COLONIAL RULE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIFE OF UROMI WOMEN IN ESANLAND

The history of the people of Esan-land and their traditional socio-political institutions with Uromi as a case study, from very early times reflect the capacity of the African people to evolve fort nenin selves highly sophisticated socio-political institutions which are very sufficient in the standard organization of society. These institutions and their duration in time land credence to the unique abilities on the Uromi people to maintain their own social-political institutions for the maintenance of the society. Although, it is worthy of note that whatever has become of these institutions in terms of their evolution and continuity from pre-colonial times to present time, have been a common feature shared among the peoples of the Edoid group, which comprise the Benins, Urobho, Afenmia and other groups that were under the Benin Empire like the Itselari, Agbo Okpe etc. these group have maintained common socio-political institutions like monarchy and gerontocracy which are still maintained in present times. The system of gerontocracy which is the rule by the elders it is a system that has evolved from the very early times of their settlement and still remains one of the basic sources of traditional political authority in present day Uromi. The procedure for climbing into higher levels of political authority which is based on age grade helps to ensure order in the socio-political hierarchy than fact that each level is endowed with certain tastes which are allocated to them based on their physical and mental capacity helps to ensure that everyone is involved in the governance of the society based on their capacity. The fact that the basic Socio-Political unit which is the family at the village level are kept under the authority of the father in correspondence with the laws of the land helps to bring about general order in society. Also, the establishment of the village unit and political authority base on blood of unity among the people, and ensure the supremacy of their nature law and customs among themselves. The impact of colonial rule on the economic activities of Uromi women have been examined against the background of the role one functions of women in Uromi society before colonia compress and the period during colonial rule. It has shown that women had a subordinate status rationalized through an ideology which largely excluded them from participating in some economic activities. But the indispensable importance roles and functions were largely restricted to the household as a social unit in pre-colonial period and were given paternalistic protection by their male counterpart or husband. Colonialism through its various policy measures brought growth and development in the economic activities of Uromi women. Those policies brought about changes and innovation the productive activities and also put them in an advantageous position with Uromi men and other non Uromi elements that dominated the most profitable aspects of the colonel economy. The women were privilege to achieve socio-economic advancement through the development in their economic productive activities. This development in addition to the advantage position colonial experiences bastioned on the women and made them economically independent. Thus, colonialism gave Uromi women more leverage economically.