Economic Equality and Human Stature in Pre-Colonial Igboland

Olscamp 101

This research paper examines economic equality and biological wellbeing in Pre-Colonial Igboland, a community in present-day Nigeria. The project draws on several source bases and compares their depictions of the economic climate of Igbo communities before British Colonial rule. Most notably, height data from repatriated slaves disembarked in Havana, Cuba, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, was used to create an anthropometric model of Igbo communities around the dawn of the nineteenth century. This data was compared to first hand accounts of Igboland from famous Nigerian authors Olaudah Equiano and Chinua Achebe. This study shows that Igbo economies were relatively equitable, with nearly all members participating in economic production.