. These categories (Tables 12 and 13)
conform to the commodity groupings observable in the marketplace, and
are recognized by traders as being distinct types of trade. It has
been noted that traders make frequent small changes in the commodities
that they sell, as well as less frequent changes from one major

commodity grouping to another. Small changes often do not require

180

much capital. Major changes from one line of business to another,
or expansion of one commodity into a specialty usually do require
relatively large amounts of capital. Traders use the money from
savings and loan societies to make these major changes or expansions.
They do so at a risk. Entrepreneurial traders are more willing to
take major risks, while others are often reluctant to innovate.

The amount of money received from marketplace rotating credit
associations is usually too small to enable the trader to make major
commodity changes, but is enough to allow her to experiment with new
items on a small-scale. Individual marketplace rotating credit
associations rarely pay more than £6 to £8. With this amount of
money, the "small market" trader can add one or two commodities to
her inventory, but cannot buy enough of the specialty items (e.g.,
rice, beans, and groundnuts, or dried fish and meat) to be recognized
as a specialist in these commodities. Nor is this amount enough to
enable a "small market" trader to switch into an entirely new line
of business such as provisions and articles, or dishes and plastics.
Traders do invest their rotating credit association loans in stock,
but the changes made tend to be on a small scale and within the same
commodity grouping.

The amount of money a NIFOR-area trader receives from a
savings and loan society after a year's payments is usually in the
range of £20 to £35. This amount does enable the trader to make
major changes, provided she reinvests the entire sum in her business.
In one case, a "small market" seller who traded with roughly £lO

capital received £22 from her savings and loan society and immediately

181

sold out her "small market" commodities, which at the time consisted
of egeusi seed, salt, capsicum peppers and crayfish, and invested the
sum of roughly £30 in dried river fish. In another case, a seller of
dried bonga and mangala fish used her savings society money of £24:10
to purchase stockfish. This commodity is an imported item which was
banned during the crisis and had only recently been reintroduced. It
is a very popular commodity which people had not been able to purchase
for several years. The trader made a wise investment which greatly
benefited her business, as she was one of the first women in the
marketplace to sell stockfish.

It is not unheard of for women to return all their savings to
the I'meeting" and allow the amount to accumulate over a period of
years. One woman reinvested close to three-quarters of her savings
in the society for a period of four years. At the end of that time,
she withdrew the sum of £85, added to it the circulating capital of

£25 from her dried fish trade, and invested in cloth and tobacco.

Stage Three: Entry Into the Elite

 

It has been pointed out that capitalist marketplace traders
occupy a high-status position in the society. In the NIFOR-area,
women who trade with over £60 capital are regarded as big traders,
though those at the bottom of this scale (£50 to £100 capital) are
often referred to by more successful women as "coming up" traders.
The distinguishing feature of the big trader is that she possesses
a relatively large amount of money capital which she manipulates in

a capitalistic way. Women who succeed in attaining the elite status

182

of big trader are frequently highly expansion-oriented, and are
motivated to search for new ways in which to invest and accumulate
capital. The main exception is elderly women who become big
traders at an advanced age, and therefore lack the motivation and
energy necessary for further business expansion.

There are two major strategies employed by big traders who
are expansion-oriented and profit-seeking. The first is to expand
the scale of marketplace trade through increasing the size of the
trading firm. The second is to innovatively invest money-capital in
business enterprise outside the marketplace.

The Expansion of Marketplace
Business

 

Petty traders manage single-person firms. They are at best
able to utilize the available labor-time of one or two of their own
children. They never have full-time apprentices or employees. Big
traders frequently manage firms consisting of from one to four full-
time employees or apprentices. Of the 33 big traders interviewed in
Ugbogiobo Market, 25 had full-time apprentices. Big traders usually
select as employees and apprentices members of their extended families.
It is rare for marketplace traders to employ assistants who are not
related to them. Apprentices are usually unmarried females between
the ages of 16 and 20; occasionally, however, teenage boys are
selected. It is customary for the big trader to spend one to two
months closely supervising the work of an apprentice and instructing
her in salesmanship techniques. During this period, the big trader

generally leaves the apprentice on her own only when it is necessary

183

for the trader to travel out of town to buy stock. Once she is
satisfied of the apprentice's ability and honesty, the expansion-
oriented trader is free to seek out new marketplaces in which to
establish herself. Thus the Benin City traders who sell in
Ugbogiobo Market and in other rural periodic markets usually leave
the apprentice/employees to sell in the daily urban markets, and
spend their time travelling out to rural areas. Many big traders
have employees selling for them in several daily urban markets.
Employees are rarely paid a fixed wage. Rather they are given a
'fixed percentage of the profits from the sales they make. Several
big traders reported that each employee received 50% of the profits
from her own sales.

Big traders who are expansion-oriented frequently spend .
almost all their time in trading activities. They are rarely at home,
and therefore, they usually delegate the great majority of household
chores and child-rearing responsibilities to other members of the
household, i.e., teenage relatives or servants.‘ Many big traders
are past child-bearing age. Those who are not, do stay at home for
several months after child-birth, but they resume trading as soon as
possible. While the petty trader almost always carries her infant
with her to the marketplace, the big trader rarely does so, preferring
to leave the infant in the care of a young girl or "baby-nurse."
Most petty traders would also prefer to leave small infants at home,
but are unable to do so because they do not have the money to hire
responsible "baby-nurses" or to meet the costs of bottle-feeding

infants.

184

Big traders frequently travel long distances to buy stock.
Before the civil war, Onitsha Market was a much-used source of supply
by Midwest cloth, jewelry and tobacco traders. Onitsha Market was
reputed to be the largest marketplace in West Africa. The Market,
however, was destroyed during the crisis, and although Onitsha is
still a recognized trading center, the marketplace has not yet
regained its former size and importance. Most big traders from the
Benin/NIFOR-area now travel to Lagos and Ibadan to buy stock from
large wholesale firms. Such business trips require the trader to be
away from home for two or three days at a time. Household and
family responsibilities must therefore be delegated to relatives or
servants. I know of no big trader who would consider sending an
apprentice or employee to buy stock. The trader herself is always
the one to undertake such trips, as employees are not thought to be
capable of handling these responsibilities,_nor have they established
the necessary business relationships with wholesale suppliers.

The Innovative Investment of
Money—Capital

 

 

Big traders who are able to accumulate large amounts of
capital tend to diversify and invest in other types of business. The
two most common forms of non-marketplace enterprise are shops and
tenement houses.

The trader who opens a shop usually runs it herself with the
help of several shop assistants. In addition, she frequently retains
employees who sell for her in the marketplaces, and sometimes she will

continue to sell in the marketplaces herself. Rural big traders who'

185

decide to open shops invariably do so in a large town or city.
Sometimes this necessitates a move by the trader away from her
husband whom she may then only visit from time to time. In other
cases, the woman may commute to and from the town each day. A

woman who is past child-bearing age is often free to move out of

her husband's house, particularly if the husband has married a
junior wife. Such a move does not necessarily stem from marital
instability (though in some cases this may be so), but simply from
the acceptance by both husband and wife that since the senior wife
can have no more children, and since the husband's needs can be
filled by the junior wife, there is no necessity for the senior wife
to remain in a rural area where her business expansion may be
restricted. It is unusual for big traders to permanently leave ‘
their husband's houses until they have passed child-bearing age.

It is also unusual for a woman who is the only wife in the household
to abandon the husband for business reasons.

Big traders, both rural and urban, frequently invest money in
real-estate. Plots of land are bought and large houses are built
which are then rented to tenants. In urban areas, land is now
freely bought and sold. In rural areas there are still restrictions,
but it is usually possible for a wealthy capitalist to convince local
authorities to sell land, particularly if the capitalist is of local
origin. The demand for housing in urban areas is high. Many big
traders invest capital in real-estate in Benin City. In the NIFOR-
area, the demand for housing is also high. Several of the tenement

houses on Ozolua Road are owned by local business women. It is

186

also said that wealthy women often invest capital in fleets of
lorries and taxis. However, I did not encounter any women who had
invested their capital in this way.

As women increasingly invest in business enterprises
outside the marketplace, they come to be referred to as "business
women" rather than "big traders." A very small percentage of female
traders attain the status of "business woman." Those who do are
usually married to wealthy business or professional men, and tend to
be extremely hard-working. One successful business woman in the
NIFOR-area is away from home 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week.
She has a shop in Benin City and also manages trading establishments
in several urban marketplaces. She is still of child-bearing age,
and has many children ranging in age from infancy to near-adulthood.
She commutes to and from the city every day except Sunday, and
delegates almost all household and child-rearing responsibilities to
servants. Another elderly woman who is the senior wife of a NIFOR
employee has long since left her husband's house and established
herself in Benin City where she can more easily oversee her business
affairs. The opportunities for business expansion in rural areas are
limited. All business women living in the NIFOR-area, of which there
are very few, have invested at least part of their capital in

town-based enterprises. Most also own real-estate in the NIFOR-area.

CHAPTER VI

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this dissertation has been to analyze the
emergence of a capitalist mode of commodity circulation among
female traders in rural Benin (cf. Marx, 1930). This process has
been conceptualized as a sequence of strategies by means of which
the trader manipulates the socio-economic environment to appropriate
surplus-value in a processional way. Strategies are defined as
long-range plans or objectives, while tactics refer to short-term
actions consistent with these objectives (cf. Whitten and Whitten,

. 1972).

Female traders in rural Benin Operate within a regional
marketing system which conforms to the general pattern throughout
much of West Africa (cf. Smith, 1971). It is characterized by
marketplaces as the focal point of exchange, as well as by market-
place periodicity which results in a loose system of interconnecting
"market rings." Site-free exchange occurs within the communities,
but the marketplace is the site of the great majority of‘inter-
actional exchange, and it is in the marketplace that prices are set.

Although rural Benin in general is characterized by peasant
or semi-capitalist agricultural production. NIFOR which is a large

research institute embodying many of the characteristics of the '

187

188

"New-Style" plantation (cf. Wolf, 1959), constitutes a capitalist
plantation enclave within the surrounding peasant region. The large
wage—earning population of NIFOR employees has increased the demand
for food and other consumer goods, and has stimulated the growth of
the local marketing system. Women dominate the internal marketing
system as traders or specialists in exchange. Women trade because
they need money and alternative sources of money-income are lacking.
They need money because the responsibility for the support of the
family/household does not rest entirely with the male head of the
household. Within the NIFOR staff community of Isiuwa Village and
in the satellite communities of Uwan, Ugbogiobo and Iguoyemwen, over
50% of adult women engage in some type of trade; most of these are
marketplace traders.

Nigerian marketplaces in general are highly competitive,
price-setting markets (Marshall, 1964; Anthonio, 1970; Ilori, 1970;
Osagie, n.d.; Whitney, 1970). The factors limiting competition in
the NIFOR-area marketplaces have been identified as enduring trading
relationships in the forms of traders' associations and trading
partnerships, attempts to cater to customer preferences in the choices
of which commodities to sell, and a set of socio-cultural criteria
on the basis of which the seller segments the population of buyers
into categories. Five such principles have been specified as the
basis upon which this segmentation occurs, namely, ethnicity, kinship,
income-grouping, age and sex. It has been stressed, however, that
price discrimination based on these criteria is limited. In a given

transaction, the price arrived at through bargaining behavior is

189

largely a result of the haggling ability and market knowledge of
the two parties involved.

The marketplace capitalist, or big trader, is distinguished
by the fact that she possesses a relatively large fund of money—
capital which she manipulates in a capitalistic way. Petty
traders develop into capitalist traders through employing a
sequence of strategies the objectives of which are the acquisition,
accumulation and manipulation of money-capital.

Three logical stages in this process have been delineated.
Firstly, traders change from simple commodity circulation to
"potential"-capitalist commodity circulation when they acquire an
initial fund of money-capital and engage in middleman trading
activities. The strategies~ specified at this preliminary stage
include the acquisition of money through a gift or loan, and the
general accumulation of a hoard of money through saving the small
profits from petty activities. Most petty traders acquire their
initial trading capital through a gift or loan. It is considered to
be the responsibility of the husband to establish his wife in trade,
and many women do not have to actively request trading money.
However, some must employ the tactic of asking. Others who do not
receive a gift or loan, or who receive only a small sum, must convert
their labor-time into capital through growing or making products to
sell, or through performing services for which they receive money-
remuneration. Very few women acquire initial trading capital
through seeking cash loans from savings and loan societies or

professional money-lenders, or credit loans from established

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190

wholesalers. Women who begin trading with very small sums of
money usually sell "small market" and invest in several popular and
relatively cheap commodities to spread their risks. They also
frequently employ the tactic of joining a marketplace rotating
credit association which forces them to hoard savings for future

capitalist investment or consumption expenditure. Traders who

3i“. 2 9‘11
F

succeed in acquiring an initial sum of money-capital are potential
capitalists and are distinguished from peasant-marketers who

generally engage only in simple commodity circulation.

 

The second stage in the development from petty trader to g
capitalist trader requires that a woman manipulate money-capital in
ways which lead to its growth, i.e., that she engage in true
capitalist commodity circulation. Traders who operate with a fund of
money-capital are not necessarily capitalists. Many of them use
their money—profits to provision non-investment funds. True
capitalist commodity circulation requires that at least some portion
of the money-profits be reinvested in trade, thus increasing the
fund of trading capital. The strategies employed at this stage of
the adaptive process include firstly the minimization of the competi-
tiveness of the internal marketing system, secondly, the maximization
of profits in trading transactions, and thirdly, the allocation of
money-profits to an investment fund for trading. .The first two
strategies result in the accumulation of wealth, while the third is.

aimed at transforming this money-wealth into trading capital.

191

The tactics employed by traders in their endeavor to
minimize competition include joining a traders' association,
establishing enduring relationships with trading partners, catering
to customer preferences in the choices of which commodities to sell,
and the slight propensity to patronize and be patronized by customers
of one's own ethnic, kin, religious, political or friendship network.
This latter tactic functions mainly as one basis upon which trading
partnerships are formed. Joining a traders' association can be a
very effective tactic, but as there are only three such associations
in the NIFOR-area markets, few women employ this tactic. Trading
partnerships are established by a great many traders, all of whom
recognize the benefits of such enduring relationships.. Traders fre-
quently form partnerships with pe0ple with whom they interact in
other activity fields outside the marketplace. Attempts to cater
to customer preferences require the trader to make frequent small
changes in the commodities which she sells, and to be constantly
alert to supply and demand within the marketplace. This tactic is
attempted by many traders, but the majority are relatively
unsuccessful due to their reluctance to take risks and their
inaccurate assessments of the state of the market.

The tactics employed by traders to maximize profits include
aggressive and clever salesmanship and bargaining behavior in
isolated interactions, careful use of unconventional or dishonest
practices, and careful management of labor-time to increase the

total volume of transactions. Most traders employ the same basic

 

192

salesmanship tactics, but some are definitely more energetic and
aggressive and appear to enjoy the activity of selling more than
others. Although no measure of effectiveness was obtained, it is
evident that the more lively and energetic traders attract more
potential customers and make more sales. Cheating tactics are
widely used by traders. Those who cheat carefully can be said to
use these tactics effectively; those who cheat indiscriminately
lose customers, but are in a position to learn from their errors;

those few who regard cheating as morally wrong are prohibited from

 

the use of these tactics by their systems of values. The spatio-
temporal distribution of marketplaces can result in irritating
transportational problems for traders who wish to increase the volume
of transactions. Profit-maximizers tend to be conscientious and
consistent in their movements, and are efficient organizers of the
labor-time available to them. They thereby overcome such problems.
The tactics employed by traders to the end of allocating
money-profits to an investment fund for trading include saving
money in "meetings," and investing in more profitable trading com-
modities. The extent to which female traders are able to employ
these tactics and operationalize this strategy is primarily a result
of the ability of the husband to provision the subsistence/replacement,
educational and emergency funds of the household. Women from poor
families are prohibited from saving, and frequently spend most or all
of their money—profits to support their families. Women from
wealthier families are generally more able to reinvest their profits

in their businesses. This is not always the case, however, because

193

wealthier men often have extensive financial commitments and costly
aspirations for themselves and their children. They may, therefore,
reduce the amount of subsistence money given to the wife. Women

who are able to save their money-profits and are firmly committed to
business expansion tend to favor savings and loan societies over

rotating credit associations. They do so not only because money P:
paid into the former type of ”meeting" accumulates interest, but i
also because savings societies tend to keep money for longer periods

than rotating credit associations, and therefore, the size of the

 

hoard that the trader receives back is substantial. The capitalist t:
trader uses the money from savings and loan societies to make major
changes from one commodity grouping to another more profitable one,
or to expand one particular commodity to the point that she can be
said to specialize in a given type of trade. Major commodity
changes involve risks which some traders are reluctant to take.
Such changes require both a firm commitment to save the requisite
amount of money, and a willingness to risk losing the established
and familiar pattern of trade in the hope of gaining money-profits
from a new and insecure venture.

The third stage in the development from petty trader to
capitalist trader is marked by strategies employed by wealthy big
traders who are expansion-oriented. Such women are members of the
marketplace elite (cf. Leith-Ross, 1965), and are usually good
managers and organizers, imaginative innovators, and active profit-
seekers (cf. Barth, 1966). The strategies employed by marketplace

big traders are aimed at accelerating capital accumulation. They

194

consist firstly of expanding the scale of marketplace business by
increasing the size of the trading firm, and secondly of innovatively
investing capital in business enterprise outside the marketplace.
This latter strategy, when successfully employed, results in the
upward mobility of the marketplace capitalist from the status of

"big trader" to that of "business woman." Big traders increase the

57...?
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size of the trading firm by hiring apprentices and employees whom
they train to sell for them, usually in the urban daily markets;

the trader can thus sell in several marketplaces at the same time.

 

Big traders also make more effective use of their own labor-time by L;
delegating the great majority of household chores and child-rearing P
responsibilities to servants. Investment of capital in business
enterprise outside the marketplace most commonly takes the form of
shops or real—estate. Since the opportunities for such investment
tend to be in the towns, rural traders often leave the rural areas
and move to the urban centers.
In this dissertation I have tried to demonstrate the heuristic
value of the concepts of "strategy" and "tactic" to analyze the
development from petty trader to capitalist trader. I have also used
a Marxian frame of reference to analyze this process within the
bounds of current interests in economic anthropology. The analysis
is limited to a discussion of the behavior of female traders, and the
specification and conceptualization of the activities which enable
petty traders to develop into capitalist traders. It has been shown
that within the study communities, slightly over 50% of all adult

women are engaged in trading activities, and most of these are

195

marketplace traders. Of these marketplace traders, only about 5% are
capitalist traders. This means that only about 2%% of adult women
effectively apply the trading strategies and tactics which enable
them to accumulate a relatively large fund of capital and

manipulate it in capitalistic ways.

The activities of petty traders and marketers in the NIFOR-
area would seem to differ very little from those of their counter-
parts in other parts of the world (see for example, Marshall, 1964;
Dewey, 1962; Katzin, 1960; Tax, 1953; and Mintz, 1959). Internal
marketing systems throughout much of the developing world appear to
be remarkably similar. The conceptual frame of reference used in
this paper, therefore, could be fruitfully applied in comparative
studies. In addition, the refinement of an index to weight and
measure specific strategies and tactics would increase our under-
standing of how such systems function, as well as provide a means of
evaluating the relative importance of particular activities.

Finally, although I have approached the problem of the
development of capitalist traders inductively, several propositions
arise from the present analysis.

Proposition 1: Capitalist traders emerge only where the mode
of production generates not only a high demand for
commodities, but also the widespread use of general
purpose money which can be transformed into capital.

This proposition is in keeping with Marx' emphasis on pro-
duction as the key process in the economy, the one which determines

the form of the other economic processes (Marx, 1904:291-292,

1971:16—43). In this regard, it should be emphasized that although

if"
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A.

‘W-‘A‘x’n‘ L
‘ La

196

the NIFOR-area may appear to be atypical of rural Benin in general,
actually it is best regarded as a capitalist enclave within a semi—
capitalist region. As such, its influence on the marketplace exchange
system is one of degree rather than kind. NIFOR-area marketplaces

may offer slightly greater scope for the development of capitalist
traders than other rural marketplaces, but this difference is
quantitative and measurable.

Proposition 2: Among female traders, familial roles (rights
and obligations of traders in their role-sets within the
family group) influence trading activities to a greater
extent than do other social roles. 'It follows, therefore,
that a woman's development from petty trader to capitalist
trader can be both helped and hindered by her changing
rights and obligations in the developmental cycle of the
family, and also by the over- -all position of the family
group within the social stratification system.

This prOposition is based on the point of view put forward
by Godelier (1966) and Cook (1973) that in all societies, whether
capitalist or pre-capitalist, the economy is "embedded" in social
structure. This point of view having been accepted, it follows
that the behavior of individual actors within the economic field
cannot be fully understood without reference to their behavior
within other activity fields.

The present study has shown that not only do familial role
obligations motivate women to acquire a money-income through
trading, but also at each stage in her trading career, the female
tradercxuibe either helped or hindered by the support and assistance

she receives from other family members. While female traders in

rural Benin are in one sense free to dispose of their trading

 

9'. . J .

197

profits in any way they choose, in actual fact, familial role
obligations dictate to a large degree the extent to which these
profits can be reinvested in trade. Studies in other parts of
Africa (Marshall, 1964; McCall, 1955; and Ottenberg, 1962), and
in the Caribbean (Katzin, 1960; Spence, 1964; and Mintz, 1964)
indicate that this proposition may have cross-cultural validity.
Proposition 3: Business opportunities for women in the

modern commercial sector will be great where women

participate widely and actively in the traditional

marketing system.

This proposition follows from the assertions of Bauer (1954),
Bauer and Yamey (1957), Mintz (1964) and Katzin (1964) that internal
marketing systems in developing countries are training grounds for
entrepreneurship. Traders operating in such systems not only
acquire entrepreneurial skills in order to survive as traders, but
also, some of them succeed in accumulating large amounts of capital.
Skill and capital are necessary factors of successful business
enterprise in the modern commercial sector.

Interestingly enough, however, Mintz (19712265) has recently
pointed out that contrary to expectations, women do not appear to be
entering the modern business world as freely as men. "But for
reasons that are not always clear, we have little evidence that
women traders in these situations have demonstrated a continuing
capacity to expand their operations, to innovate significantly in
trade , or to get firmly inside the sphere of export intermediation.”
Instead, Mintz continues, one finds men predominant in the export

business, and their growing importance in modern commercial

enterprise.

 

198

The data presented in this dissertation indicate that
capitalist traders in the NIFOR-area do expand the scale of market-
place trade, and also invest capital in business enterprise outside
the marketplace. However, the present study has concentrated
primarily on petty traders and small-scale capitalist traders, not
on "business women." Further research on the activities of businessi ;
women and comparison of these activities with those of their male ?1
counterparts is needed in order to test the validity of this third

proposition or of Mintz' suggestion to the contrary.

 

1F. . .
‘7’“ ,

FOOTNOTES

199

 

FOOTNOTES

1

‘The term ”adaptation" is used here in a sociological rather
than a biological sense and implies a conscious change in behavior
on the part of the actor. Webster's New World Dictionary defines
"adapt” as "to change (oneself) so that one's behavior, attitudes,
etc. will conform to new or changed circumstances."

2There is very little palm oil sold in Isiuwa Market because
NIFOR employees obtain a monthly ration of palm oil from the NIFOR
oil mill at a cheap rate.

3Throughout this paper, whenever individual cases are
discussed, certain details have been changed to protect the
anonymity of individuals.

4There are undoubtedly bigger traders in urban marketplaces.
In such a setting, women with only {60 to £80 capital might not be
categorized as big traders, but in a rural market they are definitely
among the wealthiest group.

5It must be remembered, however, that what is local farm
produce in the study area is imported farm produce in other areas
where it is certain to be sold by middlemen,some of whom may be
big traders.

6The total number of women interviewed in the Isiuwa Market

Restudy was 139, but 22 of these were peasant-marketers, not
middlemen.

200

 

APPENDICES

201

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APPENDIX A

COMMODITY INVENTORIES

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APPENDIX A

COMMODITY INVENTORIES

The following two tables present the list of commodities in F}
the two marketplaces, and the numbers of traders who were selling
these items on the days when the inventories were recorded. The Key

which follows the tables includes a brief description of those items

 

which may be unfamiliar to non-Nigerian readers. Scientific names
are specified wherever possible. Anyone familiar with Bini market-
places will undoubtedly notice omissions in the tables and key.
However, the items most frequently seen in the marketplaces are
included, along with as many of the rarer items as the investigator
was able to observe.

The two tables show the wide range of commodities available
in rural marketplaces. Unfortunately, the tables do not clearly
reflect the seasonality of farm produce, though through careful
examination of the figures some patterns can be seen. These tables
were compiled by counting the number of traders selling each
commodity, and not the amount of each commodity being sold. The
latter method would, of course, have yielded a much more accurate
description of the seasonality of primary produce, but given the time
and assistance available, it was impossible to adopt this method.

Nor was it possible to systematically document price fluctuations of

203

204

all commodities. This was attempted for a while, but the results
were disappointing in most cases due to the absence of standardized
weights and measures. For example, garri is sold by the standard
"adana" measure. A large-size adana holds 4 lbs. 8 025. of garri
when the measure is level. However, garri is always sold by the
heaped adana-full, and the amount added by heaping the measure varies.
The price of garri in Ugbogiobo Market varies from 2/- per heaped
adana in November to 5/-per heaped adana in June. In times of
scarcity, traders attempt to reduce the contents of the measure
firstly by slightly levelling the heap, secondly by substituting a
slightly smaller measure, and thirdly by reducing the extra amount
"dashed" to the consumer after completion of the sale. In the cases
of commodities such as yams, plantain, capsicum peppers and okra, no
standardized measure is used, thus further complicating the recording
of price fluctuations.

The study of seasonality is also confounded by the fact that
when certain produce is in short supply in an area, traders import the
items from other regions of the country. This happens in Ugbogiobo
Market, for example, in the cases of yams and tomatoes. Farm produce
that is not cultivated but gathered in the bush shows marked
seasonality because no effort is made to import or stock-pile such
items. Examples are native pear, African walnut and apo. Food
staples, or items of high importance in the diet rarely show marked
scarcities. When such items begin to grow scarce in a given area,
traders look elsewhere and import the items. Therefore, although

all primary farm produce is seasonal, this seasonality is not always

 

205

reflected by the number of women selling an item in the marketplace.
Given the terms of reference of the present study, it was impractical
to devote the necessary time and energy to a full analysis of the
seasonality of farm produce.

It is interesting to note that of the staple food crops--
cassava, yam, rice, maize, cocoyam, cowpeas (called beans) and

groundnuts-~only yam (Dioscorea 52,), cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata)

 

and one species of cocoyam (Colocasia antiquorum) are native to West

 

Africa. The others have been introduced. ‘

 

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10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

KEY TO COMMODITY INVENTORY TABLES

Yams: White yam (Dioscorea rotundata); Red yam (Q, cayenensis)
and Water yam (Q, alataT.

 

 

Cocoyams: Old cocoyam (Colocasia antiquorum) and new cocoyam
(Xanthosoma sagittifoliumli The latter is more common.

 

 

Beans: Principally the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), but various
Phaseolu§_species occasionally appear.

 

Kolanuts: Cola nitida (white kola) and Q, acuminata (red kola),
the latter having more cultural value.

 

Eggplant: Solanum melongena. Local form with small (1"
diameter) yellow and green fruits.

 

Pumpkin: Telfairea occidentalis, the fluted pumpkin. The
large oily seeds are cooked and eaten.

 

Egeusi melon: Cunumeropsis edulis and 9, [93311: Also
Citrullus vulgaris, the water-melon, which is native to
West Africa. The seeds are a popular soup ingredient.

 

 

Obgono: Irvingia gabonensis, the African mango. The seed is
used as a soup ingredient. The fruit is edible but not
popular.

 

Wrapping leaves: Used for wrapping snacks and cooked food in
the market. Thaumatococcus danielli.

 

Waterleaf: Talinum triangulare. A popular green vegetable.

 

Bush okra: 'Desplatzia subericarpa. No relative of common
okra, but the mucilaginous fruits serve a similar purpose
in cooking.

 

African walnut: Coula edulis. A nut similar to the common
walnut, eaten cooked.

 

Yellow Spanish plum: Spondias mombin. Small, yellow, acid
fruits eaten fresh.

 

Cotton seed: Seed of cotton (Gossypium spp.) used in soup.

220

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

221

Apo: African star apple (Chrysophyllum africanum), and less
frequently, 9, perpulchrum.

 

 

Spinach: Most common is African spinach (Amaranthus candatus).
Indian spinach (Basella alba) is sometimes seen and has
fleshy leaves.

 

 

"Red leaf vegetable": Bosquica angolensis, or possibly a
closely related Ficus (fig) species. The young leaves and
shoots are eaten as a vegetable.

 

 

 

Breadnuts: The seeds of a fertile form of breadfruit F3
(Artocarpus communis). Oily seeds are very palatable and ‘-
nutritious. '

"Native pear” or Bush butter tree: Pachylobus edulis. The :
green flesh is eaten and resembles avocado, hence the local '
name. ‘.

.“l
a;

 

Okpagha: Bentaclethra_macrophylla. The huge pods contain oil- .
bearing seeds which are also rich in protein. They are
eaten after prolonged cooking, or burnt and the ashes used

in soap—making.

 

Dried fish: Attempts to identify fish other than by their
local names were not successful. Bonga is a small salt
water fish from the Sapele/Narri area; mangala is a fresh
water fish from the north of Nigeria; ebeweri are small salt
water fish; and river fish are fresh water Niger perch

(Tilapia sp.).

Frozen fish: Various species, some imported and some from
local coastal waters. All distribution is by a few large
commercial fisheries. Most frozen fish is eaten fresh, but
some is smoked for preservation.

Bush meat: This commodity comprises meat of various local small
mammals of which the most common are the pouched or giant rat

 

rat or cutting-grass, Thryonomys swinderianus, and less
frequently, unidentified species of monkey and deer.

 

Alligator pepper: Aframomum.melagueta. The common name is a
corruption of the specific epithet. Aromatic seeds chewed
and the fruit eaten. Condiment and medicine.

Benin pepper: Piper guineense, similar in appearance and usage
to E. nigrum, the black pepper which is popular in the USA.

 

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.
36.

37.
38.

39.
40.
41.
42.

222

Guinea pepper: Xylopia ethiopica or 5, villosa. Has cosmetic
and medicinal uses as well as being a condiment. Fruits and
bark used.

Agio: Called "yellow fever root" because it is used in treatment
of jaundiced conditions. Uvaria chamae.

 

River mud: Eaten, especially by pregnant women, as a mineral
supplement.

Local salt: Principally natron (sodium sesquicarbonate). Used
in the boiling of hard food material, especially okpagha and
beans.

?1

“17h.

Chewing sticks: Various species, but most commonly Vernonia
amygdalina. Used primarily for cleaning the teeth, but
febrifuge and tonic properties are also attributed to them.
Also possibly Olax viridis.

 

 

 

Pepperfruit: Probably Xylopia vellotii. Seeds used as a condi-
ment and chewed as a stimulant.

 

Ebafo: Dissotis rotundifolia. The leaves are used variously
for rheumatism, coughs and colds, and eye irritations.

 

Owi: Buchholzia coriacea. The seeds are used as a condiment or
cough medicine.

 

Eyen: Immature fruits of Cucurbita pepo. Applied to inflamed
areas for its soothing properties.

 

Akasan: Pudding prepared with corn starch, also called "agidi."

Moi-moi: Food prepared with ground beans and seasoning, and
boiled.

Akamu: Corn-starch.

Akara: Fritters made with ground beans, corn or cassave, and
deep-fried in palm oil. '

Eko: Made from corn.

Buns: Made from wheat flour, and deep-fried.

Chi-chi: Pastry-type food made from flour and evaporated milk.
Garri: Cassava meal which is pre-cooked and then dried. A staple

food. (Tapioca is also produced in small quantities by
Urhobo women).

223
43. Local butter: A soup ingredient made from egeusi seeds and
ashes.

44. Dawa-dawa: A soup ingredient made from egeusi seeds.
Marketed in the form of small, flat, brown cakes.

45. Uloka: Made from corn flour, palm oil and spices.

46. Local sponge: The Bini name "ihion" applies to Luffa
aegyptica or "loofah” also, but this was not observed.
Instead, various unidentified forest twiners or lianas
with fibrous stems were used.

47. Black soap: Made from palm oil and ashes.

48. Soda soap: Made from palm oil and imported soda.

The main sources used in identifying plant and animal
species were Booth (1960), Dalziel (1937), Hutchinson and Dalziel

(1958), Kennedy (1936), and Masefield, et al. (1969).

“I"

fir.
~ 213' I;
I

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES

224

Date:

MARKETPLACE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR FEMALE TRADERS

Marketplace:

Location: Please draw the shed, number and letter it, and mark an

x to show where the woman is sitting.

Items: Please list each item the woman is selling and ask her BA

\IOSU'l-D-(AJN

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

where each item was obtained. I

Do you sell in this market regularly?
How many times in a month do you sell here?

 

What other markets do you regularly sell in?
Do you do any wholesaling?

How long have you been a trader?

How long have you been selling in this market?
How old are you?

How many children do you have?
What are their ages?
How many are living with you now?

Do you have any children or employees who help you with your
trading?

____Children

____Employees

Where do you live? (Name of village and house number, if any).
How long have you been living there?

What is your tribe?

How much schooling have you had?

What is your husband's occupation? (Please be specific).

Other Remarks:

 

225

Date:

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR MALE TRADERS

Location:

Items: Where each was obtained:

10.

11.

12.

13.

Do you sell in this market regularly?
How many times in a month do you sell here?

What other markets do you regularly sell in?

Do you have a shop?
If yes, where is it located?

Do you have any people (relatives or employees) who sell for
you?

Do you do any wholesaling?
How much gain do you make in a week or month?

How long have you been trading?
How long in this market?

How old are you?
Do you have any other occupation?

Are you married?
If yes, what is your wife's occupation?

Where do you live?
How long have you been living there?

How much schooling have you had?

What is your tribe?

226

Date:

ISIUWA MARKET RESTUDY

Location:

Items: Tribe:

1.

10.
11.

12.

13.
14.

15.

Were you interviewed in this market before?
If not, please ask her the first set of questions:
If yes, please mark down where she was located.

Were you interviewed in Ugbogiobo market?
If yes, please mark down the location if she can tell you.

Were you interviewed at home?
If yes, mark down village and house number or name.

What changes have you made in your business in the past six
months? (Please get details).

Why did you make each of these changes?
If she was not interviewed before, why was she absent?

Do you think your trade is getting better, staying the same,
or getting worse?

How much gain do you make in a week or month?

Do you think Isiuwa market is getting better, staying the same
or getting worse?
What of Ugbogiobo market?

Which marketplace is the best one for your trade?
What other markets do you sell in?

How did you learn to do trading?

Are you training anyone to do trading?
Have you trained anyone in the past?

Do you have regular customers that you sell to?
Are most of them housewives or traders?

Do you have regular customers that you buy from?

At the time when you first began trading, what did you sell?
At that time, how much trading money did you have?

Where did you get that trading money?

How much capital do you have now?

How long ago did you first begin trading?

What do you think makes a good trader?
Why are some traders better than others?

227

Date:

10.
11.

12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.

ISIUWA VILLAGE QUESTIONNAIRE
House Number: Name of Householder:

Do you do any trading?

What do you sell? (Please list each item.)
Where do you sell? (Please list each place.)
Do you have any other money-making activities? E3

How long have you been doing this type of trading (and/or
business)?

What did you do before your present business?

 

When did you change to your present one, and why?

Can you give me an estimate of your weekly or monthly profits
from your trade or business?

How old are you?
How much schooling have you had?

How many other women are living in this household?
In what way is each of them related to you?

What trading or other business does each of them do?
How many people are presently living in this household?
What is your home village?

What is your tribe?

How long have you been living at NIFOR?

Do you belong to a tribal society here at NIFOR?

Do you have other family at NIFOR?

How did your husband get his job at NIFOR?

How many men live in this household?

In what way is each of them related to you?

‘228

229

ISIUWA VILLAGE QUESTIONNAIRE, continued.

22.
23.
24.

25.

What is the occupation of each of them?
Do they have any other money-making activities?

How many children do you have? At home now?
What are their ages?

Do any of your children have jobs?

How many go to primary school?

How many go to secondary school?

How many children do the other women in the household have?
(Please list each woman and her children separately.)

How many live at home? (For each woman.)

What are their ages?

Do any of them have jobs?

How many go to primary school?

How many go to secondary school?

Other Remarks:

 

Date:

Name

10.
11.

12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

20.

UGBOGIOBO, UWAN, IGUOYEMWEN QUESTIONNAIRE

Village: House Number:

of Householder: Tenant or Landlord:

Do you do any trading?

What do you sell? (Please list each item.)
Where do you sell? (Please list each place.)
Do you have any other money-making activities?

How long have you been doing this type of trading (and/or
business)?

What did you do before your present business?
When did you change to your present one, and why?

Can you give me an estimate of your weekly or monthly profits
from your trade or business?

How old are you?
How much schooling have you had?

How many other women are living in this household? In what
way is each of them related to you?

What trading or business or work does each of them do?
How many people are presently living in this household?
What is your home village?

What is your tribe?

How long have you been living in this village?

Why did you come here?

Do you have other family nearby?

How many men are living in this household?
In what way is each of them related to you?

What is the occupation of each of the men?

230

231

UGBOGIOBO. UWAN, IGUOYEMWEN QUESTIONNAIRE, continued.

21.
22.

23.

What other work does each of them do?
How many children do you have?

____Ages:

____ Number at home:

Number in primary school:
Number in secondary school:
What jobs do any of them have?

_—
-—-——
—————

How many children does each of the other women have? (Please
list each woman separately.)

____Ages:

____ Number at home:

.___ Number in primary school:
____Number in secondary school:
___ What jobs do any of them have:

The following questions to be asked to farmers' wives only:

 

24.

25.

26.

27.
28.

How big is the whole farm?
____Your own part:

____ Your mate's part:
____Other people's parts:

How many laborers does the farmer hire?
____For how long?
____For what wage?

What crops do you grow?

What does your husband grow?

What does your mate (mother, etc.) grow?
Where do you sell each of these?

Do you have regular customers?

00 you wholesale?
Do you retail?

Other Remarks:

 

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