12/10/2024
IKEJI NDE EHUGBO AS A METAPHOR FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
On the 26th of August, 2024, Afikpo people celebrated their New Yam Festival and Dr. I.U Unya was invited as a keynote speaker by Nde Ehugbo elders. To watch the video of the Ikeji lecture, go to the comment section.
Introduction
I feel greatly honoured to be asked by the Organizing Committee of Nde Ekpuke Esaa Traditional Ruling Council to speak in this 2024 Ikeji Ehugbo Festival. My major task is to share my thoughts and reflections on the civilization and celebration of the New Yam Festival among the Afikpo-Igbo clan.
The first attempt made to intellectualize the Ikeji Nde Igbo was in 1979 when the first Executive Governor of old Imo State, Chief Sam Mbakwe, created a podium for eminent Igbo scholars to research on the fundamental aspects of Igbo culture and relate same to the contemporary development.
Because of the importance and the contemporary relevance of the lecture on Ikeji Ndigbo in nation-building, our Distinguished Rep, the Rt. Hon. Iduma Igariwey, member, representing the good people of Afikpo and Edda Federal Constituency, has taken steps to deepen the peoples’ understanding and appreciation of the significance of the new yam festival.
Ladies and gentlemen, we shall start by asking ourselves simple questions. One, why do we celebrate Ikeji? Secondly, how did the new yam festival evolve among the Igbo? And thirdly, are there contemporary relevance that could be associated with Ikeji festival? We shall proceed first by discussing why Nde Ehugbo and most tribes in West Africa participate in the celebration of new yam festival.
Why We Celebrate New Yam Festival in Igboland
The new yam festival in Igboland is not only prominent; it dominates and permeates all aspect of Igbo engagements. Apart from the fact that the festival is linked to the agricultural calendar, philosophy and economic structure, it also involves a celebration of existence and paying homage to the ancestors. For instance, the festival is a period of reverence and open show of gratitude to God for his protection and kindness in leading the Igbo from lean periods to the time of bountiful harvest without deaths resulting from hunger.
To be sure, among the Igbo, the new yam festival is symbolic of enjoyment. During this period, sharing of food especially yam is an important aspect of the feast. It was this concept of gifting and ‘plentifulness’ associated with the new yam celebration that motivated Chinua Achebe to declare in his work Things Fall Apart that “the pounded yam dish placed in front of the partakers of the festival was as big as mountain. People had to eat their way through it all night and it was only during the following day when the pounded yam had gone down that the people on one side recognized and greeted their family members on the other side of the dish for the first time”.
Therefore, yam is regarded as the king of all crops, thus, yam is the only crop ritualized by having a deity (Njoku Ji) dedicated to it. The new yam festival is thus, a celebration in honour of the prominent role yam plays in the socio-cultural life of the Igbo people. As the king of crops, it is superior to all other crops, and its festival is the celebration of the harvest of all crops which symbolizes the conclusion of the harvest season and the beginning of the next work cycle.
The Origin and Development of Yam
Thurstan Shaw believes that the history of the yam crop in Igboland dates back to over 5,000 years ago. Various stories about the origin of yam in Igboland exist in many communities. We shall group the available oral evidence about the origin of yam into two: those claiming that yam crop is as old as human existence in Igboland and that God presented yam as the first food to the Igboman; and, the second hypothesis which claims that yam consumption in the area though of relative antiquity was as a result of experimentation or accident.
For instance, among the Nri community of Anambra State, their myth on the origin of yam states that there was a time when a severe famine struck, Eze Eri (King of Nri) considered what should be done to remedy the situation. He was asked by Chukwu (God) to kill his son and daughter. He later took the drastic course of killing his eldest son and daughter, cutting their bodies into small pieces and burying them. Strangely, yam and cocoyam were observed to be growing at the very places where the dismembered parts of the bodies had been buried. In the same mythology, another version avers that Eri killed male and female slaves and buried them in separate graves. From their graves emerged yam and cocoyam.
On the other hand, some traditions, buttress the notion that yam cultivation, just like the other crops in Igboland, may have resulted from the people’s experimentation with the different plants in the area with a view to identifying the edible ones. For instance, among the Ehugbo group of communities, their myth on the origin of yam is of two fold --- one claiming the God-factor while another supports continuous experimentation. According to the God-factor mythology, the acclaimed founder of Ehugbo, Igboukwu, had a younger sister called Nne Oriete Imomo who disliked the taste of wild yam (bitter specie that were common then).
So, Nne Oriete Imomo communed with Obasi n’elu (God) and she was instructed to clear a portion of arable land. In order to have her wish of good yams, she was asked to offer a male child born of one of her brother’s seven daughters. She summoned her seven daughters-in-law (as they are known in Afikpo tradition) and narrated the revelation. One of them, Aliocha Imaga Orie, offered her son. After the sacrifices, four or five months later, good and edible yams sprang out from where the boy was buried, and God warned her that she must at all-time accord great respect to yam.
Similarly, Ndi Ehugbo people also traced the origin of yam to Enohia Nkalu, a community Ottenberg described as one of the earliest inhabitants in Afikpo. According to the oral tradition, yam was first cultivated, eaten and domesticated by the Nkalu people. Till date, the community is recognized in matters related to the celebration of new yam festivals. Unlike other communities in Igboland where the Kings or the oldest men in the community moderate in the celebration of the festival; in Afikpo, the date and the celebration must be announced by the elders of the community. Again, the Yam Deity Priest called Eleri also plays a prominent role. For instance, no village in Ehugbo celebrates the festival or eats the new yam until the Priest performs the rituals associated with the celebration with an indigenous specie of yam called Akiri.
Describing the processes involved in Ikeji celebration in Ehugbo, Professor Uro-Chukwu submits that “the preparation for Ikeji in Ehugbo starts in July of every year, when a dance (Egwu Imo) is performed seven to eight market weeks (Izu essa) to the Ikeji festival. In this preparation, the maidens from Enohia Nkalu will pass a night at Ohia Eketa forest just a day before the dance.
Within the Izu essa, a delegation of the elders’ council (Horri & Essa) will pay a visit to Enohia Nkalu elders for possible date, following which a large council of elders meets in a solemn conference “Ngidi-Ngidi” to deliberate on the possible date for the Ikeji festival. The Egwu Imo dance is performed for the yam chief priest, Eleri, who then carryout a major spiritual assignment, the breaking of cola-nut, Eleri Iwa Oji, signifying permission for farmers, to harvest their new yam. As the yam is harvested and brought home, it is heralded by traditional folk songs such as “Jiaayi awafuwo akirikpokpo”.
The Concept of Nku Ikeji
New yam festival celebration in Ehugbo has different segments ranging from the announcement of festival date by the elders, the breaking of kolanut by the yam deity priest, Eleri, the ichu aho, the celebration itself which is accompanied by ivu nku ikeji which both boys/men and girls/women participate. I want us to have a brief discussion on nku ikeji because a lot of us here do not know the significance or the importance of nku ikeji.
Nku Ikeji connotes respect, loyalty and friendliness. The importance of carrying or delivering log of woods is to maintain and renew existing relationship and bond.
The Contemporary Modifications to the Celebration of New Yam Festival
As we noted in our introduction that the new yam festival is observed in the entire Igboland as a mark of appreciation to God, the deities and the ancestors for the protection and kindness in leading them from lean periods to the time of bountiful harvest without deaths resulting from hunger. Therefore, it can be argued that an outstanding aspect of the festival is the fascination it exercises for all Igbo people throughout the world.
The celebration depicts the Igbo as a religious people, a people who annually acknowledge their duty to return gratitude to Chukwu, their God, for providing them with such a gratuitous gift of yam.
Presently, the new yam festival in Ehugbo is not only relevant in this contemporary age, it has also gone through series of changes as a result of western education, Christianity, economic changes and increase in population; in the process, purging itself of those rituals and fe**sh practices that were associated with it.
These transformations or modifications that occurred triggered off ramifications everywhere in the conduct of new yam festivals in Ehugbo, because the Ehugbo sons and daughters in diaspora and other major cities in Nigeria celebrate the festival without the traditional rituals associated with the new yam festivals. It was as a result of these changes that efforts have been made to play down on the traditional attachments like offering sacrifices to the god of yam both at the individual and group levels.
Conclusion
In this brief lecture, we have argued that new yam festival celebration exists in almost all Igbo communities in Nigeria and other part of West African region. We also briefly discussed how yam originated among some Igbo communities.
Typically, new yam festival provides a heritage of dances, feasting, renewal of kinship alliances, as well as mark the end of one agricultural season with a harvest to express gratitude and thanksgiving to the society, gods, friends and relations.
The primacy of the new yam festival might have been recognized by Bolin and Dunstan which made them to assert that the new yam festival affords individuals the opportunity to interact with other community members regardless of class affiliations or social, religious, political or economic status.
In this present dispensation, the Ehugbo people and other Igbo communities scattered in different cities in Nigeria always gather together every August to celebrate new yam festival as a unique heritage of the Igbo to the world. In the course of the celebration, the Igbo federal civil servants and businessmen usually use the time of new yam festival celebration to invite federal government ministers and permanent secretaries to draw attention on the areas of neglect and interventions, while the Igbo in diaspora use the opportunity of new yam festival celebration to raise funds for project ex*****on and scholarship award to the Igbo people in the villages.
One unique aspect of the celebration is that the festival is held without the traditional rituals associated with the new yam festivals of the old.
Thank you all for listening!
Ehugbo oohu unu kaa!
Dr. Ikenna Ukpabi Unya teaches Nigerian History and Nigerian People Culture, in the School of General Studies, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia.
