Colonialism, Land Use, Labour and the Implications for the Economy of the Tiv of Southern Nasarawa Area, 1900 -Present

Abstract

Land and labour were central to the agricultural economy and social organization of the Tiv before colonial rule. Using the Tiv of the Southern Nasarawa area as its focus, this study examines how colonialism between 1900 and 1960 altered land ownership, labour organization and agricultural production, and considers the implications of those changes for the economic life of the people. The study shows that pre-colonial Tiv agriculture was predominantly oriented toward food production and was supported by communal landholding, family labour and reciprocal labour arrangements such as sule lohon and ihyumbe. Colonial rule introduced a different agricultural orientation in which cash and export crops, taxation, monetization and expanded production became increasingly important. The transformation of land from predominantly communal control to a system administered through colonial authority and native institutions encouraged expanded cultivation of crops such as groundnuts, beniseed, cotton and soybeans. At the same time, the growing demand for cash-crop production contributed to intensified land use, reduced fallow periods, pressure on soil fertility and the gradual replacement or supplementation of communal labour with hired labour. The study further finds that colonial transport development, agricultural stations and later agricultural programmes created opportunities for commercialization and technical improvement, but these benefits were uneven. Overall, colonialism stimulated commercial agriculture and cash-crop production while weakening elements of the earlier subsistence-oriented system, contributing to labour migration, social differentiation and food shortages. The study concludes that the colonial transformation of Tiv agriculture had enduring implications for land, labour and rural economic organization.

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