OHAZURUME - Unizik Journal of Culture and Civilization

In the traditional Igbo communalist economy, there existed a socio-ethical mechanism which ensured that no one begged for food and that there was enough food to keep the community going at all times. It was an agrarian economy dominated by a single product (Yam), yet there were other products which were systematically placed within the agrarian calendar to ensure the availability of food all year round. The combination of farming system, egalitarian and competitive economy and pervasive religious principles ensured that there was enough food to circulate among inhabitants, encouraged start-ups, incited investment for the benefits of aristocrats and offered opportunities to the poor to invest. This work re-examines the communalist socio-economic system of the traditional Igbo society which includes the system of agriculture, the social drivers of the economy and the religious symbols/demands on the people. It is a multidisciplinary research work which brings Agriculture, Economics, Philosophy and Religion to scrutinize a system gradually being overtaken by a capitalist economy but did not build on it. The work is an ethnographic study which aims at gleaning possible socio-ethical and subsistent farming techniques which can still work in the present economy to ensure food security among the Igbo of eastern Nigeria. The work is a qualitative study which sourced data from existing literatures, applied contextual analysis and active participatory experiences of individual contributors.

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