UBURU WOMEN AND THE SALT LAKE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE FROM EARLIEST TIME TO 2020

This paper examined Uburu women and the salt lake, from the earliest time to 2020. Uburu community in Ohaozara LGA of Ebonyi State is one of the few fortunate and privileged communities blessed with salt lake. This salt lake which exhibits the wonders of nature is a thing of beauty, great joy and blessing, not only to the indigenes of Uburu community but also Ebonyi State in particular and Nigeria in general. The production of salt from this lake is solely done by women even till today. This is largely due to the fact that the activities of salt production such as fetching water and firewood, cooking etc are feminine activities, thus, the men folks concentrate on farming and hunting, leaving the job of salt making to the women. The researcher used the primary and secondary sources to generate the required data mainly from oral interview, intelligence reports, books, journals, articles among others. The researcher also adopted the multidisciplinary approach to further enrich the available historical data. The major findings of the study revealed that Uburu women dominated the salt industry; salt production in Uburu is purely women’s affair, through a technology that was indigenously improvised by Uburu women. They improvised a means of processing the salt water by passing it through the fire and the end product is iodized salt. The study further revealed that in pre-colonial and colonial Uburu society, salt was one of the main stay of Uburu economy. It attracted traders from all works of life to Uburu market called Nkwuroto. Women also travelled round neighbouring communities on foot in search of better bargains for their product. In the beginning, women in their menstrual period were not allowed to enter the lake. To ensure compliance, women were made to enter the lake in their nude only. The advent of civilization led to the abolishing of that practice through a crusade championed by ‘Ojimba’ Age Grade led by Osuji Njoku Obasi (Una) and Osuji Obasi Ukpa (Agodi) in 1948. The paper recommended that a modern salt industry should be established in Uburu community. Government should mechanize the salt lake to meet global needs. The paper concluded that the salt lake attracted tourists from within and outside Nigeria which produced considerable revenue to the community. Researchers as well visited the local technology sites (Onu Ebe) from research centers and institutions of learning