Agriculture

Labour organization in Nupe, in every field of economic activity, is characterized by a twofold principle: the distinction between individual work and family work or, in native terminology, between buca and efako . In certain areas where other forms of production are practised besides agriculture—mostly forms of production involving less heavy work and higher money-return—these additional productive techniques supply the buca work to which the men turn &s;after hours&s;. The resources of the family working-unit thus gain the significance of capital proper, invested in the maintenance of labour; without it, without the prospect of fulfilling all these economic obligations towards the members of the working-unit, the efako group cannot be maintained satisfactorily. The co-operation of the efako group is more or less regularly supplemented by a system of mutual assistance and large-scale collective labour among the villagers, an institution which the Nupe have in common with all other Nigerian tribes.

Agriculture · Archaeology · Business · Economics · Geography · Labour economics · Agricultural Economics and Policy