THE IGBO APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM (ỊGBABỌỊ) AS COLONIAL-ERA ECONOMICADAPTATION: CONTINUITY, CHANGE, ANDRESISTANCE, 1900–1950

Author

Samuel Chukwudi Ukachukwu
Department of History and International Studies,Imo
State University, Owerri+2348120659857
samuel0706622@gmail.com

Abstract

This article examines the ịgba bọị apprenticeship system
among the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria as an institution
of colonial-era economic adaptation between 1900 and

1950. Challenging existing scholarship that treats its
      persistence into the colonial period as mere cultural
      conservatism, the article argues that ịgbabọị underwent a
      fundamental transformation under British colonialism,
      shifting from a craft-based, kinship-embedded
      mechanism of skill transmission into a flexible
      commercial training and capital accumulation system
      that enabled Igbo actors to navigate and resist colonial
      capitalism. Drawing on colonial administrative records
      and secondary literature, the article traces the disruption
      of pre-colonial Igbo economic organization, the deliberate adaptation of ịgbabọị to commercial contexts
1951. from the 1920s, and the emergence of expansive Igbo
1952. trading networks anchored in the apprenticeship
1953. relationship. The article engages A.I. Nwabughuogu’s
1954. thesis of middleman decline, arguing that decline and
1955. adaptation are complementary rather than contradictory
1956. frameworks addressing different levels of Igbo
1957. commercial life. Theoretically, colonial ịgbabọị is
1958. interpreted through James Scott’s concept of “everyday
1959. resistance” a systematic subversion of colonial economic
1960. logic through the redeployment of indigenous
1961. institutional forms contributing to the revisionist
1962. literature on African economic agency.

Endnotes

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