Colonialism and the Evolution of Labour in Eggon Society, 1903 - 1960

This article examines the impact of British colonial rule on the transformation of labour systems in Eggon society between 1903 and 1960, a period marked by conquest, administrative consolidation, and economic restructuring in central Nigeria. Before colonial intrusion, labour among the Eggon was organised around communalism, kinship obligations, and age-grade institutions such as collective farm labour (gaya), rotational house construction, and communal land clearing. These systems sustained subsistence production, reinforced social cohesion, and provided social security through reciprocal obligations rather than monetary exchange. The establishment of colonial administration following the pacification of Eggon territory between 1903 and 1917 fundamentally altered these indigenous labour relations. Colonial policies, particularly cash taxation, compelled Eggon households to seek monetary income, thereby forcing participation in wage labour and cashcrop production. Eggon men were increasingly drawn into groundnut farming for export, road construction, porterage, and service within the Native Administration. Infrastructure development linking Eggon areas to Akwanga and Lafia intensified labour demand, often through coercive recruitment practices sanctioned by colonial ordinances. Drawing on Marxist political economy, the study situates Eggon society within wider debates on colonial labour, proletarianisation, and capitalist integration in Africa. It argues that colonial labour policies produced incomplete proletarianisation, new labour hierarchies, and enduring economic marginalisation. The Eggon case demonstrates how colonial capitalism penetrated rural African societies unevenly and coercively, generating long-term socio-economic consequences that persisted into the postcolonial era.