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Igba-Boi: Historical Transitions of the Igbo Apprenticeship Model
Abstract
Being Igbo is synonymous with being enterprising. This is perhaps the most popular impression that many people have about the Igbo of south-eastern Nigeria. Historical antecedents indicate that prior to colonisation, the Igbo engaged actively in trade and agriculture. However, the events of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) had an indelible impact on the economic activities and achievements of the Igbo. Since then, this ethnic nation has risen from economic ashes, and evidence abound in different commercial spaces across the globe. A critical driver of this economic renaissance is the Igba-Boi/Imu Ahia traditional business apprenticeship model. Founded on the Igbo philosophies of communality, co-prosperity and interdependence, the model is characterised by the transgenerational transfer of entrepreneurial skills and the reproduction of business champions. In this chapter, we assess the centrality of enterprise in the Igbo culture; appraise entrepreneurial activities of the Igbo during the pre-colonial and colonial periods; discuss the consequences of the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970), as well as the post-civil war economic revival. Specifically, we analyse the processes, opportunities and challenges of the Igbo traditional business apprenticeship. Broad-based recommendations highlight imperatives for sustainability and leveraging across cultures and contexts.
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In recent times, the entrepreneurial performance of the Igbo people of Nigeria has become outstanding. This is as most increasing numbers of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), as well as large business enterprises (LBEs) which underscore growth of Nigerian economy are owned and managed by the Igbo people. More still, this gross commercial performance of the Igbos even prevails amidst harsh increasing circumstances. The Igbo in fact cannot be successfully entrepreneurial on a vacuum. There must be some bases for their socioeconomic performance. This paper analytically investigates peculiar sources, circumstances and skills that are the fulcrum of increasing socioeconomic performance of the Igbo people. The study finds that entrepreneurial performance of the Igbos is underscored by their economic culture and value, which are highly existential in their traditions and belief system. These are however fostered by the long years of marginalization by successive Nigerian governments, as well as other prominent factors in pre and post independence Nigeria. The research concludes that with this progressive rate, Igbo people will in time be a force to reckon with in the socio-political and techno-economic sector of Nigeria and Africa at large.
Knowledge production within the field of business research is accelerating at a tremendous speed while at the same time remaining fragmented and interdisciplinary. This makes it hard to keep up with state-of-the-art and to be at the forefront of research, as well as to assess the collective evidence in a particular area of business research. This is why the literature review as a research method is more relevant than ever. Traditional literature reviews often lack thoroughness and rigor and are conducted ad hoc, rather than following a specific methodology. Therefore, questions can be raised about the quality and trustworthiness of these types of reviews. This paper discusses literature review as a methodology for conducting research and offers an overview of different types of reviews, as well as some guidelines to how to both conduct and evaluate a literature review paper. It also discusses common pitfalls and how to get literature reviews published.
The research problem that the study addressed was the relationship between entrepreneurship and three (3) variables speculated to exist among the Igbo of southeast Nigeria. The identified variables were as follows: Personality Traits, Cultural Traits, and SocioEconomic Environment. The Research Objective was specifically to find out if indeed there were any significant relationships between entrepreneurship among the Igbos and the three variables. To operationalize or kick-off the study the researchers formulated three hypotheses in the null version, proposing that no relationships existed. For methodology, the primary data collected from a convenient sample of five hundred entrepreneurs was used. These research subjects were owners of business enterprises registered with their States' Corporate Affairs Commission in the five states of the geo-political zone. The registers provided the sampling frame. The instrument of data collection was a closed-ended questionnaire constructed for the purpose and calibrated with the Likert-type ordinal measurement and rating scale. The data analysis was done at two levels employing first, the descriptive analyses and lastly the inferential analyses. The descriptive analysis made use of frequency tables, mean scores, and percentages while the inferential analyses made use of regression analyses. The findings were that there were significant relationships between entrepreneurship as the dependent variable (Regressand) and the three independent variables (Regressors). The regression output was further used to test the hypotheses. In conclusion, we rejected the three stated null hypotheses and accepted the alternatives. Recommendations based on the findings, discussion of findings and the conclusions were made. Our contribution to knowledge lies on the use of the south east entrepreneurs as the population of study for the three drivers of entrepreneurship. We are not yet aware of any such previous study. If there is, then ours is a corroboration expanding the frontiers of knowledge.
Different personalities constitute modern workplaces. One of such personalities is the corporate psychopath, whose presence poses manifold threats to organizational existence. This study examines the personality of the corporate psychopath and specifically investigates the relationship between corporate psychopathy and employee burnout. A total of 104 respondents within a university setting in Nigeria completed measures of corporate psychopathy to establish the existence of the traits in their managers; a self-report measure of employee burnout was also completed. Corporate psychopathy correlates positively and significantly with emotional exhaustion, de-personalization and decreased personal accomplishment. Results indicate that corporate psychopathy is an underlying factor of employee burnout. Enhanced whistle-blowing structures and ethical regeneration are proffered to mitigate the consequences of corporate psychopathy in the face of cultural complexes that fan its flames.
This survey explores the important connection between institutions and entrepreneurship. Institutions consist of the formal and informal ‘rules of the game.’ Entrepreneurs act within a context determined by these rules. The rules of the game create payoffs that make certain entrepreneurial opportunities more attractive than others. We explore the relevant literature from institutional economics and entrepreneurial studies, focusing on the important link between the two. Particular emphasis is placed on entrepreneurship within several different institutional settings - private for-profit, private non-profit and political - as well as the impact of entrepreneurship on institutions. We conclude by discussing the implications for future research on the topic.
Central to the capitalist orientation introduced to the Third World nations through colonialism is the role of entrepreneurs in development. This group is still perceived as inevitable if these nations are to develop. In spite of all the attempts to develop date, very little is being achieved. While this monograph recognises the importance of entrepreneurs in development, it asserts that these entrepreneurs have always existed in pre-colonial Nigeria but the re-orientation brought about through capitalism has fundamentally affected the pre-colonial situation. As such, there is a disjuncture between the latter and the present capitalist expectation. More importantly, the author tries to debunk the position of certain Europian writers that certain ethnic groups are better entrepreneurs than others. Thus, the responsiveness of the Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria to European economic incentives was a result of a certain historico-sociological position that this group occupies in Nigeria, It is posited that as the nation approaches the twenty-first-century, one cannot say with certainty that ethnicity should be the main consideration for entrepreneurial ability. It is the political economy of each nation within the World Capitalist System that will determine the emergent scenario.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and the world’s eighth largest oil producer, but its success has been undermined in recent decades by ethnic and religious conflict, political instability, rampant official corruption and an ailing economy. Toyin Falola, a leading historian intimately acquainted with the region, and Matthew Heaton, who has worked extensively on African science and culture, combine their expertise to explain the context to Nigeria’s recent troubles through an exploration of its pre-colonial and colonial past, and its journey from independence to statehood. By examining key themes such as colonialism, religion, slavery, nationalism and the economy, the authors show how Nigeria’s history has been swayed by the vicissitudes of the world around it, and how Nigerians have adapted to meet these challenges. This book offers a unique portrayal of a resilient people living in a country with immense, but unrealized, potential.
This paper examines the portrayal of the Igbo family in four novels: Ubesie's Isi Akwụ Dara N'ala (1973), Nzeakọ's Nkọlị (1973) and Jụọchi (1981), and Madụekwe's Uru Nwa (1978). Each of these novels explores problems that mar family relationships in Igbo traditional society. Ubesie's Isi Akwụ Dara N'ala portrays how a family can be destabilized by war, and a marriage can be ruined by a wife's unbridled waywardness and promiscuity. Nzeakọ's Jụọchi exposes how a wife's arrogance and negligence of her domestic responsibil-ity, as well as a husband's moral laxity can destabilize a family. Nzeakọ's Nkọlị explores how co-wives' bitter rivalry and acrimony disrupt harmonious and cordial relationships in a po-lygamous family, and are sometimes occasioned by inimical external forces. Finally, Madụekwe's Uru Nwa depicts how a man's distrust and allegations of infidelity against his wife can lead to a broken home. Uru Nwa also shows how a female child doggedly playing a manly role can reunite her parents. These and other attributes of Igbo family life, highlighted by each of the novelists, show that Igbo novels depict a range of human social behavior.
Why have informal enterprise networks failed to promote economic development in Africa? Although social networks were thought to offer a solution to state incapacity and market failure, the proliferation of socially embedded enterprise networks across Africa has generated disorder and economic decline rather than development. This book challenges the prevailing assumption that the problem of African development lies in bad cultural institutions by showing that informal economic governance in Nigeria is shaped, not just by culture, but by the disruptive effects of rapid liberalization, state decline and political capture.
Identity Economics traces the rise of two dynamic informal enterprise clusters in Nigeria, and explores their slide into trajectories of Pentecostalism, poverty and violent vigilantism. Drawing on over twenty years of empirical research on African informal economies, the author highlights the institutional legacies, networking strategies and globalizing dynamics that shape the regulatory role of social networks in Africa's largest and most turbulent economy. Through an ethnography of informal economic governance, this book shows how ties of ethnicity, class, gender and religion are used to restructure enterprise networks in response to contemporary economic challenges. Moving beyond primordialist interpretations of African culture, attention is drawn to the critical role of the state and the macro-economic policy environment in shaping trajectories of informal economic governance.
There is an Igbo saying that the world is a marketplace (uwa bu ahia). This simple worldview can be explained literally to
mean that the Igbo think so because trading is a prominent occupation among the Igbo (it could also mean that a marketplace
is the epicenter of community social and business interaction). That might be why the Igbo weekdays are named after their
markets – Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo. Children born on any of these market days often assume the default name as in Okeke or Mgbeke,
Okorie or Mgborie, Okafo or Mgbafo, Okonkwo or Mgbonkwo for male or female children, respectively, born on the corresponding
market days. We are yet to come across another culture for which the market holds such a fascinating centrality in their worldview
even while they see themselves as ruggedly egalitarian. The meaning of the thesis statement that the world is a marketplace
is deeper than the literal interpretation. The deeper meaning is the suggestion that all the problems we encounter in this
world are open to negotiation, haggling and bargaining. Some people come into the market place with greater resources than
others and therefore are able to buy more goods and services just as some people are born or raised with greater resources,
increasing their bargaining power in the global marketplace. When the Igbo say that the world is a market, they usually complete
the sentence by observing that when one buys to one’s content, one goes home. The home referred to here is the land of the
ancestors to which the Igbo believe the spirits of the dead return to bargain for a better life in their next incarnation.
If one’s creator dealt one a raw deal in this life, one can still bargain with his/her personal God (or Chi) and haggle for
a better break in the next life. In other words, the Igbo intend the paradox that the world is a market as a description of
the global world and not simply just the Igbo world. This paper will focus on how the Igbo organize the training of children
in commercial and consumerist activities given their mercantilist worldview. Are there lessons that other cultures could learn
from the Igbo and are there lessons that the Igbo could learn from the social structure of modernist business schools?
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