Agrarian capitalism in rural Housaland (Nigeria) in 1900 to 1910 and today

Abstract

Agrarian capitalism had existed in rural Nigerian Hausa land long before the arrival of the British colonialists, and during the brief colonial period 1902-3 to 1960 agrarian conditions remained basically unchanged, except for the replacement of farm-slaves by daily wage laborers and the introduction, in some areas, of the ox-plough. Certain relevant characteristics of Hausa rural economies in about 1900 to 1910 (with special reference to the very densely populated farming area around Kano city - the Kano Close-Settled zone or KCSZ) were: Population densities and intensive cultivation of manured farmland; Fixed capital; Working capital; Currency; Taxation; Markets; Long-distance trade; and Economic inequalities.