The season of New Yam Festival is around the corner. In Enugu state, CHUKS NWEZE reports on how a community intends to celebrate the festival.
New Yam Festival is an annual festivity in most Igbo communities held at the end of the rainy season precisely between early August and late September.
Because of the importance attached to this festival, indigenes of various communities from various places in the world seize the occasion to return to their communities to be part of the celebration.
The Iri ji festival literally meaning ‘new-yam eating’ is practised throughout West Africa especially in Nigeria, Ghana, other African countries and beyond, symbolising the conclusion of a harvest and the beginning of the next work cycle.
The celebration is a very culturally-based occasion that ties individual Igbo communities together as essentially agrarian and dependent on yam which is the king of all crops.
Yams are among the first set of crops to be planted at the beginning of the planting season, precisely between April and August, but early crops such as maize, cocoyams and pumpkins are harvested and eaten without much fanfare, but the New Yam Festival is a celebration depicting the prominence of yam in the social-cultural life of Igbo people.
In some Igbo communities, all old yams (from the previous year’s crop) must be consumed or discarded on the eve of the New Yam Festival. The next day, only dishes of yam are served at the feast, as the festival is symbolic of the abundance of the produce.
Though the style and methods may differ from one community to the other, the essential components that make up the festival remain the same.
In some communities, the celebration lasts a whole day while in many places, it may last a week or more. These festivities normally include a variety of entertainments and ceremonies, including the performance of rites by the Igwe (King) or the eldest man and cultural dances by Igbo men, women and their children. The festival features Igbo cultural activities in the form of contemporary shows, masquerade dances and fashion parades
In Enugu state, Amakpu – Agbani Autonomous community in Agbani clan is one of the autonomous communities that make up Agbani and they observe the festival to the fullest.
Agbani is located in Nkanu- west local government area of the state. It is home to the popular Eke Market and several institutions of learning such as the Nigerian Law School, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Renaissance University, Eagle Flight Schools, Mea Mater School, Airforce School, among others. It is the home town of Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, a former governor of the state.
Some of the infrastructural amenities that made Agbani one of the urban areas in the state include the presence of commercial banks, churches, newly constructed building material market, the local government secretariat, good road network which has been boasted by the recent ones attracted by Hon Nnolim Nnaji member representing Nkanu East/West federal constituency, the international basket ball academy amidst other limitless business opportunities.
The New yam Festival is a part of the annual Oriri Ani that lasts as long as one full month. Oriri-ani is a celebration that marks the end of the planting season and welcomes the harvest season. Agbani clan, Akpugo and other Nkanu people hold the event simultenously as it is of great importance to Nkanu people.
This years event organised by the wonderful people of Amakpu-Agbani both at home and abroad, according to reports would be outstanding. It would hold on September 24 2022.
The organisers of the annual event amongst whom is Ikechukwu Nnamani have promised to make sure that this year’s event remains memorable.
Activities include but not limited to the traditional Iwa ji cultural dances, masquerades, wrestling and lots more.
