Posts Tagged ‘ludwig’

Ludwig Pearl

Six Classic Elements of a Best Selling Novel

model for Mason), Gardner was easily the best-selling and most prolific of all mystery writers. From the early thirties until his death in 1970, he produced two or three of his The Case of ... novels a year, enough to keep five secretaries busy transcribing his dictation full-time.

Technique #1: Put Your Story Front and Center Story was literally everything to Gardner. Characterization and background were of secondary, if any, importance. To Gardner, the novel was simply the most effective means of presenting his detective puzzles. Like Agatha Christie, Gardner relied heavily on dialogue, so that his books often read like scripts.

Here's the no-nonsense beginning of The Case of the Screaming Woman, an example of how Gardner hooks us immediately with the first bizarre aspect of his story:

Della Street, Perry Mason's confidential secretary, entered Mason's private office, walked over to the lawyer's desk and said, "You always like something out of the ordinary, Chief. This time I have a lulu!"

"Unusual?" Mason asked, looking up from the papers on his desk.

"Unique," she said.

"Give," Mason told her.

"A Mrs. John Kirby telephoned," Della Street said, "and wanted to retain you to cross-examine her husband."

"A divorce case?" Mason asked.

"No, she and her husband are good friends."

"Yet she wants me to cross-examine him?"

"That's right."

"About what?"

"About where he was last night."

Mason frowned. "Della, I'm not a lie detector. I'm not a psychoanalyst. I don't handle cases involving domestic relations."

"That's what I told Mrs. Kirby," Della Street said. "She told me she only wanted her husband's interests protected. She said she wanted you to listen to his story, puncture his self-assurance, and rip him to pieces."

Though few would be tempted to call Gardner a stylist, there's no arguing that he could arrest us with a wildly unlikely premise at the start of each of his books. It was this ability to build a novel on strength of story, rather than on how he told that story, that made him the favorite of millions.

Sometimes this kind of get-to-the-point storytelling is exactly what readers crave-for example, when what they really want is a challenging puzzle in novel form.

If you share Gardner's gift for ingenious plotting, why embellish your book with unnecessary detail or description? You might be doing yourself, and your book, a disservice. Bare-bones, plot-oriented writing may be the perfect approach for your novel of mystery or suspense.

ERSKINE CALDWELL

"From the day of my birth until I reached the age of twenty years, I rarely lived longer than six years in the same place," wrote this red-haired, Georgia-born son of a Presbyterian minister, who at eighteen was running guns for a revolt in Central America. He also worked as a plowboy, poolroom attendant, cotton picker, lumbermill hand, professional football player, taxi driver, stagehand in a burlesque theater, stonemason, soda jerk, cook and waiter, book reviewer and journalist.

Caldwell is best known, however, as the author of sometimes scandalous novels about the Southern poor, most notably 1933's God's Little Acre, among the most popular novels of all time. Not far behind is Tobacco Road, written the year before.

Technique #2: Paint Characters With Heart Caldwell's novels about "American primitives" have enjoyed their phenomenal success largely because Caldwell (like Mark Twain and Bret Harte, to whom he is frequently compared) truly loved the people he wrote about. This love for these people at their best and worst would not have existed if he had not known them so well, and it was this knowledge that allowed him to show them in all their humor, eccentricity and pathos-qualities that make these people irresistible to readers.

In this excerpt from Tobacco Road, Ellie May Lester shows her feelings for Lov Bensey. Lov is married to Ellie May's younger sister Pearl, who refuses to sleep with Lov. Ellie May, though harelipped, is all too willing to give Lov what he wants.

[Lov] was looking at Ellie May now. She had at last got him to give her some attention.

Ellie May was edging closer and closer to Lov. She was moving across the yard by raising her weight on her hands and sliding herself over the hard white sand. She was smiling at Lov, and trying to make him take more notice of her. She could not wait any longer for him to come to her, so she was going to him. Her harelip was spread open across her upper teeth, making her mouth appear as though she had no upper lip at all. Men usually would have nothing to do with Ellie May; but she was eighteen now, and she was beginning to discover that it should be possible for her to get a man in spite of her appearance.

"Ellie May's acting like your old hound used to do when he got the itch," Dude said to Jeeter. "Look at her scrape her bottom on the sand. That old hound used to make the same kind of sound Ellie May's making, too. It sounds just like a little pig squealing, don't it?"

Chances are these are not like the people you encounter daily, but to Erskine Caldwell they might as well have been, and he painted them exactly as he saw them, with a brush full of color, and broad, lively strokes.

In most novels it is vital that the author give us characters we can know and like as much as we find ourselves knowing and liking those in Caldwell's. To create such supersympathetic characters in your novels, look directly to the people you know and love better than any others. Only by knowing and loving your characters can you make us do the same.

IAN FLEMING

Drawing on his experience with British Naval Intelligence, Fleming created James Bond 007, and indeed Fleming and Bond often became confused in the public mind. Though Fleming called his work "trivial piffle," his espionage adventures had been phenomenally successful around the world, with John F. Kennedy among his most avid fans.

Technique #3: Appeal to Our Wildest Fantasies The success of Fleming's books has been attributed to the way they appeal to our wildest dreams. James Bond, more than any other fictional hero, lived many people's fantasy of a life of total self-sufficiency and self-indulgence.

At the climax of You Only Live Twice, Bond is a prisoner of his old nemesis, Ernst Blofeld, in the cliff-top Castle of Death. Bond manages to escape the deadly volcanic mud of the Question Room, save his neck from Blofeld's massive samurai sword, and ultimately overpower and strangle Blofeld. He even sets the Castle to self-destruct-only to climb out a window and find himself trapped on a narrow balustrade.

. . . He looked over the side. A sheer hundred-foot drop to the gravel. A soft fluted whistle above him caught his ear. He looked up. Only a breath of a wind in the moorings of that bloody balloon! But then a lunatic idea came to him, a flashback to one of the old Douglas Fairbanks films when the hero had swung across the wide hall by taking a flying leap at the chandelier. This helium balloon was strong enough to hold taut fifty feet of framed cotton strip bearing the warning sign! Why shouldn't it be powerful enough to bear the weight of a man?

Bond ran to the corner of the balustrade to which the mooring line was attached. He tested it. It was taut as a wire! From somewhere behind him there came a great clamour in the castle . . . Holding onto the straining rope, he climbed onto the railing, cut a foothold for himself in the cotton banner, and, grasping the mooring rope with his right hand, chopped downwards below him with Blofeld's sword and threw himself into space.

It worked! There was a light night breeze, and he felt himself wafted gently away over the moonlit park, over the glittering, steaming lake, towards the sea. But he was rising, not falling! The helium sphere was not in the least worried by his weight! Then blue-and-yellow fire fluttered from the upper storey of the castle, and an occasional angry wasp zipped past him. . . . Now the whole black silhouette of the castle swayed in the moonlight and seemed to jig upwards and sideways and then slowly dissolve like an ice cream cone in the sunshine. The top storey crumbled first, then the next, and the next, and then, after a moment, a huge jet of orange fire shot up from hell towards the moon. A buffet of hot wind, followed by an echoing crack of thunder, hit Bond and made his balloon sway violently.

. . . Punctured by a bullet, the balloon was fast losing height. Below, the softly swelling sea offered a bed. . . .

It seems clear that Fleming never forgot that most people who read for pleasure read to escape, and that these readers want as much escape as they can get for their time and money.

Are your own characters humdrum and mundane, doing humdrum and mundane things, when they would be so much for interesting being and doing things we've only dreamed of? Fleming knew-and every novelist should remember-that one of the greatest joys of writing is that the impossible can be made possible. Give your readers a run for their money. Let them find true, wonderful escape in the worlds you create for them.

MICKEY SPILLANE

His mystery-detective novels have been called nasty and sadistic, but they've won Spillane millions of fans just the same. The Brooklyn-born son of an Irish bartender began his writing career selling stories to the "slicks" and the "pulps," then writing comic books. His novels, most of them starring rough, tough Mike Hammer (said to resemble his creator), landed Spillane on the all-time best-seller list again and again, from 1947's I, The Jury to the fifties' My Gun is Quick, The Big Kill, One Lonely Night, The Long Wait and Kiss Me, Deadly, to 1961's The Deep.

Technique #4: Torture the Reader to the End Of his method of creating suspense, Spillane said: "You don't read a book to get to the middle. You read a book to get to the end. You deliberately torture yourself all the way through, hoping that after all the garbage the end will be worth all the time you spent in the reading thereof. True? It's got to be totally satisfactory in the last line.

A superb example of how Spillane puts his words into action is the ending of I, The Jury (I've used a few dashes so as not to give anything away):

"No, ----, I'm the jury now, and the judge, and I have a promise to keep. Beautiful as you are, as much as I almost loved you, I sentence you to death." . . .

The roar of the .45 shook the room. ---- staggered back a step. Her eyes were a symphony of incredulity, an unbelieving witness to truth. Slowly, she looked down to the ugly swelling in her naked belly where the bullet went in. A thin trickle of blood welled out.

I stood up in front of her and shoved the gun into my pocket. I turned and looked at the rubber plant behind me. There on the table was the gun, with the safety catch off and the silencer still attached. Those loving arms would have reached it nicely. A face that was waiting to be kissed was really waiting to be splattered with blood when she blew my head off. My blood. When I heard her fall I turned around. Her eyes had pain in them now, the pain preceding death. Pain and unbelief.

"How c-could you?" she gasped.

I only had a moment before talking to a corpse, but I got it in.

"It was easy," I said.

Remember how we all love being surprised, and hold some things back as you write your novel, whatever sort of novel it is. It's a wonderful feeling to read a book and realize that a truly skillful novelist has gotten the best of us. Be careful to play fair with your surprises, however; make them believable and be sure to plant any necessary precedents or clues.

FRANK YERBY

Georgia-born Yerby is best known for his vivid and complex Southern tales, the most successful of which are 1946's The Foxes of Harrow, 1947's The Vixens, and 1949's Pride's Castle. A critic once wrote that "Mr. Yerby could be a pretty good novelist if he ever got his mind off the neckline and the cash register," but the world always welcomed a new Yerby novel unconditionally.

Technique #5: Evoke the Magic of the Moment Yerby is famous for his vivid language, for his multiplicity of characters and for writing, in the words of Arna Bontemps, with "a flair for color, an air of easy abandon, the ability to live in the moment and to create characters that live in the moment, a touch of very elementary magic."

Devilseed is Yerby's story of Mireille Duclos, who, like many women of her time, sails penniless into gold-crazed San Francisco in the 1850s and there climbs to riches and respectability. In this scene we see Mireille riding into town as the new wife of Judge Alain Curtwright.

Mireille's imposing mahogany-and-rosewood-paneled landau swept eastward down Clay Street toward Portsmouth Square, drawn at a spanking trot behind her pair of night-black, imported Australian horses. Perched high on the driver's seat before her, the Swithers brothers, James and John, her coachman and footman, sat, clad in livery every bit as imposing as the landau, their faces, under their tall silk hats, blacker than the hides of her splendid five-gaited pair, set in frowns of stern self-importance.

"Mammy" Pleasant had sent the Blacks to Mireille with a note suggesting that she hire them, which Mireille had been pleased to do, even knowing that Mary Ellen Pleasant had surely placed them in her employ to spy on her. Now, staring at their sturdy backs straining against the frock coats of their livery, she had the wickedly delighted feeling that she had "turned" them both: that they now were, if not wholly on her side, at last double agents. For, by awarding them a treatment involving so much kindness, real consideration, even, at times, an easy, affectionate familiarity that no Black menservants in the 1850s could dream of receiving from a young, stunningly beautiful white woman, she got as much information about Mary Ellen Pleasant's weird, devious, and plain evil doings out of them as they carried back to the house on Washington Street about hers.

As she rolled along, with the rear calash top folded back and the breeze stirring her raven hair under her smart little bonnet, all the men on the sidewalks took off their hats and waved them in her direction. More than one of them grandly bowed. The women-what few there were-glared, and ostentatiously turned their backs. Mireille smiled with quiet satisfaction at that sight. Ever since the fabulous Lola Montez, mistress of the immortal pianist-composer Franz Liszt, mistress of the ex-King Ludwig of Bavaria, mistress of-the list was endless!-whose Spider Dance drove men of the cloth, not to mention mere miners and businessmen, out of their minds, had left San Francisco that preceding fall to settle-permanently, she swore-in the pleasant little California mountain town of Grass Valley, Mireille had inherited, by default, Lola's crown as the most celebrated demimondaine in the city. . . .

Yerby uses details of place and time as tools to evoke character, making Mireille and Mary Ellen functions of where and when they live, and vice versa. The Swithers brothers, coachman and footman, very much a sign of affluence at this time, are the device by which Mary Ellen spies of Mireille, who in turn uses them for the same purpose. We see the people on Clay Street showing their feelings for Mireille through social customs of the place and time-grand bows and waves of the hat from the men, exaggerated turns of the back from the women. Note the use of a real and colorful figure, Lola Montez, to bring Mireille and her role in San Francisco into even sharper focus.

Use these techniques to make the characters in your novel virtually an extension of their place and time. Have them use, abuse and react to objects and customs distinctly of their world, so that we cannot recall these characters without recalling how they were dressed, how they spoke, what they ate and all the other ways they interacted with their world.

Not a person has been born who has not been shaped to some degree by where and when he or she lived. The magic of moment in reading fiction is learning how people live in, adapt to and make use of their where and when as we do with ours.

HAROLD ROBBINS It was a tribute to Robbins's staying power and adaptability that he was as much a titan in 1988 as he was forty years earlier, when he published 1948's Never Love a Stranger.

Robbins's publishers once announced that every minute someone bought a Robbins novel-another tribute to his never having let his public down. Not bad for a poor kid from New York who started his career as a grocery clerk, short-order cook, cashier, errand boy and bookies' runner.

Robbins has been praised most for the authenticity of the world in which he sets his novels. Never Love a Stranger drew heavily from Robbins's experience growing up in New York, and so vividly depicted that world of hustlers and racketeers that one critic called it "a Les Misérables of New York."

Technique #6: Make Background a Character In 79 Park Avenue, in which heroine Marja starts out a poor kid from Second Avenue and winds up a Park Avenue call girl, Robbins describes the seamy beachfront world of prostitution as he no doubt observed it growing up:

She walked into the hotel lobby and chose a seat in a discreet out-of-the-way corner. Opening a copy of Vogue that she had carried with her, she glanced through it idly. . . .

A few minutes passed. Then a bellboy stopped in front of her. "Room three-eleven," he said in a low voice.

"Three-eleven," she repeated, a smile on her lips.

He nodded. "Right. He's waiting there now."

"Thank you." She smiled, holding out her hand.

"You're welcome, miss," the bellboy answered, taking the two bills from her. He walked away quickly.

Slowly she closed the magazine, glancing around the lobby as she stood up. It was normal. The house dick was looking the other way, the desk clerks were busy with check-ins, the other people in the lobby were all guests. Satisfied with her quick check, she sauntered toward the elevators. She had nothing to worry about. Everyone was taken care of. Mac, the landlord of the rooming house, had put her wise to that.

"Pick a place to operate from," he had said knowingly. "Then before you do anything, make sure that everybody who might be interested is paid off. They'll leave you alone then, even help you."

Obviously, Robbins would not have undertaken a novel with a background of prostitution if the hadn't felt he could do so convincingly. But his use of detail and ambiance is what sets this and his other novels apart, makes them as memorable for their depiction of world and place as for their characters.

When deciding on the world in which to place your novel, consider the worlds you know so well that you may be overlooking them entirely. Writers have found these worlds, literally right in front of their noses, to be the richest and to work most authentically. What, after all, does a writer-or anyone-know better than his or her own life and the lives of those he or she has observed firsthand?

About the Author

listen to a best seller

Ludwig Pearl

Acrolite Snare Drum

Acrolite Snare Drum

Ludwig Drum Set

About The Rockin Drum Store Facts

Rockin' Drum Store is a distribution agent for Move Marketing, LLC. Though not a retailer, they do work as agents for various retailers who carry drum sets, tama drum sets, Yamaha drums, and any other drum-related equipment that may be necessary. They also have a partnership with Your Rockin' Guitar Store and Your Drum Set, giving the musician and wannabe musician an even greater opportunity to find the equipment and accessories that he or she needs.

Since many cities, especially small ones, don't have a large selection of music stores, the ability to purchase what you need or want online is a great opportunity. Even greater is the fact that you are not limited to just one retailer, thus opening the opportunity for you to have a larger selection of drumsets from which to choose. More seasoned musicians likely have a brand they prefer such as Yamaha or Ludwig, and in local stores, you don't always have an extensive selection in the brand. In fact, in small cities, drum stores only carry one brand unless you want to pay extra for a special order.

The Rockin' Drum Store takes all of the opportunities of the web into one package, allowing a buyer to make just one stop for everything he needs. Certainly, he will go to the retailer's site, but the buyer will access that site from one central location, thus preventing the possibility of typing the wrong web address and entering a completely different site. Also, with the partnering with the retail sites, that means that the online buyer is receiving discounted prices that they would not receive in the store. One would not have thought a few years ago that it would be possible to buy musical instruments online, but today that is a reality, and musicians all across the world are taking advantage of the convenience and reduced prices that come with online ordering. Instead of running to the store and hoping they have what you need, you sit at your computer and order exactly what you need, confident that it will arrive shortly right on your doorstep.

It's important to think about the convenience of online shopping and the fact that you are dealing with several reputable online drum retailers when you work with The Rockin' Drum Store. You can order what you want, when you want, and have a guarantee that everything will arrive as you expect. Whatever brand you may prefer, you can be sure there is a retailer online who can secure that brand for you and ship it for less than it would cost you to run to the music store. Regardless of your needs, you will find someone can meet them, and all it takes is the click of your mouse to do it.

About the Author

Want to find out about 16 month old baby and baby bath safety? Get tips from the Baby Diseases website.

Ludwig Drum Set

Rogers Snare

PRE-COLONIAL NIGERIAN ECONOMY: DYNAMIC OR STAGNANT?

Introduction

It has been viewed by some Eurocentric writers that pre-colonial West African economy was stagnant, subsistence and that it lacked real market status before British colonization. This argument stems from some anthropological perceptions (substantivist stand point) that the main sector of this economy was basically subsistence agriculture, which had been made stagnant as a result of application of simple technology without organized specialization. Production target is said to ensure human existence with little or no exchange as a result of limited output1. To this view, simple and non-industrial region, such as pre-colonial West African societies lacked certain necessary prerequisite for market economy and as such economic terms and theories should not be applied to explain their economic structure2.

The study therefore intends to unravel the pre-colonial Nigerian indigenous economy both in scope and structure and attempts to establish that it was dynamic and that it possessed real market status of high standard, given its characteristics. The study is divided into three major segments – general features of an economic system, structure of pre-colonial Nigerian economy and justification of pre-colonial Nigerian economy as a dynamic and market oriented economy. A market economy is the one in which decision-making is decentralized, that is market issues are mainly determined by market forces; that is, demand and supply. This is unlike command economy in which decision making is decentralized and controlled by an authority 3. In every economic system, there are three basic economic functions, no matter the nature, type and level of the government or economy4. These are, what and how much to be produced, how will it be produced, and for whom will it be produced. These implies that every economic system takes care of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Every economy system is tied to a political system through which people decide what their society desires.

A vital role of any economic system is co-ordination. It must see that individuals’ decisions about what they do are co-ordinated with the society’s wants and with what other individuals do. This co-ordination also includes, moral, social and political values, an economic integration which ensures that what an individual wants will not exceed what are available in the society5. This partly explains why there is no economic system that can easily operate successfully outside the socio-cultural context of its indigenous environment.

Given this background, it would be gainful to examine the structure and scope of pre-colonial Nigerian economy. The main spring and life-wire of any society are mostly referred to as its economic and human potentials. Nigeria does not take exception to this universal rule. The kingdoms, states and empires that existed in pre-colonial Nigeria were great and prosperous not only because of their sound socio-political institutions, but also as a result of the natural resources such as bountiful agriculture, trade and crafts. A close observation of the Nigerian terrain and climate reveals the diversity of its natural potentials which gave rise to economic viability and a variety of occupations. The structure of pre-colonial Nigerian economy rested basically and extensively on the nature of vegetation, household labour and the main components being agricultural activities, crafts, trade, and its transportation system.

 

Agriculture          

Agriculture is a primordial economic activity in Nigeria which formed the means of livelihood of the peoples and a strong factor for the rise of states and empires just as the case everywhere in the world. From the words of Evans – Pritchards “the first evolution that transformed human economy gave man control over his own food supply, man began to plant, cultivate and improve by selection of edible grasses, roots, and trees”6. This economic advancement has been described as “neolitic revolution”. Like in modern time, in pre-colonial Nigeria , a major determining factor for the choice of settlement was availability of favourable climate, free of epidemics, fertile land suitable for cultivation and grazing, congenial littoral environment for fishing and security such as absence of war and other natural and supernatural disasters. When these factors were lacking, people resorted to migration in search of comfortably habitable areas. Considering these phenomena, the reasons for shifting cultivation in planting in agriculture, normadism in grazing and itinerancy in fishing could be understood. In other words, ecological factors play decisive roles in human settlement7.

The form of agriculture practised and the crops planted were determined by the nature of soil and the terrain of the region. Shifting cultivation and crop rotation characterized agricultural practices in pre-colonial Nigeria , owing primarily to land tenure practice and lack of knowledge of highly mechanized farming. There were natural problems such as erosion, drought, pests and diseases. These problems were tackled locally, depending on individual communities. For instance, traps were set to catch birds and destructive animals in the farms and gutters were also dug to drain away water in order to check flood. Wetting of farms during drought had been an ancient agricultural practice among Nigerians. All these practices were not necessarily influenced by conservation as viewed by some western observers but the most effective and correct maintenance of soil fertility and assessment of the prevailing economic situation of the period8

In pre-colonial Nigeria , farmers depended on implements such as digging stick, hoe, cutlass and sickles. The common crops produced based on territorial specialization included, yam, okra, vegetables, maize, cocoyam, cassava, plantains, bananas, kolanuts and oil palm9. The independent growth and antiquity of agriculture in Africa and Nigeria in particular has been strongly proved by some African economic historians. Among them was Murdock, an ethnographer who argued that agriculture began in the upper Niger area among the Mende-speaking peoples in about 5000BC10 basing his research on yam cultivation in this region. While one cannot doubt the great antiquity of agriculture in Nigeria , we must, on the same note not rule out the possibility of cultivation of yams or other crops earlier than or around the period, (5000BC), in other parts of Nigeria . It is interesting to note that the diffusionist theory and hamitic hypothesis which tend to hold that all developments in Africa are imported have been proved wrong by the nature of agricultural development in the sub-regions11. While it is undeniable that some crops were introduced from other areas to Nigeria , it is evident that agriculture in Nigeria developed naturally and independently without foreign mechanism12. Whatever that was later introduced to it was supplementary to the existing system.

 

FISHING, HUNTING AND PASTORALISM

 

Fishing                                            

Fishing is an ancient economic activity in Nigeria . Its activities cover both the coastal and inland waterways and it was of tremendous economic value to the pre-colonial Nigerians13. Fish was one of the major articles among Nigerian commodities of trade. Fish of various kinds were either dried in the sun or smoked in order to preserve them for long or short distance market14. Fresh fish were said to be marketed mostly in short distance areas owing to the perishable nature and problem of storage facility. Professional fishing is characterized by craftsmanship and special skills, such as boat, canoe, paddle, float, buoy and net construction coupled with invention of a variety of indigenous fishing techniques and gear. Fishing in pre-colonial Nigeria till date engenders migration as many of its practitioners would have to leave their original settlements for better prospects elsewhere15. Fishing of the migratory type was very prominent among the Ilaje, Izon, Itsekiri, Efik, Jukun, Ijebu, Awori etc. From the pre-colonial period to date, the Ilaje are said to have been the most migratory, famous and professional both in inland and deep sea- fishing not only in Nigeria but in West and Central Africa16 . Around the early 16th century, fishing is said to be practised with rudimentary techniques and tools such as raffia materials, wood, and grasses ad with very limited scope17. By the late 18th century to early 19th century, most Nigerian fishermen had started developing improved fishing gear and techniques such as clapnets, castnets, ita, egho, asuren, ojijon, agada, ighee, iyanma, ekobi ufo, riro, 18 etc. Nigerian fishing economy was in this progressive stage of development on the eve of British colonization.

  Hunting                  

Hunting could be regarded as one of the earliest economic activities in pre-colonial Nigeria . It was very significant because, many people depended on it for economic survival at a stage of economic development. However, as time went on, hunting became a relevant supplement to agriculture19. Hunting in Nigeria during this period was of various levels. At lower level, hunting included setting of snares for birds, young animals, such as squirrels, monkeys, grass cutters, alligators, etc. Another level was hunting for larger animals such as crocodile, elephant, wild pig, antelope, etc. It was and perhaps, still, a belief in most local communities in Nigeria that hunting, especially at higher level, apart from special skills involves the use of charms and possession of supernatural powers20. Hunting was a reliable source of meat and animals skin for cloth, shoe and drum making. In addition to its economic value, it was a means by which foot paths and settlements were created before the advent of the European mode of road construction and town settlement. Consequently, these paths and hamlets later developed into roads, towns and villages. Hunters served as security agents by protecting people from attack of enemies or wild animals. Hunters also supplied animals and their special parts which have medicinal value among indigenous medicine practitioners21. Supplementary to hunting was fruit gathering. Collection of variety of fruits from the forest was an economic venture by some people, especially women in the pre-colonial Nigerian societies. Fruits and spices are important for food and herbal medicine hence, their demand was and is still high till date in Nigerian local market places22.

 

 

Pastoralism               

This was another economic practice in pre-colonial Nigeria . This is the rearing of animals, especially cattle, goats and sheep in commercial quantity by moving from one fertile land to another. As a result of infestation of the forest region by tsetse fly and scarcity of open land in the south, couple with the marshy nature of the plains, presence of rivers and creeks in the coastal region and the presence of open land in the north, pastoralism was mostly practised by the Fulani in the savanna region of northern Nigeria22. Both pastoralism and hunting are related to crop farming since they all directly and indirectly deal with animals. Though, mixed farming was not widespread, some form of symbiosis existed between the crop farmers and the postoralists. For instance, the droppings of the cattle formed manure to the soil which in turn supported the growth of crops while the postoralists depended on food crops of the farmers. Moreover, the production of cattle was a source of beef for the forest dwellers, the leather workers demanded the skin for production of shoes, bags, shield for war, quivers for arrow, harness for horses23 etc. Kano in northern Nigeria was famous for such skills. Pastoral activities were of immense economic value in pre-colonial Nigeria .     

 

Crafts     

A discussion of the development of crafts among pre-colonial Nigerians requires a description of their arts and industries at various levels. The major arts and craft works in which Nigerians were famous included; salt extraction, soap production, metal work, woodwork and weaving activities. This enormous development reminds us of the extent to which indigenous technology had progressed in Nigeria in pre-colonial period. It is evident that iron technology had developed considerably in pre-colonial Nigeria and this revolutionalized crafts and manufactures in Nigeria and indeed Africa24 .

Salt production was one of the mineral extractions, which was not available in most areas, but an important locally needed product and an import commodity of foreign merchants25. In pre-colonial Nigeria , production of salt at large quantity was naturally restricted to the coastal areas owing to the availability of raw material such as salt water. The method of production was by evaporation of seawater either by boiling or sunning. Among the coastal settlers in Nigeria, especially the Ilaje, Itsekiri and Ijaw, the process was by collecting seawater in a large clay pot, cooked it till it was dry, leaving white and solid substance at the bottom. This would be scooped, using a small basket to filter the dirt26. What remained was salt which could be to a large extent free of impurities. This industrial activity enhanced the growth of trade between the coastal and inland dwellers in pre-colonial Nigeria . In the inland region too, salt is said to be produced in perhaps relatively small quantity especially among the Jukun of the Benue region and the Igbo of the eastern Nigeria27.

Closely related to this pre-colonial economic venture was soap production. This was predominantly carried out by the Nigerian forest region settlers. The major raw materials for soap production were palm oil and ashes. These would be boiled together and molded28. In pre-colonial Nigeria for instance, various kinds of soap were produced. In addition to domestic and commercial purposes, soap also had medicinal value29. The Ose dudu (black soap) among the Yoruba for instance, is still used up to date for these purposes.

Two important aspects of pre-colonial Nigeria crafts which deserve attention in this study are metal and woodwork. A careful study of the Nigerian history would reveal that, of all crafts, iron working was most significant to the overall economic and political development in pre-colonial period. The iron age was the period in which Nigerians started to actively dominate and control their environments. The discovery of iron gave rise to the manufacturing of iron tools such as hoes, knives, cutlasses, spears, axes and these influenced higher productivity in crafts, farming, fishing and hunting30. Apart from the economic revolution brought about by iron smelting, it also equipped most leaders with higher and stronger political power. For instance, the possession of iron weapons influenced military growth and subjugation of weaker communities by stronger ones31. The introduction of iron to Nigeria gave rise to black smithing all over the region. The earliest proof of iron smelting in West Africa was Nok, a village in central Nigeria , northeast of the Niger confluence and the Benue Rivers and southwest of Jos Pleateau32. The Yoruba , Igbo (especially Awka people) and Uneme (in Benin ) were famous in iron smelting technology in pre-colonial era. The Uneme, for instance, are said to have developed black smithing before C1370 and iron is said to have played important commercial role as it was used as a medium of exchange (native currency)33.

An important mineral production in pre-colonial Nigeria was gold. Gold was mined, consumed locally and exported. It has more economic value than other products, as it was mainly an article of foreign exchange earning34. In the pre-colonial period, Benin and Ile-Ife were famous for bronze casting and reputable centers of tin production existed in Jos Plateau and that of zinc in the lower Niger and Benue Rivers35. It is however important to note that production was hampered by high level of wood artistry of symbolic cultural value.

Ife and Benin had been regarded as the most famous among west African states in the use of brass and bronze. In skill, quality and beauty, the antique bronzes of Benin is said to have equalled those produced in any part of the world­43. It was once claimed by some Nigerian writers that both the Nigerian art of bronze casting and its use to portray natural figures of  humans and animals was imported by Europeans, either by legitimacy or through smuggling. If this was real, it would indicate that Nigerian art had already reached an admirable and enviable status of world standard before the advent of the imported art. The vital view to be accepted here is that, although European imports of brass and bronze supplemented Nigerian artistic output, much  Nigerian works in these alloys predated the arrival of the Portuguese in the 15th century44.

Studies have shown that naturalistic figures had been found in the Chad region in the So burial sites before the 15th century. Also, early peoples not known to have worked in bronze and brass had produced similar figures in other media. The ancient Nok people for instance, produced replicas of human heads and animals of high artistic merit and value as well as stylized motifs in wood, clay, gold, and ivory45.

Trade and transport system were equally germane to the growth and development of pre-colonial Nigerian economy. The Nigerian peoples had organized both regional and inter-regional trade based on regional specialization of production which implies the practice of the principle of comparative cost advantage. They developed local transportation system of the use of land (head portage) and water ways (canoes) and some forms of media of exchange, such as barter, Manilla, brass, iron, copper and cowry shells46. The various states, empires or kingdoms in pre-colonial Nigeria developed to prominence as a result of organized trade and relatively good means of transportation. Organization of market during this period was largely influenced by the bountiful agricultural and non-agricultural production of the peoples. As a result of variety of supply of commodities to market places, there was departmentalization of goods, orderliness and periodic market system in Nigerian states such as pre-colonial Yoruba society47. However, poor transportation system hindered mobility, production and distribution of goods and services to some extent.

It could be argued that since production was beyond family consumption and there was exchange of inter-regional level based on territorial specialization, the pre-colonial Nigerian economy was therefore beyond subsistence level. It has equally been argued that the organization of the trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic trade in which Nigeria was an active participant was international in outlook48.

It has been opined by some western economists that factors of production were not well-co-ordinated and that there was no division of labour or specialization in pre-colonial Nigerian economy. This appears spurious and misleading. In the African traditional society, males and females are intrinsically assigned to different special socio-economic duties in which each sex would excel (sexual division of labour). Specialization was admittedly applicable to many aspects of Nigerian economic activities. For instance, the coastal dwellers who specialized in fishing took net mending as an area of specialization, while some people specialized in deep sea fishing (Oko-Ota or Ade-Odo), others were skillful in inland or fresh water fishing (eremi). In both areas of fishing activities, there were still many departments of special skills49. There is a saying among the Yoruba fishing people of the Niger Delta, “Oghomayi emayi” (specialization and skill vary from one person to another). This shows the extent to which specialization and skill acquisition was acknowledged in some pre-colonial Nigerian societies.

Labour was very crucial in the production process and free labour was more economical hence, pre-colonial Nigerians recruited labour through their wives, children, slaves and relatives. In some cases, supply of labour was through communal assistance. One tenable reason for marriage of many wives among Nigerian men was to secure adequate, cheap and steady supply of labour. Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations affirms “a numerous family of children, instead of being a burden was a source of opulence and prosperity to the parents”50. This strongly reinforces the economic philosophy of African practice of polygany.

Land tenure system was practised to suit socio-economic requirements of the period. Admittedly, land was plentiful in relation to the Nigerian population51. Capital was raised through personal savings, borrowing from friends, relatives, co-operatives (egbe or esusu) or from family or community coffer.

A vital factor in the structure of pre-colonial Nigerian economy was entrepreneurship. This is an important factor of production in any economy at any time. It would be gainful to look into what an entrepreneur is in order to ascertain if pre-colonial Nigerians actually merited the quality. Some think of entrepreneurship primarily as innovators, others think of them chiefly as managers of enterprises, others again place major emphasis on their function as mobilizers and allocators of capital52. Hosetitz further argued that an entrepreneur is a business leader, who guides the action of a private productive enterprise and who makes the crucial decisions on the use of productive factors on their remuneration on the nature and style of commodities or services to be produced, and on the timing and other aspects of the production and marketing process53.

In the pre-colonial Nigeria , as in other parts of the world, other factors of production such as capital, land and labour were effectively organized and utilized for production. It therefore follows that all factors of production which existed would not be useful without entrepreneurs. The pre-colonial Nigerian entrepreneurs were rulers, chiefs, potentates, war chiefs, and other influential men and women who had enough wealth and power to mobilize other factors of production54. For instance, the Kano potentates organized the production of leather works, the Ijebu chiefs organized production of textiles, the Ilaje chiefs organized fish production, Ikale chiefs also organized production of farm crops. Madam Tinubu of Egbaland and Efunsetan of Ibadan also were among the notable women that organized slaves in their farms55. Distributions of goods were also made by Nigerian entrepreneurs by organizing long and short distance market bilaterally and multi-laterally within and outside their regions.

While it can be argued that most of the economic institutions and principles found in the industrial societies have their equivalence in non-industrial or simple societies such as pre-colonial Nigeria , it is still essential to note that, the factors of production and other elements in the structure of pre-colonial Nigerian economy such as agriculture and crafts had their peculiarities. Therefore, in order to make the work of economic historian and economist more meaningful to their audience, careful selection and application of relevant economic terms and principles are imperative.

 

Conclusion

Given the general features and myriads of sub-sectoral components of pre-colonial Nigerian economy, it is convincing that the economy was progressive in growth and responsive to innovation before colonization by Britain in the late 19th century. The study has shown that, pre-colonial Nigerian economy was a traditional African economic system in which production depended largely on families, communal efforts and professional groups or guilds. It should be noted that this traditional economic system, which can be referred to as “communalism” was intrinsically practised similarly in different autonomous regions of the geographical expression later known as Nigeria .

As a scientific analysis which relates to value-free nature of enquiry, the positivist stand-point reinforces the claim that, pre-colonial Nigerian economy was dynamic and market-oriented. It is the position of this economic philosophy that, the fundamental economic problem in any society, irrespective of place and point in history, is to provide a set of rules for channeling competition and resolving conflict among individuals who cannot satisfy all their wants given the constraints of scarcity. It has been argued by Roger Leroy for instance, that the aim of production throughout ages in the world remains the same and that human behaviours towards economic issues are universally similar56.

All these fundamental economic rules are said to be embedded in a framework of formal societal institutions such as laws and customs. The specific function of every economic system in any society would be, to take care of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in order to create utility57. Pre-colonial Nigerian economy would not therefore, be an exception to these universal rules and principles. This study has in the light of these features demonstrated that pre-colonial Nigerian economy was dynamic, progressive and market-oriented.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1.                A detailed discussion and critique of the substantivist and formalist views could be found in zeleza J. A, Modern Economic History of Africa Vol. 1 ( Senegal : CODESTRIA) 1993 Pp 15 –16.

2.                See A. G Hopkins , An Economic History of West Africa: London : Longman, 5 –9.

3.                Roger Leroy Miller, Economics Today, New York : Harper Collins College Publishers, 1996, 122.

4.                Roger Leroy, Economics Today, P. 122.

5.                David C. Colander, Economics: Irwin Burr Ridge Sillinois Boston , Massachusetts Sydney , Australia 1994, 60 – 62.

6.                G. T Stride, C. Ifeka, Peoples and Empires of West Africa, ( Hong Kong : Thomas Nelson, 1971, 158.

7.                S. W Wooldridge and W. G East, The Spirit and Purpose of Geography: London, Hutchinson & Co Publishers, 1951, 23 –24.

8.                See Ogunremi G. O “The Structure of Pre-colonial Economy” P 16.

9.                Ogunremi, “The Structure of Pre-colonial Economy”     P 16.

10.           G. P Murdock, Africa, Its Peoples and Their Culture History: London , 1959, P 64.

11.           G. O. Ogunremi, P 15.

12.           G. O. Ogunremi, P 15.

13.           Ehinmore, O.M “Fishing in South-Western Nigeria in the 19th Century: A Study of the Ilaje Fishing Economy” AAU African Studies Review, Lagos , First Academic Publishers, Vol. 1, No 1, 2002, 56.

14.           See G. T Stride, C. Ifeka, People and Empires of West Africa , Hong Kong: Thomas Nelson, 1971, P 159.

15.           Ayodeji Olukoju: “Fishing, Migrations and Inter-group Relations in the Gulf of Guinea ( Atlantic Coast of West Africa ) in the 19th and 20th Centuries” Itinerario, Vol. XXV, European Journal of Overseas History P 70.

16.           Ayodeji Olukoju, P 70.

17.           Interviews held with Kalejaye Eniola, fisherman, about 85yrs, at Odonla, 20/5/2006 .

18.           Ehinmore, Omorele M. “A History of Fishing in Ondo State , 1950 – 1997: A Case Study of the Ilaje Coastal Area” (M. A Thesis, University of Lagos , 1998), 19-24.

19.           See G. O. Ogunremi, “The Structure of Pre-colonial Economy” 20.

20.           Interview held with Ariyo Odegbemi, hunter, 92yrs, at Erinje, 10/5/2006 .

21.           Ariyo Odegbemi gave detailed value of various kinds of animals and their special parts in preparation of traditional medicine before and even after the introduction of orthodox medicine.

22.           Interview held with Ariyo Odegbemi.

23.           G. O. Ogunremi, P 21.

24.           Bassey W Andah, Nigerians Indigenous Technology, (Ibadan, Ibadan University Press, 1992), Pp 1-4.

25.            See G. T Stride, C. Ifeka, P 159.

26.           Interview held with Edema Mejebi, at Warri, 16/6/2006 , 94yrs, an old trader and fisherman. This fact was reinforced by Ehinmore Ajao, a palace historian and an old musician, 10/6/2006 , about 82yrs interviewed at Mahin.

27.           A. E Afigbo, “Economic Foundations of Pre-colonial Igbo Society” in I. A Akinjogbin and S. O Osoba (eds), Topics on Nigerian Economic and Social History (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1980), P 15.

28.           G. T. Stride, C. Ifeka, P 159.

29.           See Interview held with Ariyo Odegbemi, 10/5/2006 .

30.           Dennis Williams: “An Outline History of Tropical African Art” in Joseph C. A Nene and Godfrey Brown (eds), Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, (Ibadan: University Press, 1966), Pp 60-65.

31.           Nene and Godfrey Brown, P 60.

32.           Thurston Shaw, “The Pre-history of West Africa” in J. E Ade Ajayi and Michael Crowder (eds), History of West Africa, (London: Longman 1971), P 69.

33.           See Dennis Williams, “An outline History of Tropical African Art”, in African in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, P. 65.

34.           G. O. Ogunremi, P. 22.

35.           G. T Stride, and C. Ifeka, P. 161.

36.           G. T. Stride, and C. Ifeka P. 101.

37.           Richard and Jon Lander, Journal of the expedition to Explore the course and Termination of the Niger , ( London : 1932), 197.

38.           G. T Stride, and C. Ifeka, P. 159.

39.           N. A.I, Ilaje Intelligence Report, Ondo Province , by R. J. M. Curwen, file No O. D 119, 1937, P 35.

40.           Interview held with Fibilia Majofodun, at Ereke, 12/6/206, about 80yrs, a fish trader and mat weaver.

41.           Dennis Williams, P 70.

42.           See Bassey, W. Andah for detailed explanation of Nigerian Building Technology, Pp 55-70.

43.           G. T Stride, and C. Ifeka, P 160.

44.           Stride and Ifeka, P 160.

45.           Stride and Ifeka, P 160.

46.           Toyin Falola, “Trade and Market in Pre-colonial Economy” in G. O Ogunremi and E. K Faluyi (eds), An Economic History of West Africa Since 1750, Pp 61-71.

47.           I. A. Akinjogbin, “The Economic Foundations of the Oyo Empire” in I. A Akinjogbin and S. O Osoba (eds),        Topics on Nigerian Economic and Social History, Ife : University of Ife Press , 1980, Pp 35-42.

48.           E. E Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of Nilotic People, Oxford , 1940, P 77.

49.           See detailed discussion of different areas of specialization in fishing in O. M. Ehinmore, “Fishing in Southwestern Nigeria in the 19th century: A study of the Ilaje Fishing Economy” Pp 58-62.

50.           Adam Smith, An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: London , 1901, Book 1, P. 29, cited in G. O Ogunremi and E. K Faluyi, An Economic History of West Africa Since 1750, P 34.

51.           G. O. Ogunremi, “Traditional Factors of Production in Pre-colonial Economy in G. O Ogunremi and E. K Faluyi (eds), An Economic History of West Africa Since 1750, P 33.

52.           Bert F. Hoselitz, “The Development of African Entrepreneurs” in E. F Jackson (ed), Economic Development of Africa, Oxford, 1965, P 86. Cited in An Economic History of West Africa since 1750.

53.           Hoselitz: “The Development of African Entrepreneurs” P. 87.

54.           G. O Ogunremi, “Traditional Factors of Production”      P. 39.

55.           G. O. Ogunremi, P. 40.

56.           Roger Leroy Miller, Economics Today, P. 122.

57.           Roger Leroy Miller, P. 122. 

About the Author

O. M EHINMORE

O. M Ehinmore is a Lecturer I in the Department of History and International Studies,

Adekunle Ajasin University,

Akungba-Akoko, P.M.B 001, Nigeria ,

West Africa

E-mail: ehinmore@yahoo.com

Rogers Snare

Rogers Snare Drum

How To Get Started Making Beats

If you want to make your own beats here are some great tips to start out.  For everyone out there who's just beginning to make beats it can be kind of frustrating. If you want to make great sounding beats but you don't have any experience there is good news. Though it's not impossible it just takes patience and practice. Before you know it you'll be making your own beats and feeling great about it.

 

The first thing you need to do is to pick a style. Don't jump around from different style different style, just pick one type of song you'd like to make and stick with it. You can always make different styles of songs later, and you should. Making beats is all about coming up with better and  different songs. A great place to start is listening to a couple of songs from when your favorite beat makers or rappers. Listen to a few of their  tracks and figure out what is the make some special and why you like them so much. Don't completely ripped them off though, just use them as a guide. You need a place to start and modeling others is a great place. 

 

After listening to a couple of songs you should  start getting a couple of good ideas. At this point just program something in to your beat maker. Get  a drum beat or melody or anything programmed in to your software and just stick with that for a bit. One you have your basic idea down you have something to work with. It doesn't matter what you put dow, it can just be a snare or be bass line or a small keyboard part. Everything will work off of having a first idea laid down.  You can always throw away parts or start over. if you have a drum beat down, add a simple melody to it. If you have a melody put a drum beat to that. The point is to  give yourself a little foundation to work with.

 

After you have the basics down it's time to get creative. Just try everything at this point and don't be afraid if anything sounds stupid. Try anything because you never know what's going to sound good. What you think is going to sound ridiculous might be amazing. It's is all about experimentation at this point and the farther along you'll get the more the song will start to take on a life of its own. 

 

You'll soon begin to understand how you want to start your song out, how you want to end it, if you want to bridges,  choruses, or if you just want to keeo the same funky beat going throughout the whole thing. You can always edit, subtract, and add parts or make your beat much different once you have something to work with.

 

 

About the Author

 And if you get stuck making beats just use my magic formula: get up and start dancing around like a fool! It's almost impossible not to hear a great song in your head while you're moving your body around like crazy. 

Learn how to make you own beats online and what the best software to use is!

 

Rogers Snare Drum