The Growth of Market in Ikare Akoko – a Case Study of Osele Market (1840 Till Present)
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
A market is a site where sellers and buyers assemble daily or specific days to exchange goods and services. Markets are not only important as centers for the exchange of goods, ideas and fashions but also perform significant social and political functions in the community. Moreover, exchange and subsistence activities were and still are integrated into market systems.
It is important to identify the factors which enable markets to expand. These are namely.
- The volume and value of goods and services transacted (food products, sundry provisions and herbal products) determine the size of the market in quantitative
- Geographical location of the market which allow access from various
- The number and social status of the groups engaged in exchange, which influence the composition of the goods and services traded.
CHAPTER TWO
HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF IKAREAKOKO
Ikare is a town in Akoko area of the Northeastern part of Yoruba land and it is the present administrative headquarters of the Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State. The town is about 96 kilometres form Akure, the capital of Ondo State, the town with annual rainfall of 0.6 metres in the forest area and spreads towards the grassland1.
Ikare is located between latitude 70 and 7.290 north of the equator and longitude 50 and 60 east of the Greenwich meridian2. In terms of geographical extent Ikare shares common boundary with four major Akoko towns. To the north of Ikare is Arigidi, it is bounded in the south by Akungba. In the west and east, Ikare is bounded by Ogbagi and Ugbe respectively. Thus, Ikare is locatrf at the centre of Akoko, one of the reasons which make it to attract people from various Akoko towns and villages who occasionally came into the town to settle permanently in search of what they could not get locally in their towns as this study would reveal later.
The town enjoys a relatively humid temperature for the better part of the year except between December and March.
Thus, Ikare people have always taken predominantly to farming, the main crops are kolanut, yam, maize and cocoyam. Farming is combined with hunting and animal husbandry traditional industries also are not lacking, dyeing and weaving being the most prominent3.
More than 80 percent of Ikare women in the pre- colonial period were said to have been involved in weaving thick clothing called Kijipa.
Generally, the Yoruba people of the south–western part of Nigeria did not possess writing ability until the introduction of western education during the period of Colonial rule. This opportunity was through the European Christian Missionaries.
Thus, the historical account of origin of lkare is shrouded on oral traditions just like most other Yoruba towns and villages. Nevertheless there are two different versions of the origin of lkare.
Various postulations have been made concerning the origin and initial settlement of lkare .But all sources agree that the people emigrated from Ile-Ife . A version even Claims that the founders of lkare. Oka. Iboropa. Owo left Ile- Ife at the same time in the twelfth century AD. While not controvert this claim. It is who led one version of the traditions of origin claimed that the first group of settlers emigrated from Ile-lfe under the leadership of Batimilehin, who finally settled at Oke- Ola.
CHAPTER THREE
THE IMPACT OF COLONIALISM ON IKARE 1900- 1960
The period of Colonial rule in Ikare can be described as a crucial period in the history of the people because of major agencies of change which entered Ikare since 1900. Factors of an economic nature was another major agency of change in the Society Since 1900.The new pattern of economic activities created new occupational opportunities for the people. Farming, as in the pre- colonial period remained the dominant Occupation of the people but it became more lucrative. New cash crops such as coca, coffee and tobacco were introduced. Subsistence crops like corn, beans, Yam, cassava. Pepper and fruits became more profitable. All these gave greater incentive to farmers. While the agricultural community became increasingly commercialized and monetized, they remained as technologically backward as ever the primitive back –breaking hoe and cutlass culture still dominated among the farmers. The significant distortion brought about by cocoa and other cash-crop cultivation on the societal economy with the progressive transformation of the time-honored system of land tenure and land use1. Up to the introduction of cash crop farming, the dominant principle guiding and tenure was that of communal ownership either by whole community or extended family. Under this system, Land could not be alienated permanently to or by any individual However, a the commercial ethos and grasping individual engendered, by grasping individualism engendered, by cash crop economy became firmly established, influential and financially ambitions elements in the community began to appropriate vast acreages of farmland for their own exclusive use and the expense of the weaker and less aggressive members of the community.
CHAPTER FOUR
GENERAL IMPACT
Every society needs a market for its economic growth, markets are necessary for the flow of need satisfying goods and services from the producers. Thus all societies must provide for needs of their members to enhance standards of living through business. The creation of a convenient place where buyers and sellers meet face to face to exchange goods and services such Osele market becomes necessary.
The impact on markets such as Osele market on the social, economic, political, and cultural spheres of a commonly are varied and cannot be over emphasized.
Markets are necessary for the enhancement of the social, political and economic development of the Ikare community in many varies ways1.
The advent of Osele market in 1840 created a meeting point for buyers and sellers to exchange their goods and services in the community. Members of the community were able to earn decent living improving their standard of living, prior to the creation of Osele.
BIBLIGRAPHY
- PRIMARY SOURCES(INTERVIEW)
- Oba S.K.A. Adedoyin the Owa Ale of Ikare, (aged 73) at his Palace Okorun quarters, Ikare Akoko on 2ndDecember,
- Oba Saliu Akadir Mohmoh IV, the Olukare of Ikare (aged 74), at his Palace on the 19th of December, 2010.
- Chief James Akinola, the head of Osele Compound in
- Chief Sasere of Okoja, at his residence, on the 5th of November,2010
- Chief Oni Ajagunna, the Chief Priest of Orisa Osele L/A53, Ilepa, Ikare Akoko, on 6th of October 2010
- Femi Alohun, A retired teacher in History, (aged 63), N/A 17, Ekan Quarters, Ikare, on the 2nd and 17th of October2010
- Madam Bisi Ajana, AProminent market woman (aged 75), A/13. Okela, Ikare Akoko on the 12th of October, 2010
