From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki
New yam festival has remained the most cherished cultural feast among the Igbo. It is like a binding force in the race that preserves cultural heritage of the people.
The festival is a rich culture usually celebrated between July and October annually in Igboland. It is celebrated even in other states and countries where the Igbo are found. Some travel abroad to celebrate the festival with their dear ones.
In Ezza clan, Ebonyi State, new yam festival serves as the beginning of a new year. The Ezza nation usually celebrates new yam known as Oke-aku before every other clan in the state.
Oke-aku, which is a a great and elaborate festival, doubles as new year celebration and new yam festival in Ezza clan.
This festival is characterized by visits to in-laws, relatives and friends. It is a time of great festivity when old enmity is forgotten and no debt recovery is expected on the day of the celebration.
On that day, greetings are freely exchanged with traditional formula: “Anyi abooo! Awha labu anyi awha oma.” That is, we have survived, this year will be for us a good year. This is a time of worship of peace; it is a time when squabbles and abusive words are forbidden.
Oke-aku paves way for those with financial difficulties to start harvesting and eating the new yam. It also marks the end of yam-planting season.
However, the last of the old yam used for the celebration are eaten that day with the palm kernel. This special food for famine is eaten on Orie day, as remembrance of the difficult time that is ushering in a time of plenty, a time of harvesting. After the last day of the feast, families go to weed their farms for a few hours.
This customary exercise involves all in the family – parents and children. This is famously called the Mbieka (touch hand) day. The reason for this exercise is to show gratitude to parents for all the food eaten during the four days of the festival.
On the last day also is performed the ritual called Oye Onu, whereby some yam tubers cooked are mashed with oil and placed in small bits in the farm, on crops and shrubs. This is done with a prayer intention that the crops should increase their yield in the coming year.
The Ezza nation, which comprises of at least 22 notable component communities and dominate the central senatorial district of Ebonyi State, is highly populated and vastly spread in the state.
With a population projection of about two million people and Onueke as its ancestral headquarters, the Ezzas, as they are specifically and popularly referred to, dominantly dwell in Amana, Ezzama, Amuzu, Ameka, Oriuzor, Amezekwe, Amagu, Amudo, Idembia and Ekka communities, with others also residing in their large numbers in Ezza Effium, Ezza-Ezillo, Abaomege, Ukawu and Ishiagu, among other communities. They can be found in the three senatorial zones of the state.
Interestingly, a very significant number of the people of Ezza nation live in parts of Enugu, Benue, Cross River, Kogi, Ondo, Edo and Delta states, among others.
The traditional Ezzas in these places, still return to Onueke to offer sacrifices to the graves of their progenitors who are Ezekuna and his wife, Anyigo Ezekuna.
The reason for their dominance in virtually anywhere humanity lives is that their ancestors were renown warriors who conquered many territories in the ancient times and also helped neighbours reclaim many of their lost territories.
These facts make the celebration of their annual New Yam festival, known as Oke-aku, significant, beginning from the moment it is announced by the Ozo Traditional Council of Ezza Ezekuna, who are the custodians of culture and the mouthpiece of Ezza ancestors. It is their responsibility to inform the public of the Oke-aku festival, which traditionally marks the beginning of a new year to the brotherhood convergence of all sons and daughters at the Nchionu ancestral home.
The week-long festivity marking the Oke-aku festival is usually followed by the traditional sharing of food such as groundnuts, coconuts, cola and yam, among others, to friends, families, neighbours and visitors, with the echoes of greetings and responses of: “Anyi Aboo”, “Awhaa l’aburu anyi awha oma”, “Tee oduru Onye Ukfu mee Onye Nta ree.” These are very sincere goodwill and well-wishing prayers offered to signify not only the enterprising and very productive lifestyle of the Ezza man but also urging God Almighty to make the new year very prosperous.
This remarkable festival draws the Ezza man and woman not only back to his large ancestral roots but also to the bond of greater unity and sincerity of purpose for which they are known.
This year’s event was celebrated with pomp in all places where the Ezzas are found.
Ameka, the home of the late Sen. Offia Nwali, who was the first black man to obtain a PhD in Computer and Analytical Studies from the prestigious Harvard University, USA, and who represented Abakaliki Senatorial District between 1979 and 1983, came alive when people from all walks of life attended the celebration organized for the community by Chief Oguzor Offia Nwali, son of the late Offia Nwali, the state’s Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Business Development.
Addressing the crowd, the commissioner described Oke-aku as a unique culture of Ezza Ezekuna and called on the people of to continue to uphold it for unity and progress of the clan. He described the festival as the beginning of a new year in Ezza clan and expressed the hope that the year will bring good tidings for the people.
Nwali commended the people for coming out en masse to celebrate the festival and urged them to continue to support the present administration in the state, which he said remembered Ezza people more than any other administration.
“God knows that Ezza nation needs peace, we need peace. This is why he brought a man of peace who has brought peace to us, who has resolved all the crises in anywhere Ezzas are found, who has restored peace to all the troubled communities in Ebonyi State,” he said.
Governor Francis Nwifuru, who was represented by the president of Izzi Nnodo Youth Forum, Dr. Chibueze Elom, urged the people of the community and the entire Ezza nation to maintain peace and love one another, describing peace as the bedrock of development.
He called for prayers, support and solidarity for his administration and promised more people-oriented policies and programmes for the people and the state in general.
“Governor Francis Nwifuru has united the entire state. Peace is radiating everywhere and that is what he wants for the development of the state. Ezza people should encourage this peace by promoting it and supporting his administration,” he said.