By Dr. Mutiat Titilope Oladejo
Before colonialism in Africa, gold mining had subsisted in Burkina Faso, Cote de Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Mali. From time they were artisanal gold mining that enriched the empires and kingdoms in West Africa. The discovery of gold in Southwest Nigeria was within the reach of other West African empires that thrived in gold production and trade in the pre-colonial era. It was a significant commodity in the Trans Saharan trade. However, the colonial state introduced new regulatory frameworks which affected artisanal mining and goldsmith practices, this became visible in the 1930s.
Like it were in the tin mining industry of colonial Nigeria, the colonial government introduced taxation to the gold mining industry. Gold exploration started in the 1930s and the colonial government subjected it to the same tax administration produced with tin mining. As part of the policies of indirect rule in Nigeria, the politics of colonies were expected to generate revenue from within, hence taxation on key areas such as mining were significant. The administration of the gold mining industry entails the administration of taxation on the mining companies and licensing fees on the goldsmith in the informal sector. Invariably the colonial government focused on the formal and informal sector. Control of activities in the mining industry was considered a strategy to curtail the exploration.
However, unlike the tin mining industry, stakeholders in the gold mining industry were private (miners) companies and group of traders (chamber of commerce) interested in exploration. Invariably, stakeholders in the industry of gold mining were indigenous Nigerians and thus, they criticized the colonial state for attempting to involve foreign explorers as there were suspicions that Italians employed by Ibadan Native Administration of the 1930s were meant to work at the goldmines in Ilesa.
Artisanal gold mining in south west Nigeria became very lucrative such that interest in cocoa waned, a lot of people abandoned farming and opted to be goldsmith. The colonial gold mining experience was focused on Ilesa in South western Nigeria. The gold mining sites in Ilesa was a determinant of wealth for individuals and for the town. Ilesa became a cosmopolitan town due to the location of mining sites. Gold mining in Ilesa contributed to the growth of goldsmith industry in southwestern Nigeria. With the rural-urban migration to major cities of Ibadan and Lagos, gold from Ilesa became a factor that linked towns and cities. The connections created through the goldsmith industry involved the colonial state the craftsmen and the trade association. To the colonial state the goldsmith industry was considered artisanal and thus needed regulations. The bid to control the activities of the goldsmith prompted the formation of trade associations to react to the mining regulation policies of the colonial administration. It is imperative to note that colonialism aided the formation of goldsmith trade association to serve as a collective voice in the affairs of the goldsmith with the colonial state, and community of practice.
Initially, a number of goldsmith craftsmen were located in Ibadan villages where they were duly registered to practice. However, incessant influx into the cities affected the level of patronage in the villages. Also, the 1930s was a period when people sought livelihood in the cities. Hence, the supposed scheme of the colonial state to populate and stabilize the rural areas proved abortive. The letters of permission to relocate to the city by the goldsmith in Ibadan villages imply that the hustling and bustling nature of life in the city offered promises for prosperity rather than staying in the village. Yet, the colonial state had invested in the establishment of scale markets in Ibadan villages to aid the growth of cash crop processing and packaging for exports.
Seeking permission to relocate to the city as obtained in the letters implied a lot for the licensing procedures to practice. This was evident as there were change in addresses and it also had implications in the disciplinary actions and economic issues therein. In one of the letters one Daniel Adeyemi pleaded to relocate to Oje market as his stay in Olojuoro village was not enhancing desired profits, hence the need to relocate to the city. The desire to practice goldsmith craft in Ibadan city affirms the fact that little did the scale markets in the village sustained livelihood as few merchants, kings and chiefs had the capital to engage in cash crop trade on a large scale. Hence the most of the masses were compelled to abandon the villages. In search of better livelihoods in the cities, goldsmith in Ibadan villages moved to the cities. The accounts of letters written by Goldsmith, relocation to Oje market in Ibadan was prominently sought. According to Bolanle Awe, Akin Mabogunje and P.C. Lloyds edited book The City of Ibadan explains how Oje market was one of the foremost traditional commercial centres that evolved in Ibadan from the nineteenth century. The description given about Oje market indicate it as a commercial hub that evolved into the twentieth century. The decision to move goldsmith practice to Ibadan city is another dimension to understand the nexus in the city-village interface in western Nigeria. Gold became a commodity that inspired convergence in Ibadan city, Because of gradual depopulation of the villages. Gold mining and goldsmith craft induced economic and social changes. With the population growth in Ibadan from the colonial era, making fortune in Goldsmith is aided by urbanization and the new kind of fashion and lifestyle of consumption from Yoruba men and women. The consumption of gold jewelery from the colonial era is a function of looking good. An interview with Madam Abeke Olawoore in Ibadan whose father was a goldsmith in Beyeruka in Ibadan, explains how possession of gold and the craft of making jeweleries was cherished in Ibadan of the 1960s, such that ability to purchase is a sign of wealth and prestige in the city. Being a goldsmith or jewellery seller was considered a profession for the fashionable and it was of luxury. Hence, the consumer behavior for the purchase of goldsmith depicts class status among the Yoruba. The dynamics of practicing as a goldsmith in Yoruba cities adds to the body of knowledge on livelihoods.
Dr. Mutiat Titilope Oladejo is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History,
University of Ibadan, Nigeria. oladejomutiat@yahoo.com
