THE CHALLENGES OF SMITHING INDUSTRY IN BAUCHI TOWN UNDER COLONIAL RULE

Abstract

This paper examines the British conquest of Bauchi and its concomitant consequences as it relates to the smithing crafts in Bauchi. Iron working, especially iron smelting, which was the basis of the smithing industry, was affected seriously. The principal measures related to the smithing industry among other things, were the ban on the production of weapons, a series of mineral ordinances and the monetization of the economy, which broke the harmony and interdependence of smiths and other craftsmen and the society at large. This forced the craftsmen to work out of their traditional field in order to earn money in a colonial currency with which to pay taxes. More so, the market for smithing products was curtailed by the importation of products by European firms. The problem of the smiths was compounded by the various policies articulated by the colonial state, which included the monetization of the economy, the forest reservation proclamation, the mineral ordinances proclamations of 1913, 1916,1927, 1948 and 1958, and the scrap metal policy, as well as the provision of the railway, which ironically led to the transformation of the industry. From the production of traditional tools to the imitation of imported metal wares, especially during the Second World War period, led to the emergence of a new branch of the smithing industry called cold smithing. This new branch of the industry came to dominate the smithing trade. By the 1960s, traditional blacksmithing and whitesmithing declined drastically. Goldsmithing, however, continued to expand to meet up with the changing demand.