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Public labour in Ewo-Ife
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The capture of Agoba and the rapid conquest of the eastern Ewo-Ife area had once again provided Tozàn with an influx of slaves. Highways had been constructed, so while a number was shipped off westwards to work on the restoration of river dams and irrigation projects, the remainder stayed in Ewo-Ife. There was work to do in the war-torn region, now almost completely subjugated in Tozàn's Karògù. Among the wealthiest counties of Ewo-Ife were Dígbenin and Mbóri, but unlike the other coastal counties their access to the sea was limited by the presence of large, sometimes brackish, marshes. Those wetlands were the ultimate delta of the Ewo-Ife, but though many of the mangroves were considered sacred, the Alááfin gave permission to drain the majority of them.

The construction effort, thus powered by the slaves, started with the damming of the Ewo-Ife and its main subsidiaries. Many tiny fishing villages were cut off from the river and their fresh water supply, condemning them to finding a new way of life, though most were forced to migrate to the bigger cities in search for a new livelihood. The second step was to dam the coast, built dykes and lock the seawater out. The damming of the rivers would now be broken up to allow a permanent stream of fresh water to run in and out of the mangroves and deal with the brackishness. Eventually, the wetlands were shut off and they became still lakes, fed only by rains.

The architects of the project then oversaw the next step: the construction of pumping stations. Along the dammed rivers, chain pumps powered by waterwheels began dragging the water out of the swamps. In other places, rudimentary panemone windmills did the job and sometimes even slaves aided in the draining effort. Slowly, systematically, the wetlands came to dry up, the mangroves uprooted by the relative draught. Now came the time for axes and another round of intensive labour as the woods were cut down before they all died from the drainage. At the same time new canals were dug, small ones to provide the land with sufficient watering and irrigation but also to carry excess flooding from rains or dykes breaking to the pumping stations.

The lands were mapped and divided, roads were constructed and the new fields were ploughed. The mangroves were replaced with mixed palm oil groves, which would turn out to be very profitable indeed. The Alááfin gave half the land to displaced and the other half to veterans of the Karògù. In this way she paid for the damages done to local fisheries and also rewarded the soldiers who had actually conquered her the land. The new farmland was important to the counties and it would certainly help the local cities grow in wealth and size.

However, farmland was far from the only benefit of the drained wetlands. The damming of the rivers allowed Dígbenin and Mbóri to have a year-round seaport, not reliant on the whims of the rain season. The increased flow of the river created a deeper berths in the ports and allowed bigger ships to sail for those ports. The works improved local transport, now roads could be constructed and waters could be traversed more reliably, and in turn they also benefitted trade. The amount of authority exerted over the water worked miracles in regard to floods and would save hundreds, if not thousands of people from drowning over the years to come.


[M] Requesting a "drained wetlands" modifier in the red-dotted provinces

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The Third Wanderer

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6 years ago