ABSTRACT:
The objective of the paper is to add to the existing literature debunking the Eurocentric view that pre-colonial Esan agriculture was backward, stagnant and merely subsistence in nature. Without doubt, during this period of our study, Esan agriculture apart from providing the needed food, raw materials for allied and basic industries and other services, it was also an instrument of inter group relations as examined in this paper. With the conscious use of oral interviews and secondary sources of existing documents, the work is divided into significant sections with an introduction; agriculture in pre-colonial Esan; land tenure system; types of agricultural practice; conceptualization of intra-intergroup relations; importance of agriculture to food and group relations; problems of agriculture in colonial Esan land among others.