@article{1382073,
      recid = {1382073},
      author = {Korieh, Chima J.},
      title = {The land has changed : history, society and gender in  colonial Eastern Nigeria /},
      publisher = {University of Calgary Press,},
      address = {Calgary [Alta.] :},
      pages = {1 online resource ( (xix, 370 pages) :},
      year = {2010},
      note = {Issued as part of the Canadian Electronic Library.  Canadian publishers collection.},
      abstract = {"A century ago, agriculture was the dominant economic  sector in much of Africa. By the 1990s, however, African  farmers had declining incomes and were worse off, on  average, than those who did not farm. Colonial policies,  subsequent 'top-down' statism, and globalization are  usually cited as primary causes of this long-term decline.  In this unprecedented study of the Igbo region of  southeastern Nigeria, author Chima Korieh points the way to  a more complex and inclusive approach to this issue. Using  agricultural change as a lens through which to view  socio-economic and cultural change, political struggle, and  colonial hegemony, Korieh shows that regional dynamics and  local responses also played vital roles in this era of  transformation. British attempts to modernize the densely  populated Igbo region were focused largely on intensive  production of palm oil as a cash crop for export and on the  assumption of male dominance within a conventional western  hierarchy. This colonial agenda, however, collided with a  traditional culture in which females played important  social and political roles and male status was closely tied  to yam cultivation. Drawing on an astonishing array of  sources, including oral interviews, newspapers, private  journals, and especially letters of petition from local  farmers and traders, Korieh puts the reader in direct  contact with ordinary people, evoking a feeling of what it  was like to live through the era. As such, the book reveals  colonial interactions as negotiated encounters between  officials and natives and challenges simplistic notions of  a hegemonic colonial state and a compliant native  population."--P. [4] of cover.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1382073},
}