Impact of colonial rule on oil palm production in Benin, 1897-1960

Abstract

By the close of the nineteenth century, the British colonial rule was imposed on Benin, one of the forest peoples of southern Nigeria, thus bringing her independence and the sovereignty of its ruling Oba to an end. It was the largest and most viable in terms of agricultural and forest resources. This is in comparison to other administrative divisions of Ishan, Asaba, and Kukuruke in Benin Province, created by the British to further the economic exploitation of the area. Under colonial rule, production or economic activities in Benin became the dictate of the British colonial authorities and for the interest of the metropolitan country. In this regard, colonial ofcials promoted an economy which facilitated the development of cash crops for export to Europe. In particular, oil palm industry, the focus of this paper, consequently witnessed a signicant development. First, it began to have overseas' markets for the sale of its products (palm oil and kernels) and second, it beneted from the mechanization of processing introduced by the British in order to increase outputs. The paper examines the response of the oil palm produce industry to colonial demand and the benet or otherwise which the people derived from their production. The article therefore relies on primary and secondary sources in examining the impact of colonial rule on oil palm production in Benin.