They come from far and nearby riverine communities in Cross River and Akwa Ibom states to buy and sell under a typical village market setting. But there is a unique feature that makes the market different from others; goods are exchanged for goods. Trade by barter is the hallmark of traders who come to buy and sell in this typical village market.
Esuk Mba Market is located in Esuk Mba clan in Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State. It is about 30 kilometres away from Calabar metropolis by road. The community itself is usually agog with business activities every Saturday morning as traders from neighbouring communities from within and Akwa Ibom State throng the market with their goods to buy and sell and above all, engage one another in trade by barter as survival instinct.
Literally defined as trading of goods or services without the exchange of money, the ancient practice which is no longer common in most climes, appears to have found a long stay in the Esuk Mba Market.
The tranquil Esuk Mba community is usually ignited every Saturday by the business consciousness of the farmers who are seen with loads of farm produce heading for the market to observe their only market day.
The market begins at 6.30am and starts winding down from 12noon.Traders from creek communities such as Ewang, Ibaka, Oron, among others in Akwa Ibom State and others from Bakassi and sometimes Cameroun whose major occupation is fishing, find their way to the Esuk Mba Market with loads of smoked fish, periwinkles and crayfish. These creek dwellers do not have fertile land to cultivate food crops, so they depend on Esuk Mba farmers whose major occupation is farming for such rare items. Esuk Mba farmers produce large quantity of cassava tubers, palm products, vegetable and fruits like oranges, pineapple and coconut, among others.
On a typical market day, the fishing people from the creeks travel several distances on canoes and flying boats, berth in a body of water stretching from the sea behind the market and drag their items through a narrow hill into the market square for the business transactions.
The usual practice is for a farmer with her harvest to move round the market in search of a particular sea food she is interested in. When she sees someone that has what she wants, she stops and presents her items to the person. Agreement to exchange is reached when the second party accepts the harvest with her hands. If the sea food seller shows signs of rejection, the farmer keeps going round the market until she finds a willing person. The willing sea food seller assesses the quantity of the harvest and determines the quantity of fish commensurate with it. The fish seller appears to be superior as she sets the values of the exchanged items.
But the farmer may bargain for more items of sea food if she is not satisfied. The deal is sealed and the parties gather their items and continue with other transactions. On arrival at the market, the creek dwellers simply take their conspicuous positions in various thatched stalls and wait for the farmers to bring their food items.
A 65-year-old trader from one of the Akwa Ibom creeks, Mrs. Ekwo Effiong, who claimed to have been in the business for over 40 years, said the trade by barter is the only way to get food back home at the end of normal trading involving cash.
She explains, “We bring in smoked fish, periwinkles and crayfish to the market. We normally sell most of the things that we bring in exchange for money. But we also reserve a portion to exchange with farm produce so that we can have food to take back home.
“For instance today, I brought fish and sold much of it for money. I only reserved some fish with which I used to exchange for cassava.”
Effiong, however, lamented that traders from the creeks face difficulty in transportation. She said only a few boats are interested in plying the route and as a result of this, they charge exorbitant fares as much as N1,500 per trip of 30km on waterway.
Besides, at the close of business, creek traders have no choice than to patiently wait for hours in order to allow the river bank to get filled with water before their boats could move.
“Apart from the high fare of N1,500 that we pay, we also need to sit down and wait for the water to flow back to the river bank before we move. When we come in the morning, the river bank is usually filled with water but it starts drying up as from 9 am and gets full again as from 4pm,” she said.
Another trader from Oron, Mary Bassey, said, “We mostly buy cassava and process it into garri and fufu. We sometimes sell to those who cannot come to the market. I determine the number of tubers of cassava that will go for a particular quantity of fish. The higher the number, the more fish a person gets. But sometimes, you can disagree and demand for more fish.”
While the creek dwellers assemble their tubers to take home and process into garri and fufu for their personal consumption and for sale, the farmers simply pack their fish and take home to prepare soup and other food types.
A 30-year-old food crop farmer from Esuk Mba, Rosemary Ita, explains, “We come here every Saturday to exchange what we have with what we don’t have. Here we produce cassava, fruits, palm oil, vegetables and banana but we don’t have fish to prepare our food. So, we come here to exchange these food items with fish, periwinkle and others. Whatever we buy today will sustain us till the following Saturday.
“We like the market. It is not as if we cannot buy these things with money, but most of us don’t have enough money and most times, they will be pricing your items very low. So, we prefer it the way it is.”
However, the origin of the market may be difficult to be established. Most of the elderly people appear to be oblivious of when the market was established. Those who attempted to trace the origin succeeded in giving conflicting accounts. But one of the community leaders, Okon Bassey, traced the inception of the market to the early colonial era when a Briton simply identified as Doe set up the market in a residential apartment which was later relocated to the permanent market around 1947.
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