EGWU IBIAM .O.
Department of Political Science
Faculty of Social Sciences
Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.
ABSTRACT
This seminar paper on “Elements of sustainability in Igbo Communal Socio Economic life: A Political economy perspective”, “is an exposition of the communal mode of socio-economic production system of the Igbos of Pre-industrial Africa. It is a retrospective journey into the history of Igbos. Consequent upon the failures of third world societies in developing under the exogenously imposed capitalist mode of production, most concerned scholars have relentlessly sought for alternative models, theories and strategies that can engender rapid development of those societies. It is in consonance with these demands that this researcher took up the study of a segment, the Igbo communal mode of production. Through the use of the Marxist political economy theory, the data collection methodology of ethnography was adopted. Although some aspects of the secondary method were employed for literature review, the ethnographic method was principally used to study the subjects in their natural setting. The data collected revealed that the Igbo communal political economy offers alternatives to the capitalist system in areas of welfarism, cooperative and collectivist socio-economic production system, and a general tendency towards the order of egalitarianism. These indicators exist in their traditional communal economy and social welfare formations, anchored in their norms, ethics, values and culture. They were identified to have practiced these conveniently through the kit and kin relationship, patrilineal and matrilineal affinities that created high degrees of responsiveness and espirit de-corps among them. Accordingly, the researcher concluded that these were time tested credible elements of sustainability, imbued with variables and indicators that would have engendered sustainable development, were they imperialism. These indicators were analysed to reveal alternative models that could serve as the much needed strategies o\ development. While re-affirming the Marxist contention about the dialectical processes of societal development, these variables were established as artifacts of development. Accordingly the researcher recommended among other things; that concerted efforts be made for revisitations of most of the Igbo, Nigerian and African pre-industrial societies to identify more of these artifacts. Here the people should be made to look back into their history to locate their communal ways of life that can be adopted for their needed development. Furthermore, there should be a de-emphasizing of links to the imperialist societies who have caused the third world the present underdevelopment. Greater efforts should be targeted at adopting the traditional Igbo, and indeed African ways of life to create compacts of egalitarian socio-economic development. These and many other issues raised can be established as the alternative road map to the third world development needs, found in the Igbo communal social welfare system to be efficacious and worthy of leading the society to great heights, based on result of studies among similar societies of Africa.
INTRODUCTION
Among the ancient aborigines of contemporary Nigeria are the Igbos, whose presence in the West African sub-region remains a colossus to both their neighbors and foreigners. The Igbos have come a long way to metamorphose into an enigmatic set that elicite awe, fear, admiration, and indeed hatred, all coming from diverse perspectives, subject to the side of the ethnic divide one stands in Nigeria. Most importantly the Igbos have arrived at the apex of their identity as a people one can define from a tripodal perspective viz; bravery, intellectual and entrepreneurial. It is therefore not surprising that studies have continued to search light the Igbos and every Igbo son or daughter in every field of human endeavour. Such studies have led to a multitude of claims that are either scientifically correct or products of jaundiced and stero-typical speculations by patients of Igbophobia or arm chair theorists. Suffice it for one to argue that the Igbo nation is an outstanding subject of historical, contemporary and futuristic research. This informs the efforts by this researcher to attempt a political economy study of the life patterns of the Igbos from a historical point of view. A political economy analysis of the elements of sustainability in Igbo communal socio economic life is thus a deliberate effort at reaching out in a backward motion, to the Igbos of pre-industrialization. Having considered this issue carefully, this research paper shall attempt to present the Igbo political economy organizations prior to Industrial Revolution. The Igbos constitute a major group in African affairs, whose history must be properly documented for purposes with three outstanding features. Viz:
First, the setting aright historical data about the Igbos at their various positions along the primodal stages of societal socio-economic production, prior to the age of industrialization. Secondly, the developmental consequences of these stages on the people, prior to and after their disruption by the excesses of European Industrial revolution across the world. Thirdly for an ideological awakening of the Igbo people concerning their past, present and future amidst the crisis of underdevelopment, occasioned by the preponderance of imperialist control of the affairs of men across the globe. This paper is also a reaction to continuous calls by scholars of mostly Igbo nationality such as the Ahiajoku Lecturers, for a reawakening of the totality of the people’s life. Taking cognizance of the wide range of issues raised by these Ahiajoku lecturers this paper is formatted in reminiscence of Igbo historical political economy. It seeks to create understanding about the Igbo traditional communal social welfare system that was more egalitarian oriented, than today’s chaos caused by capitalism. It also serves to reveal to the world these unique people from the early time till date that continue to serve purposes of good will to the Nigerian state and mankind in all aspects of life, including the products of humanitarianism, academics, industrialists and political gurus,
Finally, this study stands to be extended to other Igbo configurations, out of which future research findings can culminate into a single Igbo political economy ideology devoid of dogmatism and stereo typical interpretations. Out of these efforts can arise alternative development strategies, which the various Igbo controlled states, local governments and government institutions of present Nigeria, can adopt to launch the people onto the conveyor belt of the fast moving machine of development, within the Nigerian federal structure. It is therefore the hope of this researcher that the findings and recommendations made here will serve as a salvo and an added vigor to the continued search for repositioning the Igbos in the scheme of things in our contemporary society.
COMMUNALISM: A THEORETICAL OVERVIEW
The Marxist political economy study took off from a critique of the liberalist proponents of classical political economy, over their claims that capitalism was a “god ordained” unquestionable and indestructible system Such claims by these liberalists took roots in society, following the 18 19lh century industrial revolution and the debute of Adam Smith’s work. inquiry into the sources and origin of the wealth of Nations” (1776). response, other economists of Europe took to studies that proclaims invincibility of capitalism. Scholars such as David Ricardo, (1933), Say, J.S. Mills etc became engrossed with the study of political economy focusing on economic growth, population explosion, commercial political inflation and social problems occasioned by the industrial revolution. They sought to apply the Smithan analyses to provide policy prescriptions to the ever increasing phenomena of large industrial goods production saturated the markets, amidst the growing poverty among the population their efforts focused on the projection of individualism and laissez-fairism as the leeway to economic growth. Here the state was required to stay of economic production processes, and allow individuals to compete for acquisition of wealth. Thus capitalism grew in leaps, enriching a few impoverishing many whose labour power produced and multiple society’s wealth. However, the associated social problem grew to the 1 where these scholars could not explain (or avoided) the reasons why mass of labouring men lived and died in poverty, in the midst of the growing wealth of nations.
It was this circumstances of the working class that irked Karl M and working in collaboration with Friedrick Engels, Marx took to a criticized of the liberal scholarship about capitalism. Marx and Engels criticized classical political economy and laid foundations for a new one based on philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism.
Marx’s study of capitalism laid bare the facts of its growth, with the Smithian school had hidden under liberalism. Specifically, Ma interest in capitalism was on how to help the working class benefit from fruits of their labour, which capitalists exploited. To achieve this, dialectical and historical materialist interpretation was taken in retrospect to the primitive communal mode of production. These studies into history of society led Marx to discover five basic stages of human development as existing in a continuum, with one stage emerging as are of the contradictions of another. These stages are; the primitive communal slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist (communist) stages, which all society were naturally destined to pass through.
From these studies, our case study being the traditional Ig communal political economy, becomes the basis of analysis through understanding of the first stage of the Marxist communal mode production in society. According to Obasi (2005:76) primitive communalism was;…the first stable experience of organized society… a post wondering bands system with a social system of peculiar culture and traditions…Among some contemporary African and other traditional societies, exist a pseudo-political and socio-economic ideology akin to this communal life style. These are identifiable in some cases as the products of those who advocate for a just and egalitarian society. Among some of these are those existing side by side with modern communities, under typical traditional communal enclaves, clans and villages. Here kinship, maternal and paternal ties still constitute primary sources of socio-economic relations, sustained for the general good of members.
The communal political economy among such African societies was organized for collective interests. There was no concept of private property nor individual wealth accumulation. Ownership of property was common for all regarding land, mines, river etc, The community lived and fanned, fished and carried out socio-economic functions for the collective good, and only differed to individual needs in times of crisis, ill-health and exceptional feat such as bravery at war or hunting down predators and game. As the population of these communal societies increased, two major factors emerged. First was the scarcity of necessary material products. The population growth came to put pressure on the limited sources of satisfying material needs. This gave rise to internal conflicts that threatened the social cohesion that bound the people together. The quest to safeguard personnel needs arose leading to disunity and individual interests. This gave rise to the second factor which was contact with other communities in the quest to satisfy needs. These contacts led to social contagion, snowballing into conflict, and out of these came contention over land, rivers and other necessities of life, degenerating into wars. This chaos culminated into the victor and vanquished, whereupon the vanquished became enslaved to the victor. Out of these contradictions, arose the first class-characterization of societies, into the slave and slave master, and indeed the demise of the classless primitive communal system. Suffice it for one to say however that, among contemporary Tgbo societies exist some form of refined attributes of these communal system. Essential elements of sustainability in areas of kinship and family ties, shared values, social equality devoid of class formation and other issues that seek socio-economic cohesion to create egalitarian development can be found among some traditional African societies of today such as our casestudy, the Igbo traditional communities of Nigeria.
THE TRADITIONALIGBO SOCIETIES
The Igbo traditional societies are by no means simple entities to describe. They are peoples of diverse, yet inter-related ways of life that challenges the social science scholar. Studying the traditional Igbo societies in their communal mode of production presents even greater challenges, as documented evidence are either scare or products of liberal Euro centricism. At this stage, there were no records of centralization of any aspect of their life. What existed were communities, villages, enclaves and clans whose general ways of life were akin in varying degrees to each other, yet autonomously operated, in a republican process. Examples of areas of similarity abound in their language (being Igbo with variations in dialect, pronunciations and spellings, but with similar meanings), cultural traits, agricultural activities, dressing and costumes as well as ceremonial activities such as marriages, celebration of birth and death etc. Eteng (2004:48) argues that essentially, the Igbo societies at any given historical Juncture were systems of production and reproduction. He furthers that:
…the internal relationship between and among elements, events and forces in Igbo, societies and the constituent units, be they economic, political, religious, educational, and kinship institutions, material and non-material culture, psychological state of individuals; and the biophysical environment are all invariably interconnected originally, symbolically and dialectically with one another…
The traditional Igbo societies in their large formations traced their lineage too often to kinship ties coloured by marriage ties. Marriages stood to bridge boundaries to a great extent, strengthening) the patrilineal and matrilineal ties that connects the people. These inter-connections consisted of complex linkages between people, inter-twining between individuals, clans and even villages. It created relationships between communities through which family ties, ethos, ethics and values were transmitted to generations.
Most traditional Igbo communities developed along what Mandel (1971) called, “cooperatively organized societies”, akin to the economic life of such communal societies like the Bambe of Rhodesia, ancient Greeks, Romans, Babylonians and Egyptians. Labour and production were based on custom and religious rites which served to regulate the essential economic activities of the people. These forms of life were obtainable is most traditional Igbo communal economy. Regions that were poorly favoured with life necessities, engaged in incessant cooperative economic activities. They applied their labour-power cooperatively to produce wealth for all. On the other hand, the regions favoured by nature, had relative cooperation for production over fewer times, while social activities and leisures that promote communal cohesion were prevalent. Just as the cases above imply, each Igbo traditional communal community was regarded as a big family. Each of such community-family, sought for her total annual production to correspond more or less to her needs in means of subsistence, feeding, clothing, housing, tools and social responsibilities. The people’s socio-economic life being so inter-twined, caused the Igbos of the period under study to see the satisfaction of the needs of all in the community as a first priority. This engendered social security, love, understanding and healthy co-existence. Thus they progressed, each community at her own pace, using their collective will and resource to meet their needs. They were naturally bound on a journey through the pri-modal stages of societal re-production “in time and space”. These journeys they would have accomplished had the imperialist exploiters not disrupted them. Today, most Igbo communities under capitalist hegemony, still posses vestiges of the communal life style whi.ch coincides and conflicts in domain with the European motivated invasions that catapulted most of the Africans unto the capitalist mode of production, causing monumental under-development crisis.
Today’s crude capitalism among the Igbo communities continues to create crisis of transition for the people, as they struggle to reconcile their lives with the new mode of production. Hence their communal life, which ought to have grown to maturity for inherent contradictions to emerge and lead them to other modes, has been disrupted by imperialist interests.
Imperialist orchestration of capitalism has thus denied them the experiences of transiting from mode to mode. This in turn caused them to lack the accumulation of essential wealth, skills and experiences, leading to their under-development. The contemporary socio-economic arid political system is therefore creating ambivalence among the people. This is a result of combinations between their age old clannish utilitarian cum egalitarian life style and the externally motivated capitalist system. This is a conflict between their well-known collectivist system under which kits and kins cared for each other and the leissez-fairist, individualistic system that is disintegrating their family units. It is a crisis the Igbos are today facing, which must be addressed to re-position them for greater strides in today’s development race. The most essential requirement for any human community is to Iced itself. This forms the fundamental pre-occupation of every human society in the first instance before any other considerations of life. It was therefore not peculiar to the Igbo communal economy system to have placed primacy on economic production for consumption. Given this socio-economic disposition of the people, two basic questions arise, regarding the organization of their economic and political system. First, there arises the question of how these people organized to extract the physical necessities of life from their environment. The issue deal with the means of resource exploitation and the kind of social activities that accompany it.
Secondly is the issue of what is done with the goods produced, considering the complex mechanisms of distribution and exchange involved when juxtaposed against contemporary political economy calculations. There is no doubt however that a quick answer to the second question may be “consumption”, considering their enclave environment at the time under review. The Igbo communal economy thrived on agriculture. They depended to a large extent on the land as was obtainable in many parts of the world. Theirs was not an exception, evidenced by studies of other pre-industrial societies.
Leiden (1975:160) buttresses this view when he holds that in many parts of the pre-industrial societies, cultivation was of the shifting “slash and burn” type. New ground was cleared for planting every few years, while old farms were allowed to revert to bush. This created the need for the people to settle in specific areas that were centralized between their various farm-land locations. The people’s attitude to land was that of collectivism. This entailed a “land holding” system under which individual-family, lineage and community heads (acting on behalf of the people) were responsible for generations. The Igbo communal economy was based on shifting cultivation. Their farm lands were ranked into three distinct typologies, which caused their pluralist mode of life to thrive.
First was the land owned by entire communities. Access to portions for the annual farming was hierarchically ordered along age grade cadres for the male folks. Second on the typology was “Ala Umunna” which belonged to the male descendants of specific clans. Access to portions here was for male adults based again on age grade hierarchy. And traditional ceremonial title holder
Thirdly and finally was the land owned through matrilineal affinity. Again male descendants are given preference on age grade hierarchy. This is followed by son in-laws whose contribution to “family” affairs are note-worthy and finally the aged female members defined as destitute or the needy.
Generally, cultivation on these lands was based on communal, clan and family cooperation. Provisions were made on specific days by each farm-land owner for a group of age grade, or family and friends to render free will service on the said farm land. This continued on rotational bases through the farming and the harvest seasons, subject to the nature of work required. These bands of farmers did not charge for their labour, but were provided food and drink by their host. This went on through each farm until the farms were cultivated and harvested. Each farmer cultivated varieties of products which served the immediate consumption needs of family, relatives, and other dependants. Production for exchange was minimal notably done through barter. Wealth accumulation was within this order, for social and economic purposes.
In general, all social activities of the Igbo communal mode of production were inter-twined with politico-military and economic necessities of the peoples. Wealth obtained through fanning was primarily for the welfare needs of the owner, his relatives and the community. Such wealth of course came from land, palm plantations and fishing lakes/rivers controlled by a community, availed members for harvest on egalitarian basis. Other sources include individual or family yam, cassava, cocoa, plantain plantations and vegetable gardens, which yielded great food needs.
At this point, a question may arise thus? What political economy implication does these communal life style posses?
The answer of course is in their collectivist formations. Wealth is created for its usefulness to the generality of the people. It does not encourage individualistic dispositions that soon degenerate into monopolistic tendencies, which breed contention, conflict and crisis. “Self tendencies are relatively absent as each man is his brother’s keeper.
Leiden (1975:162) argues that in such societies; …ideas about ownership and about property in general differ greatly from one culture to another, and the stress on private property, individual ownership characteristic of western society is absent… in most small ‘• scale, pre-industrial societies there are few things in which particular individuals hold exclusive rights…
Cooperation was the driving force among these people. People combined for certain purposes as may be determined by seasonal and socio-economic needs. No one lived for himself in these societies as each gave his or her best in activities as little as domestic food preparation, to Medicare, “instruction and child upbringing. As Igbo people say; a man begots the child, the woman bears him, the people train him” Igbo communal life style Was a comprehensive model in which everyone developed everyone.
Malinowski (1922:39) took a study of similar communal societies and came out stressing that;
…the psychological (and indeed overall) advantage of simple combinations as well as the part played by emulation, the feeling of “oneness “with the group, the spur of concerted effort and cooperation provided stronger integration among the pre-industrial peoples…
Though their “modernization” process may have been glow, the Igbo traditional communal socio-economic system was effective in the sustenance of life for the people. There was little or relative lack as each was his brother’s keeper through a neighborliness that needed little or no effort to be transmitted mid sustained from generations to another. Political organization under this setting was diffused into the socio-economic, religious and militia life of the people. Every male child was groomed as a potential leader and warrior, who must answer the clarion call when the “death knell” of crisis is sounded. Considering the diffusion of politics into other aspects of society, there were no specific conflicts or contentions over political positions. Each man’s abilities pre-deposed him to specific positions. Men of valour, such as hunters, wrestlers and warriors of inter-communal wars stood to lead. When the occasion demands for political /military decisions, all adult males were compulsorily enlisted into the militia for necessary expeditions, only to retire to family life after the exercise.
At the community assemblies, a plebiscite was usually conducted under the supervision of the title chiefs and oldest men of the villages. Ideas were collated and passed into resolutions through voice votes, subject to ratification by the chiefs. These chiefs who were custodians of the peoples tradition then marshaled out duties based on age grade ranking, and accordingly dispersed the people to such duties. All duties were performed under the supervision of the (labour supervisory) age grade. Reports were usually made to the chiefs who determine if accomplishment or failure was recorded. Finally the matter was laid to rest with commendations and punishments, which were associated with socio-economic benefits and sanctions for families made accordingly.
The fusion of politics, the economy, social and trado-religious life caused the people to live a cohesive life that had strict control on individual-excesses. Men dissipated their energy on viable projects and activities, which cumulatively kept crime and other social vices at abeyance. Thus the Igbo traditional communal political economy thrived and held the people bound in duties and responsibilities to one another, until their colonial conquest.
ANALYSIS
This research has endeavored to identify elements of sustainability within the Igbo Communal socio-economic life that can be synthesized into a development strategy for the benefit of our society.
Using the Igbo pre-industrial age-traditional processes of material wealth production, the researcher was able to locate the socio-economic and political formations that engendered the Igbo people’s development. Such elements of sustainability found among various Igbo communal political economy that constitute strategies for development, shall be analysed under subtitles with linkages to each other generally captioned by this research as; “compacts of development in Igbo traditional communal societies.
These include:
(1) Collectivist ideology.
(2) Cooperative economic and material wealth reproduction.
(3) Bonds of egalitarianism and pluralist social cohesion.
(4) Mass based popular political participation and civic responsiveness.
(5) Rule of law based on ethics, norms and equity.
(6) Classlessness of the citizens.
We shall take brief discourse of these issues, to enable us locate them as practicable elements of sustainability for today’s development needs among peripheral societies in general and Nigeria in particular.
1. Collectivist Ideology
This is an opposite of individualism, which gained prominence in social science studies mostly among the scholars of Marxism who sought for equity as well as other scholars and proponents of pluralism in all human relationship.
Collectivism connotes social symbiosis within which organic solidarity is transmitted through normative and cultural units for the good of all. This system has no element of coercion, hence its distinction from collectivization found in communism. The Collectivist ideology inherent in the communal system does not usurp the individual’s economic freedom.
Such societies had ab-ini-tio developed on the foundation of cordiality, mutual interest and cooperation that promoted pluralism against individualism. The people sought for fulfillment in brotherhood, each reaching out to the others from the immediate family, to kits and kins, as well as the community at large, to create contentment in life. Their progression though slow and graduated generated unity in diversity that endeared each segment of humanity to the other in a dynamic process.
Each of such societies were cohesively bound by common thoughts, ideas, beliefs, norms and values which cumulatively formed their culture. This culture stood as the source of their ideology that can simply be translated to mean the guiding principles of the traditional communal societies, which the Igbo pre-industrial case study reveals.
2. Cooperative Economic and Material Wealth Production
The economic and material wealth production of the Igbo communal society was anchored on the collaborative effort of all. This cut across all ages, with little or no existence and recognition of the individual’s social status. Cooperation was effortlessly obtained from the people, with each person creating a connecting link to others. The people’s economic life revolved around the satisfaction of their immediate material needs necessitated by specific seasonal cycle. There existed a cycle of symbiotic blend between the people, the weather, seasons and environment, timed by the people to meet their economic life. Each season came with it, needs which the people sought to satisfy by bonding with their environment to create conditions that met their needs for overall survival. The Igbo traditional communal economic and material wealth production can thus be adjudged to have revolved around a utilitarian philosophy that answers two fundamental questions. First, on the ethical side, “what is the good life and how can man attain it? Secondly, was on the politico-economic side, i.e. what is the origin and purpose of their society?
To the first question, they provide the answer by their quest for good life, through the creation of pleasure, satisfaction, fulfillment and equity among themselves. Their actions, interactions and social relationships were fashioned to provide the greatest form of good life for the greatest number; hence their endeavours to provide for each according to his needs with the placement of expectations from each according to his ability. All these fforts were collective endeavours to meet their community’s general good.
To answer the second question, the absence of a codified state structure saw the fussion of politics and the economic and indeed relative aspects of other forms of life among them. There was a normatively situated social contract with strands of linkages weaving through the peoples total existence, to give them a sense of duty, and allegiance to their society. Each individual acquired and internalized the society’s total way of life from the family, relatives, peer groups, age grades and other socio-cultural channels found in the Igbo trado-communal system. It was these characteristics that engendered the people towards the development of a sense of oneness and duty to each other.
Wealth creation was not for profit motive. The products of each season were preserved to serve through the season specifically for consumption needs of the populace. Suffice it to say that individual efforts were acknowledged through community service. Here the few that acquired more economic gains, were noted through their philanthropy, community service and leadership. Their excess material wealth was not for self-fame, wealth and profit- accumulation. Such people were known to have extended their wealth to the needy and in that process caused greater bonds among the people.
3. Bonds of Egalitarianism and Pluralist Social Cohesion
Radcliffe Brown (1952:15) argues that the functionality of any social system depends on the correspondence between some general need and the necessary conditions that satisfy the existence of the people. This arises out of the ultimate quest for survival by the people in the said system. To achieve this, some form of maintenance of social solidarity and cohesion becomes paramount, hence the existence of bonds in their relationship.
The Igbo communal political economy was effectively organized in tandem with Radcliffe’s views, based on bonds of egalitarianism. This was conditioned by the pluralist social formations found in their tolerance, respect, and cooperation with one another.
As every human society pursues survival through the maintenance of greater peaceful co-existence while whittling down all forms of divisive tendencies, so do we have groups, and families growing and multiplying from a pair, to family, kits and kin, clans, villages, communities and Nations (states). As these peoples multiply, they sustain certain norms, values and ways of life that identity them in their uniqueness. Such people include our case study the Igbo people, whose communal political economy mode caused them to experience growth and development through time as a success story.
4. Mass based Popular Political Participation and Civic Responsiveness.
The degree and forms of involvement of the Igbo people in politics during the period under study can be seen as a mass based participatory system. Here regular plebiscite was held mostly for the articulation and aggregation of views, leading to decision taking through voice votes. Based on republican conception, a combination of partly developed democratic and meritocratic values created processes through which the citizen participated in the political system. Political organization in the Igbo traditional communal society was concerned with the maintenance or establishment of social order, within their territorial framework. Through the age grade and traditional system, they exercised authority through the use of threat and possibly, actual use of physical force, on offenders of the system.
Kalu (2002) cited in Eteng (2004:19) argues that;
…Igbo traditional religious experience, as particularly evidenced in their belief in, and worship of, deities, in intricately linked with, the desire to maximally harness all helpful forces toward the satisfaction of the people’s basic needs under prevailing subsistence economy based on rudimentary science and technology…
The traditional Igbo citizen perceived his or her world as a combination of his ideas, nature, his ancestors and personifiable authorities “out there” in the world beyond. This “world” was controlled by a determinate being (Chineke) who allows the Igbo ancestors to mediate between the people and himself based on specific universally accepted ideas, values and codes of behaviour of the people, embodied in (Chi) authorities of the spirit.
Considering their republican politics and egalitarian socio-economic formations, a civic responsiveness came to exist among them as a sort of enabling factor. Each man’s belief in this cosmological process as stated above weaves through his sensory organs and conscience to contact others and cause a commitment to duty on behalf of the community. Such sense of duty in a pluralist society may lead to high degree of commitments such as suicide missions by ind viduals and groups, sacrifices and personal or family lose to benefit the community.
5. Rule of Law Ethics, Norms and Equity
The Igbo communal system had no written and evidently codified laws that guided their relationships. In the absence of institutionalized and structured bodies solely vested with legal imperatives, the people had their laws embedded in their ethics, norms, values and other mechanism designed to ensure equity among the populace.
Leiden (1975:10) argues that the “ideas” of pre-literate people formed a great part of their laws based on past experiences, either directly or on culturally dictated representations about the activities of deities. He furthers that these ideas, beliefs and values may be less susceptible of empirical verification, yet they constitute the basis of the laws and sources of social control of their relationships.
To understand laws and social standards of societies such as the Igbo communal system, we have to learn and appreciate the social and cultural situations in which they operated.
What is important here is that the people had laws and various forms of social control which were based on their norms, ethics and culture, but most importantly viewed as law endowed from God to them through the superintendence of their ancestors and deities. At this point one may wish to know the kind of traditional-legal, social and cultural institutions or organs, which as custodians of these laws, prevented breaches or applied sanctions when breaches occurred.
Principally the Igbo communal rule of law was founded on pragmatic considerations of self-interest, expediency and community protection. Here the family stands out as the corner stone of the socialization of individuals to know, understand and conform to socio-cultural demands. Such demands existed to subsume the laws, norms, ethics and ways of life of the people.
Reciprocity or the possibility of its withdrawal, was a very important social control mechanism codified and internalized as a law in the Igbo communal society. Malinowski B. (1926:28) argues that reciprocal relations do seem to have been particularly important for many pre-literate societies, especially in economic matters. Malnowski’s point was that reciprocity and mutual interdependence were important in pre-literate societies as well as contemporary advanced ones. Thus it would amount to human developmental travesty for any scholar to represent these pre-literate societies as subservient savages who engaged in and practiced magic and ritual backed customs.
There were other organized laws and sanctions in the Igbo communal society which fall within the ambit of generally accepted laws of the wider human society. These ranged from laws about murder which attracted equal punishment of death sentence meted out by the village council, to stealing (theft), encroachment on property, (land and animals and other issues. These attracted sanctions that were either reciprocal retaliatory, redemptive or deterrent, subject to the rights infringed upon Most importantly, law among the Igbo communal people took the bad stage in view of the “kit and kin” relationship that united the people Everybody was the other person’s relative, a situation that caused a near total absence of deviance, anti-social behaviours and crime. Thus, this people’s deference to common ancestral origin and worship of common deities of love, peace and progress, created strong normative ties among them.
6. Classlessness of Citizens
Ekekwe (1986:40) offers us an analytical conception after studying most Marxist literature when he argues that:
…social classes, generally speaking, are aggregates of individuals who are commonly related to the means of production and who, ceteris paribus, share common ideological and political dispositions.
Here, we are more interested in the class relations, which Ekekwe sees as being contradictory, marked with conflicts, antagonisms am individualistic tendencies that disintegrate the cohesiveness binding most ab-in-tio, close societies. Principally, the factors that cause division among such formerly cohesive societies have historic origins in their material production. Once the determining material basis is contradicted, individual interests arise leading to contention, strife, conflicts and crises. These o course lead to the disintegration of the given epoch, as was evidently elaborated by Marx and Engels in their studies earlier mentioned in this work. Since the Igbo traditional welfare system under study was of the communal political economy, the issue of class, its relations and other factors necessitating its sustenance never arose.
Pointedly, it is established that the Igbo communal society was classless type. It was predominantly agrarian under which mutual assistance, cooperation and brotherhood was common. They co-existed and reproduced materially based on socio-cultural imperatives that demanded that each person and groups put in, “each according to his their ability; and were reciprocated each according to his needs”.
The people had esteemed regard for individuals who extended their wealth to the poor, needy, strangers and community services, while showing antagonism, unfriendliness and social distance to the sting; “wealth” ones, via social stigma. The Igbo communal system was therefore a classless one, within which service to mankind was an overriding factor that determined socio-economic relationship among them, derived from their kinship and brotherhood dispositions, hence each was his brother’s keeper across frontiers of life.
CONCLUSION
The Igbo traditional communal system can be seen as one of the outstanding modes of production among the pre-literate African societies, From the analyses based on our theoretical perspective, found in the Marixist political economy, it is established that the Igbo communal system was a burgeoning socio-economic mode within which the people were creating the best of life among themselves. As rudimentary as their science, technology, crafts and socio-political organizations may have been, these people presented unique characteristics that would have launched them to heights, had European colonialists not disrupted them.
It is important to note that in conformity with the Marxist historic materialist analyses, there existed a dialectical process through which these people were passing. From the Stone Age era through the periods of wandering, hunting and gathering economy life, the Igbo people came to be known for their industrialism among Africans. Their journeys having endowed them with great experiences caused them to consummate the communal mode of production. Settling down to such a life style, they increasingly adapted themselves to the cultivation of their land to reproduce their material needs. As they reproduced materially, other socio-cultural, political and environmental considerations emerged to create greater interpersonal, inter-group and even inter communal relationships. Basically, the Igbo traditional welfare stood out clearly to place emphases on cooperation, mutual existence, cordiality and deep sense of brotherhood among the people. Thus, a political economy interpretation of this communal system is clearly that of egalitarianism. It obtained in clear terms exemplified in the people’s family units, kit and kin relationships, pluralistic social formations and a general communally organized life that gave each member, the right and pride of place.
The communal system created fussion across the frontiers of politics, economy, and socio-cultural, military and inter-communal relations among the Igbos of the era. This facilitated growth and development among them which was certain to accelerate, in view of the ever-increasing contacts between them and other communities, tribes and nationals. It must be noted that this was a process that sustained the people, and, was constantly subjected to improvement. Such improvement was already occurring on the leadership roles, duties and obligations, arts, craft and technological improvement facilitated by inter-communal exchanges.
All the efforts of the people were process towards the evolution of strong formidable society, were they left to complete their journey in life a was pre-ordained for them. However, all these were disrupted by slave trade and colonialism. As much as the European “modernizers” of the human society may want us to belief in their good hearted civilization of the “savages”, the Igbo communal political economy tells the true position o most pre-industrial African societies.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
As much as the contemporary order of capitalist socio-economic production system prevails to the disadvantage of most backward an underdeveloped societies, efforts will continue to be made in the search for alternative strategies for development. To that effect this research world shall be completed with data established as recommendations. Such recommendations shall continue to emerge among pragmatic scholars with the hope for the day of reckoning, when the third world shall be liberated from the shackles of capitalist bondage.
Accordingly, the following recommendations are made from the findings of this research:
1. The Igbos, Nigerians and indeed Africans must begin self-reappraisal studies, juxtaposing their past with their present. This is essential for the acquisition of information needed to re-position the People for the task of development. History is the best teacher of all societies, thus the people’s past must be studied, and evaluated to locate necessary indicators that can accelerate them to greater development.
2. There must be concerted effort at re-visiting the Igbos, Nigeria and African pre-industrial life. As our case study reveals, the pre literate Igbos had within their communal production system elements of sustainability which can be adopted as development strategies. Such strategies being aspects of the people’s ways of life can be reintegrated into the modern life of today to create unique developmental programmes.
3. The re-ordering of Igbo, Nigerian and indeed African priorities must become of urgent necessity. This becomes achievable through a consistent reduction of dependence on exogenous variables that have conditioned the people to under-development. Africans must reposition themselves back to their unique ways of life. These abound in their Pre-industrial communal social welfare mode of socio-economic production system. Every pre-industrial African community had inherent compacts of development prevalent in their traditional socio-economic production system, exemplified by the Igbos communal political economy established here. These must be studied comparatively, to create common grounds for development.
4. Such alternative strategies must for all intent and purposes contain
dynamic aspects of the African peoples way of life anchored on egalitarianism. Since our case study has revealed the existence of elements of sustainable development indicators of cooperation, brotherhood, welfarism, mass based popular political participation, and the rule of law among others, it becomes practicable for one to champion for change.
5. Efforts must be made towards harnessing the indigenous science and technology aspects of the communal life of the people, which were short lived by imperialism. Through a comparative advantage study, these science and technology akin to the south east Asia nations experiences such as the Asian tigers – Korea and Japan, can be emulated.
6. Finally, there is need for concerted efforts at the re-orientation of Igbos, Nigerians and Africans back to their Patrilineal and matrilineal family formations. Kit and kin, family and brotherhood notions of relationship must be re-invigorated. African norms, folkways, ethics and values embedded in our traditional ways must be revisited. Here a cultural rebirth and other activities that emphasize cooperation, love tolerance, and welfarism must be inculcated into the fabrics of our lives.
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