Chima Korieh

Chima J. Korieh is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Marquette University. He has published extensively in the areas of African social and economic history, colonialism, and gender.

Land Has Changed, The
History, Society, and Gender in Colonial Eastern Nigeria

Chima Korieh

A century ago, agriculture was the dominant economic sector in much of Africa. By the 1990s, however, African farmers had declining incomes and were worse off, on average, than those who did not farm. Colonial policies, subsequent "top-down" statism, and globalization are usually cited as primary causes of this long-term decline. In this unprecedented study of the Igbo region of southeastern Nigeria, Chima Korieh points the way to a more complex and inclusive approach to this issue. Using agricultural change as a lens through which to view socioeconomic and cultural change, political struggle, and colonial hegemony, Korieh shows that regional dynamics and local responses also played vital roles in this era of transformation.

British attempts to modernize the densely populated Igbo region were focused largely on intensive production of palm oil for export and on the assumption of male dominance within a conventional western hierarchy. This colonial agenda, however, collided with a traditional culture in which females played important roles and male status was closely tied to yam cultivation. Drawing on an astonishing array of sources, including oral interviews, newspapers, private journals, and especially letters of petition from local farmers and traders, Korieh puts the reader in direct contact with ordinary people, evoking a feeling of what it was like to live through the era.

University of Calgary Press