CULTURE

Snippets from Anambra New Yam festivals

New yam festival speaks of the rich cultural heritage of the Igbo communities within the South East geopolitical zone as well as in Rivers and Delta states in the South-South. It is a period when new yam is harvested, with its cultural significance to the Igbo community.

Individual communities, especially the agrarian people in the above-mentioned states, have special days for this August occasion with the celebration of different cultural activities to mark the eating of the new yam, popularly referred to as Iri ji. It is also a day for enjoyment and relaxation with abundance of several delicious dishes for not only the community, but also friends and well-wishers. This occasion is being celebrated at different dates, beginning from August to the second week of September.

During these significant days, the rituals witnessed in the celebration are meant to express the communities’ appreciation to God for making the harvest possible and successful. The influence of Christianity in Igboland notwithstanding, many people, traditionalists, educated men and women including priests and pastors never taste the new yam until the day that is traditionally set aside for the new yam festival.

At the new yam festivals, only variety of yam delicacies were served, while some roast the yam, others prefer pounding and then eat it with okro-soup, bitter-leaf soup, Nsala soup or Egwusi soup with several Igbo condiments. The occasion features match-pasts, wrestling, dancing competition, traditional fashion parade, tugs-of-war, draught board games and ludo competitions.

In Anambra State, the 2008 New Year festival was performed at the state level at the Alex Ekwueme Ground in the first week of August 2008. Immediately after the celebration, the 177 communities within the state also had their own celebrations. Those communities that had celebrated in the first week of August were Awka-Etiti, Alor, Nnokwa, Nimo, Nanka and about 35 other communities in the state. The Nigerian Tribune was at Nnokwa in Idemili South Local Government Area of the state.

The traditional ruler of the town, Igwe Christopher Ezeagwu, who, after thanking God for making members of the community live to see the new yam harvesting season, brought a tuber of yam and cut it into three pieces, signifying the three villages that make up Nnokwa town. The villages are Nnaku, Etiti and Ifite whose representatives came straight to collect their own pieces of yam, an action heralded by a 21-gun salute, signalling for everybody in Nnokwa to start eating the new yam.

He called on the people of Nnokwa to be united, stop dragging themselves to police and charging one another to court, where fortunes, which would have been used in developing the community, were spent unceremoniously. He promised that the elders in his cabinet and town union executive in Nnokwa are prepared to settle all issues out of court and police.

In Nanka, Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, the traditional ruler, Igwe G. Ofomata, used the occasion to give titles to two people; former Nigerian Ambassador to Ghana, Chief Sam Okechukwu from Awka-Etiti and; former member of Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Okonkwo Okom, from Oko. The celebration also revived the lost cultural heritage of the community. The monarch told his subjects to direct their God-given wealth towards alleviating the sufferings of the less privileged in the community and to come over and develop the town.

He thanked all patriotic individuals and groups who contributed in one way or the other to make the new yam festival a success. After his prayers and cutting of the new yam tuber, which was shared into seven, also representing the seven villages that make up Nanka community, the village heads came in turn and collected their shares, after which the occasion witnessed the symbolic 21 gunshot.

He also used the occasion to congratulate his Nanka brothers and sisters who donated willingly towards solving Nanka erosion menace and charged those who were trusted with the erosion fund to make sure the money was utilised for that purpose. President General of Nanka Patriotic Union (NPU), Chief Damian Okoye, thanked God for their coming together for the celebration of the new yam festival, adding that the occasion is used to celebrate nine months of hard work in the farms, culminating in the first harvest of the yam tubers in the town. He said that the annual event has been the period of general return of Nanka people resident outside their community, during which way forward of the community is discussed.

From Nanka, the celebration of the new yam festival shifted to Alor, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, which was low keyed following the recent death of one of the wives of the traditional ruler, Igwe John Oforka. The ceremony started early and within one hour, all important ceremonies had been concluded with 21 gun shots to inform residents of the town that they were free to eat the new yam this year. Meanwhile, some communities are yet to celebrate the festival in the state as their traditional rulers, cabinet chiefs and the town union executives were seen very busy planning for the ceremony with dates yet to be fixed.