Colonial Challenge to the Ogoja Salt Industry, Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Some scholars have often assigned a super-imposing, all-demolishing power to colonialism, especially when it came into contact with African traditions, institutions and industries. This was done to justify Western preconceived notion of economic and technological superiority. This paper uses the local salt industry of Ogoja Province in the colonial period to show the fallacy of this notion. It avers that in spite of the use of all instruments of coercion, and importation of salt from Europe to stifle the local salt industry, the latter not only was able to absorb the strain but also survived the challenges and thrived within the period of this study. The paper also highlights the degree of specialization among the various players in the industry.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(2), 84-91, 2011