How World War II led to salt scarcity in Nigeria and forced citizens back to local production

“Yesterday morning, thousands of women rushed to the UAC to purchase salt. Reaching there, a struggle began and the following were trampled and wounded,” a report in the West African Pilot newspaper on August 30, 1941, read. An earlier report on August 28, said “nine women received wounds in buying salt…Onitsha”.

In another 70 years, if you tell Nigerian teenagers that there was a time in Nigeria – in the year 2023, when the Naira notes became scarce and people could not get access to cash, they may likely find it hard to believe, especially those who are not familiar with history. The same applies to the story of how salt scarcity hit Nigeria more than 80 years ago. With the way edible salt has become a common household commodity today, a lot of Nigerians may likely find it hard to believe that there was a time in the country when salt was a scarce commodity that thousands of people queued and scrambled to buy every day, leading to stampedes as Nigerians witnessed with the fuel and Naira notes scarcity that multiplied hardship across Nigeria from January to February 2023.

Here’s the story of how the second world war led to salt scarcity in Nigeria.

It was from the year 1940 to 1942 during the Second World War that lasted from 1939 to 1945.

In pre-colonial Nigeria, salt was not just for cooking, it was one of a variety of items used as a medium of exchange (currency). Other items included cowries, beads and bottles amongst others. 

“In Nigeria, salt was used predominantly as currency in the Niger Delta area and in most parts of Igbo land,” Elizabeth Isichei, a Nigerian historian, wrote in her book ‘Studies in the History of Plateau State, Nigeria’.

Following the advent of British colonialists, a new currency was introduced putting an end to the use of salt and other items as means of exchange. Importation also became prevalent and several products including salt were imported from Europe. People started embracing foreign salt, leading to a drastic decline in the demand for locally-made salt, and the local industry soon became moribund as there was a fall in demand.

“Imported salt out-competed local salt because it was relatively cheaper and well refined,” Gloria Chuku, a Professor of Africana Studies, wrote in her book ‘Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900-1960’.

Just as COVID-19 pandemic forced many factories to convert to the production of ventilators in 2020, the Second World War also changed the face of production, many British factories concentrated on manufacturing ammunition, salt was no longer imported into the country in large quantities and it became very scarce, while the little available became very expensive that it was equated with gold.

“In the words of a person who experienced the hardship that time, ‘it is not easy to get salt, salt is gold’,” Toyin Falola, a historian and Professor of African Studies, wrote in ‘Salt is Gold’: The Management of Salt Scarcity in Nigeria during World War II.

The wholesale salt trade was restricted only to foreign trading companies like United Africa Company (UAC), John Holt, Miller Brothers, G.B Ollivant, and thousands of people besieged their offices daily to buy salt. A crowd of about 5,000 people was said to have besieged the premises of UAC in Onitsha in August 1941 demanding salt.

The colonial government in the southeastern colony became overwhelmed and found it extremely difficult to obtain half of the estimated 48,000 tons per annum required to meet the demand of the population of 20 million people between 1940 and 1941. In 1942, supplying the monthly quota of 3,000 was difficult for the government. This shortage led to a scramble for the little available.

Although the period of war is a time when several commodities become scarce, several accounts say Salt was the worst hit in Nigeria during the Second World War, largely due to its importance.

Salt is very crucial to humans’ diet, it is sodium chloride and the human body can’t live without some sodium as it helps transmit nerve impulses, contract and relax muscle fibres (in the heart and blood vessels), and maintain a proper fluid balance. This is why its scarcity during wartime gained more attention than other commodities.

The salt scarcity crisis was so dire that the British colonial authorities got involved in the distribution of salt by rationing supply and issuing permits to a few indigenous traders to buy from the trading firms approved by the government to sell imported salt.

“Government took an active part in the distribution of salt through the issuance of permits. Permits were issued to a few indigenous traders and others to buy salt from the trading firms and sell to the consumers. The trading firms closed some of their small stations and supplied salt only from their offices located at the major urban centres,” Prof Chuku wrote.

“Many female salt dealers went out of business because they could not get the permit. It was very difficult for the indigenous traders to obtain permits because the government in collaboration with the trading companies deliberately kept the number low. In some places, the approval for a permit must come from a senior administrator not below the rank of a district officer.”

When salt was not coming from Britain, it was imported from South Africa, Angola, Egypt, the Gold Coast (now Ghana), Congo and Spain, but it didn’t solve the crisis. Nigerians had become used to the British standard that they termed the salt from the countries as being inferior in quality.

“With the worsening situation and colonial government policy of using the so-called high-quality salt to sell the low-quality ones by mixing up the quantity, the people were compelled to accept all the imported salt,” Gloria Chuku wrote. “Because of the problem associated with the imported salt, the people increased their demand for local salt.”

The crisis led to the revival of local salt production as the people were forced to revert to abandoned local salt production when the imported salt didn’t prove to be better than the locally made. Chuku also noted that a lot of women in Ebonyi State (one of the states with the largest salt deposit in Nigeria) went into salt production.