“ERU” AS YARDSTICK FOR MEASURING
YAM FARMERS PERFORMANCE IN BENIN KINGDOM.
“Eru” is the name given to a place set up with woods, bamboo materials, and palm fronds to preserve harvested yams. Trunks of strong little trees are normally used as poles dug in strait lines to any length desire by the farmer.
The farmer does counting with his foot to do spacing of the poles. Thereafter, durable tiny logs of trees are laid horizontally at the base of erected poles. Long bamboos are tied both horizontally in two lines, one at the middle and top of the poles at a height determined by the farmer.
Tiny sticks prepared from palm fronds or other trees are arranged vertically from right to left. These serves as skeletons to hold the yams in position. Haven’t said that, how then has the ancestors in Benin kingdom coined a simple logic from “Eru” to determine yam farmers performance? Normally, a novice will conclude that the one with the highest number of “Ugan” (rolls of yam) carries the day.
But that is not the conclusion of our ancestors. Why not? The simple logic hangs on what the elders knows as “Ewee” as the standard of measurement. “Ewee” is the number of spacing with the erected poles. From the first pole you count to the third pole. That represents one “Ewee”. From the third pole you count to every second pole to represent “Ewee”.
Tentatively, big sizes of yams both in height and width will have few tubers that makes a row or Ugan. And because of the length of the yams when tied horizontally, few rows will make one “Ewee” compared to smaller yams in size. The smaller the sizes of yams, the more the numbers of rolls and decrease in numbers of “Ewee” it occupies.
In other way round, the bigger the tubers of yams the more numbers of “Ewee” are required to stock in the harvested yams. The ancestors in their wisdom judged the farmer with more numbers of “Ewee” as more successful than the farmer with more numbers of rolls (ugiyan).
The assumption is that the farmer with small sizes of yams probably did not use healthy seedlings or did not give adequate attention to the farm. Whereas the other did hardwork in respect of using healthy seedlings and regular weeding. Hence in many cases, when a farmer boost about the number of “Ewee” he harvested from his farm, people may agree or disagree when the size of the farm is known.
If the farmer exaggerates, he is teased with a Benin proverb such as “when a lizard dies in the middle of your farm that we all know, its tail will extends to the fringes of the bush that surrounds the farm” The person easily gets the message that the plot of farm he has is a small one that cannot produce the numbers of “Ewee” he claims.
20 to 22 tubers of yam make one role, if the tubers are big 20 tubers will make a roll and ten roles make one ewee.
22 to 25 tubers of Akuan ( those are damaged yam) make one roll
From the forgoing, it should be understood that the parameters for measurement by our ancestors lives many lessons for us to learn from.
There are lessons to learn mathematically on simple logic in the way our ancestors did their calculations in respect of performances and abilities. They used “Eru” to judge the performance of yam farmers
“Eru” is the name given to a place set up with woods, bamboo materials, and palm fronds to preserve harvested yams. Trunks of strong little trees are normally used as poles dug in strait lines to any length desire by the farmer.
The farmer does counting with his foot to do spacing of the poles. Thereafter, durable tiny logs of trees are laid horizontally at the base of erected poles. Long bamboos are tied both horizontally in two lines, one at the middle and top of the poles at a height determined by the farmer.
Tiny sticks prepared from palm fronds or other trees are arranged vertically from right to left. These serves as skeletons to hold the yams in position. Haven’t said that, how then has the ancestors in Benin kingdom coined a simple logic from “Eru” to determine yam farmers performance? Normally, a novice will conclude that the one with the highest number of “Ugan” (rolls of yam) carries the day.
But that is not the conclusion of our ancestors. Why not? The simple logic hangs on what the elders knows as “Ewee” as the standard of measurement. “Ewee” is the number of spacing with the erected poles. From the first pole you count to the third pole. That represents one “Ewee”. From the third pole you count to every second pole to represent “Ewee”.
Tentatively, big sizes of yams both in height and width will have few tubers that makes a row or Ugan. And because of the length of the yams when tied horizontally, few rows will make one “Ewee” compared to smaller yams in size. The smaller the sizes of yams, the more the numbers of rolls and decrease in numbers of “Ewee” it occupies.
In other way round, the bigger the tubers of yams the more numbers of “Ewee” are required to stock in the harvested yams. The ancestors in their wisdom judged the farmer with more numbers of “Ewee” as more successful than the farmer with more numbers of rolls (ugiyan).
The assumption is that the farmer with small sizes of yams probably did not use healthy seedlings or did not give adequate attention to the farm. Whereas the other did hardwork in respect of using healthy seedlings and regular weeding. Hence in many cases, when a farmer boost about the number of “Ewee” he harvested from his farm, people may agree or disagree when the size of the farm is known.
If the farmer exaggerates, he is teased with a Benin proverb such as “when a lizard dies in the middle of your farm that we all know, its tail will extends to the fringes of the bush that surrounds the farm” The person easily gets the message that the plot of farm he has is a small one that cannot produce the numbers of “Ewee” he claims.
20 to 22 tubers of yam make one role, if the tubers are big 20 tubers will make a roll and ten roles make one ewee.
22 to 25 tubers of Akuan ( those are damaged yam) make one roll
From the forgoing, it should be understood that the parameters for measurement by our ancestors lives many lessons for us to learn from.
There are lessons to learn mathematically on simple logic in the way our ancestors did their calculations in respect of performances and abilities. They used “Eru” to judge the performance of yam farmers
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