BUDGET 8

Thomas Kintarir and Yeduda Wirsungnin

Thomas Kintarir of Mbonyaar Compound is a Roman Catholic and is in his early
forties. He has four young children, and the eldest son attends the Mission school
during the day but sleeps at home. Yeduda Wirsungnin, his wife, is in her early
thirties and cultivates a total holding of 1.8 acres without assistance, except for some help from her mother-in-law at the harvest of cereals. In addition, she weeds most of the plantains (retaining the right to dispose of the fruit), and looks after the small coffee-plantation belonging to her husband. She occasionally sells plantains and pineapples; more rarely she buys beans and cassava to cook and retail in the market. Her earnings are negligible,
Thomas formerly headloaded kolas to Yola, but a few years ago he became a tailor. During my stay in Kimbaw he sewed in his own house in the compound. It was a wattle and daub structure, but he had lined the walls with pith matting and furnished it with tables and chairs. It served also as a meeting-house for the men when they assembled for djanggi on Sundays. On market-day Thomas had a small shelter in the market-place where he treadled his machine. He gave very little assistance with the clearing of farms, but sometimes brought in some kindling for the household. He belonged to the djanggis of Ka and Mbonyaar. To the latter he also contributed small sums on behalf of his wife, and he was a member of the 'bank'. I recorded his budget for 5 months (i.e. 201 Nsaw weeks). The budget for the preceding 7 months has been calculated on the basis of the later expenditure and income, and also from general statements made by Thomas in regard to his earnings.

NOTES

(a) Yeduda still had 3 vegati maize and 51 vegati millet at the end ofJanuary, 1948, but Thomas, with an eye to eking out supplies, occasionally bought bags of maize during the dry season when they were cheap.
(b) Yeduda worked long hours on the farm and, to conserve her energy, she sometimes used flour and beans bought by her husband instead of grinding corn.
(c) During this period Thomas did not buy clothes for his wife or himself.
(d) The fees covered tuition for 6 months. The cost of books for the year has been entered in the preceding 7 months.
(e) Thomas, on the 7th October and again on the 27th January, 1948, took out 30s. from the Mbonyaar 'bank', where he had 31s. 5d. in savings. He repaid the first amount after two months with 2s. 6d. interest.
(f) Thomas usually paid in 6d. a week in his wife's name to the Mbonyaar djanggi. In October 1947, she 'cooked' djanggi, but Thomas took the money and provided wine and beer for members at outlay of 3s.
(g) In November Yeduda attended the marriage of a kinswoman. She took fufu (3d.), and Thomas also gave her 3s. in cash (for the bride) and meat worth 2s. 6d. Yeduda was presented with 1s. 2d. by the groom and his kin, and she bought with it 2 pots for 8d. and a wash bowl (5d.).
(h) Thomas bought a calabash of palmwine (6d.) for his brother, Maurice, who 'cooked' djanggi. The halfpenny income was a gift to Yeduda's daughter, who spent it on groundnuts after having first asked Yeduda's permission.
(i) Note that the pineapples and plantains came from Yeduda's own plantation and that she not only sold them but kept the money for further trade and the purchase of relishes.
(j) Yeduda several times bought small amounts of cassava at a total value of 7 1/2d. As she had no time and patience to make gruel, she merely boiled them and sold them for 10 1/2d.
(k) Yeduda bought beans and made bean-balls. Her outlay was 7 1/2d. and her earnings 8 1/2d.
(1) During this period Thomas was selling clothes made from cloth bought earlier in the year. He purchased the cloth at a total outlay of 37s. 6d. From his own statements and actual earnings I estimated that he obtained, on an average, 3s. profit a week during the year.

(m) Customers sometimes provided their own cloth for Thomas to make up into garments. He charged from 7d. to 1s. a garment according to type and size. He made on an average 1s. 9d. a week. These profits (see also footnote (l) above) are exclusive of the cost of machine maintenance, e.g. oil (2s.), thread and needles (2s.). He said a reel of thread lasted about 1 1/2 to 2 Nsaw weeks and cost him about 5s. to 6s. a year.
(n) I have allowed 10s. for staples; 5s. for salt; 12s. for oil; and 5s. for meat. Thomas obtained salt and oil from the Mbonyaar 'bank'.
(o) I have allowed 2s. for soap, and the balance for tools and utensils.
(p) I have allowed 25s. for dress and headtie for wife; 20s. for clothes for husband; and 15s. for Munshi cloth, shorts and shirts for the 3 eldest children. The youngest wore nothing at all.
(q) Thomas, in April, 1947, and again in June, withdrew 30s. from the 'bank' and repaid the sums with 5s. interest.
(r) Thomas 'cooked' the Ka djanggi early in September, 1947, for 32s. and provided wine and beer to the value of 3s. 6d. Earlier he had 'cooked' the Mbonyaar djanggi for approximately £4. I am not sure of the exact amount but his weekly contributions were similar to those of Nicholas Ngee (see budget No. 7). He spent 7s. 6d. on beer and wine.
(s) Thomas, like most Nsaw men, was vague about the exact value of gifts to affines over a year. But, with his income, it would be from 10s. to 15s. a year. I have allowed 12s. 6.
(t) Thomas had 1/4 acre under coffee, but Yeduda did most of the weeding and the yield was poor.
(u) Estimate based on recorded earnings for the later period. See footnote (m) above.
(v) The only record which I made of a gift of food to Yeduda's kin in the last 5 months is a basket of fufu (3d.) for the marriage in November. But from time to time her mother's sister, who was a wiinto, visited the compound and was given food. During this same period, Yeduda was given yams worth 4d. by the wiinto, and a basket of long yams (virung) worth about 6d. by her own mother.
(w) During the last 5 months of the year Yeduda twice provided fufu for a house-building feast; at Christmas she gave about 5d. worth of fufu to members of the compound, and Thomas gave beer (4d.). When the child of his brother, Maurice, was ill, Thomas sent meat (6d.) from his own supplies. I think he also gave a fowl to the daughters of his 'brother', Lole, when they returned from Nigeria.
(x) Yeduda could not remember exactly how many vegati of maize she harvested but, on the basis of the size of her farm as well as the quantity of grain still in store by the end of January, I estimated there were about 7 vegati. I was present for the millet harvest and counted and weighed the baskets. There were 5 3/4 vegati.
(y) Yeduda was an indefatigable worker and, unlike most women working single-handed, she had 3 plots (total 842 sq. yards) under rizga.
(z) I estimated a total harvest of 770 lbs. of plantains from Yeduda's own groves, but of this about 140 lbs. would be sold during the year. The plantains tended by Thomas were consumed by the household and distinguished from those belonging to Yeduda.