Coker Olujobade

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Culture is everything about a people, whether their actions, behaviour, interaction, religion, beliefs, trade, commerce, language, and communication. An English dictionary defines culture as a set of ideas, beliefs and ways of behaving, especially one belonging to a particular society, race, religion, language, etc. Culture, custom, and commerce are therefore intertwined in society.

In the same vein, when cultures of people intermingle, their trade and commerce will intermingle, and the white man’s culture mix with ours. The same our commerce. This has led to Nigeria taking some steps which have had adverse effects on its commerce.

Cultural upbringing entails those ethics and more we are accustomed to from birth which is difficult to divorce from our day–to–day activities. It is a tradition passed down from our grandparents across the generations.

This definition also fits tradition appropriately. The difference, however, between the two is that while culture is dynamic by assimilating other cultural practices through interaction one way or the other, tradition is rigid and never changes. The traditionalists practice things as were done from time immemorial and remain so until the practitioners return to their ancestors. While culture implies custom, neighbourliness, and daily human hustle, tradition deals mainly with traditional religion and religious practices

A culture anthropologist A.Adeoye (2003) spoke on the components of culture including the language spoken by an ethnic group, how they eat, what they eat, the family setup, marriage inheritance, religion, art & craft, music and drumming, warfare, discipline, recreation, etc.

Therefore culture is an unending experience in a man’s life. Its diversity in the beauty of the concept. Hence, culture can be categorized as: Marriage, baby shower & naming ceremony, home training & gentlemanliness, fashion & makeup, commerce, dressing, chieftaincy, burial rites, security, etc.

On the other hand, the website dictionary defines “Marriage” as:- a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventional sounds, gestures, or marks.

A Linguist O.A Awoyemi (1999) similarly explained that: language is the weaving together of sounds made by human beings as words for others to comprehend.

On his part, Babatunde (2004) said: that language is the assembly of oral sounds in which a group of native speakers agree to speak to one another, send a message, or convey their thoughts in a way that fellow speakers or others may know the meaning of the assemblage of words.

The various problems confronting our commerce are known to us, therefore, finding solutions to such identified problems should not pose any problem. Culture and tradition are society based and commerce is the basis for an orderly society, which means culture and tradition are of paramount importance in bringing development to society.

For instance, it has been shown that commerce is one of the traditions of our society and that those cultural traits that have to do with trade and investment have impact  on commerce. The trade upon which Yoruba commerce is founded includes agriculture, cloth wearing, pit dyeing, blacksmithing, carpentry, and various forms of domestic trade. If we concentrate on those listed trades and develop them with the use of modern technologies and equipment, there will be an improvement in our commerce more so when all the goods that are imported are produced by us.

Among the various types of agricultural practices are: food crop farming which produces foodstuffs like maize, beans, yam, cassava, groundnut, pepper, vegetables, etc. Apart from internal and domestic construction, we can also sell to a foreign land for money, thereby enhancing our economy.

These livestock farmers rear animals, poultry, fish, snail, etc. to make money and enhance our economy. Today, the lack of attention to these things has done incalculable harm to our economy.

Cloth weaving in Yoruba land, and in Nigeria has witnessed a lot of retrogression. This is a result of cultural diffusion between us and the European culture. Many Yoruba people now believe that our traditional attire is for bush men or illiterates. Yet, if we invest the money being wasted on importing used white man’s dresses in our textile industry, a lot of development will be attained with the aforementioned explanation. It is obvious that if we want our commerce to develop, there is a need for us to promote and embrace our Indigenous culture and tradition, and even our language in schools. Without a doubt, neglect of our culture is a major cause of our current economic downturn.