DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE YORUBA, IGBO AND HAUSA TRADITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS IN NIGERIA
Family Life
Yoruba: Family life is the foundation of Yoruba culture, as I have learned and I have been told and shown. Everything roots from the family unit and this can’t be ignored. Yoruba families are, like most African families, dominated by the father. Where the difference lies is the children have a relationship with their father that emphasis’ love. The dynamic between love and respect are the differences between the two groups. Children call their father by gentle names and there’s a rigorous amount of cultural niceties and traditions that children are to learn when interacting with adults.
Administration
The Yoruba kingdom consisted of the Headquarter and number of towns and villages. The Oba and his senior Chief ruled from the headquarters. Every day, the chiefs met at the Oba’s palace to discuss the affairs of the kingdom. They discussed the conduct of wars; the kingdom’s relationship with the others took decisions and communicated these to the Oba who would issue any necessary directive in his name. In those days, it was not customary for the chiefs to sit together with the Oba because of his sacredness. Thus any decision taken would normally be communicated to him through a messenger. The autocratic tendencies of the Oba were widely curtailed, if there was a proclivity towards this by an Oba, the line of communicating the Oba’s wishes and orders to his people or subjects would paralyzed. In addition to this, any Oba who wanted to rule autocratically would be forced to commit suicide. Other devices to checkmate the autocratic ruling of an Oba if there was a disagreement between him and the chiefs was neglect of religious ceremonies and other rituals.
Igbo: Family life is also the foundation of Igbo culture. More so than Yoruba culture is the power the father has over the family. Igbo fathers emphasis respect more than love though I wouldn’t say the love is more or less in the cultures. It’s more common for igbo children to call their father’s more authoritative names like sir, and culturally there’s an element of respective distance. I have seen Yoruba families eat from the same plate and children sitting among adults while they speak. In Igbo culture if you wish to eat with your father, you eat from his plate, but he will not leave where he’s at to eat from the child’s plate. Typically fathers are served separate from children, and as children become youths they chose to eat separately from those not in their age group. Igbo adults are also insulted by children that don’t leave the area when adults are talking. Affection is more the job of the mother than the father, and it’s the father’s role to teach the values to respect, manhood and discipline.
The contrast is where the yoruba place emphasis on cultural niceties, igbos tend to put practicality about it. For instance. A though in day to day interaction the Igbo father is more authoritarian than the yoruba father, yoruba children are more hesitant to go against their father’s wishes in terms of marriage, career, and educational paths. Many of the yoruba children I have met had their parents pick their career and education goal.
For an Igbo family, there’s a lot more freedom for the child to chose their own destiny and act individualistically. Your father or mother (often mother) can oppose, but they can’t stop you and upon adulthood the child usually loses his or her fear of their parents damnation. Regardless of what the child picks to do, the parents are more concerned with the end result than the method. If the child can do it better than others, it’s approved, or if the child shows that they’re serious, the parents have no choice than to accept.
The role of women is a very interesting contrast. Igbo men and women view each other as functional equals, but cultural in-equals. A man expects a woman to earn as he earns and contribute as he contributes. Women are expected to be as educated as or more learned than men, be a source of income for the family, and to be a leader in her own right. When it comes to culture, the man is still viewed as superior. Igbo women are also more likely to pressure their husbands to succeed. It’s typical for igbo women to constantly push and nag at their husbands to do more. In times of failure she won’t ‘comfort’ him, but will instead ridicule and demand he wake up and do better.
Administration
Unlike the Yoruba kingdom and Fulani Emirates, the Ibos had no centralized political authority. Often than not, the Ibo political organization has been described as being decentralized. And its government referred to as ‘Republican’. Decentralized is used to described the political organ of societies without central government which is in precolonial Africa was usually headed by a single person (King, emperor) etc.
Decentralized society is distinguished from stratified, which usually have royal noble families who pass high political office from generation to generation. In decentralize societies, stable government is achieved by balancing small, equal groups against each other and by the ties of clanship, marriage and religious association. Therefore their system was based upon the family group. Each family was expected to choose its head in each of their villages. There were families and a number of these formed kindred. There could be many of such kindred in villages. For the purpose of administration all the elders from the families formed the council of elders who was called OKPARA would be made the chairman of the council. The okpara wielded much influence. It should be noted that as a check on him, he had no influence outside his village. His influence was restricted to his family and his village.
HAUSA
The Emir is the religious leader of his people, whose duty is to ensure that commandments of Allah are obeyed in his territory. This accounts for the great authority which was wielded by the Emirs and which made them such suitable rulers even under the British protectorate. The official religion was Islam and Koran was used as the holy book where all the teachings of religion were contained. Mohammed was seen as the founder of the religion. Some teachings that were contained in the Koran before the coming of the colonial administration. History shows that many dynasties fail to last long because of court intrigues, and disputes over the succession. The Kanuri empire was fortunate in that these occurred only very rarely in its long history.
Administration
To make use of this principle, the north was divided into provinces and residents official were appointed to direct and supervise the Emirs within their provinces administratively. The resident themselves were to follow the directive of the high commissioner. Courts were set up and presided over by the residents. However it must be noted here that Moselem’s courts were left intact as the British government was not regularizes. On the whole, the right to legislate was reserved for the British officials. The indirect rule system was highly successful since it was the existing system prior to the advent of the colonial master.
The introduction of indirect rule system in the south particularly Yorubaland was met with a little success. The truth was that Lord Lugard did not recognize that there was incompatibility between the northern and western administration in Nigeria prior to their coming. Above all the system in the north was more or less theoretic/autocratic system while the west was monarchical. Oba as discussed earlier on had no absolute authority over his subjects because there was a check over the Oba’s rule. However the indirect rule tends to widen the power at the Oba’s disposal to the total neglect of the senior chiefs. Aside, the introduction of regularized taxation was incompatible with the Yoruba Traditional System.