Producers Or Subsidisers: Berom Women In Household Agricultural Production In The Colonial Economy On The Jos Plateau

Abstract

The Berom is one of the numerous ethnic groups that occupy part of the Jos Plateau region in North Central Nigeria within the middle belt geo-political zone. Most of the Berom belong to the Benue-Congo group of languages, while others belong to the Chadic group of languages. The Berom are one of the 368 minority ethnic groups in Nigeria numbering about 2.5 million. They occupy an area that constituted the epicenter of tin mining during the colonial period where agriculture was made a secondary economic activity in favor of tin mining by the British. As Berom male labour drifted to the mining fields, women were left to take greater charge of and played greater role in subsistence agricultural production in addition to domestic work. This informed the choice of the Berom women for the study because it enabled us to assess the overall contribution of women in domestic and agricultural production as the traditional economy was incorporated into the colonial economy.