• Ebonyi community, Okposi, holds Iri Ji festival, vows to restore dignity of crop
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
An atmosphere of conviviality pervaded Okposi, Ohaozara Local Government, Ebonyi State, noted for its Salt Lake (Mmahi Ezi), last Saturday. The recent activities of hoodlums which sparked insecurity in the area could not diminish the pomp, pageantry and spirit of camaraderie that greeted the annual New Yam (Iri Ji) festival of Okposi people.
In the days of yore, a man’s wealth or worth in Igbo land, was measured by the size of his yam barn. In fact, some prestigious titles were taken with abundance of yam. But unfortunately, yam barns have continued to thin out in Igbo land almost to the point of extinction.
Interestingly, participants at this year’s Iri Ji Okposi festival resolved to work assiduously to restore the dignity of yam in the community such that big yam barns would become a common feature in the area, in a short while.
Wealthy sons and daughters of Okposi were urged to invest in yam farming including adopting some modern techniques of doing it. Unlike in several other Igbo communities where New Yam festivities mark their New Year, the festival in Okposi symbolises the banishment of famine or hunger.
According to forebears of Okposi, the festival eliminates famine in the land of Okposi as it gives the people the freedom to harvest their yams and eat whenever they are hungry instead of waiting till dry season and not to starve. So, once the new yam festival is performed, people especially the poor who suffered the pangs of lack after the planting season, could have access to their new yams.
Chief Priest of Yam (Eze Ji), Chief John Chukwu Agwu, said the ceremony connotes releasing the people from scarcity (Itofu Ndi Okposi n’ unwu). The pharmacist, who inherited the chief priesthood of yam from his fathers, described the festival as a new season of greatness in the land of Okposi.
He stated that sons and daughters of Okposi Ezi N’asato were really happy to witness the new yam festival in their land: “The Iri Ji festival celebration was successful and it was a good one indeed, thanks to the ancestors that made it possible.
“Everything went well, there was no casualty of any form of injury from the period of the procession to Eke Market and back to Amaechi Udu Oke Eze as the custom and tradition demands.”
Before the procession to the market where he publicly announced the harvest of new yams, Agwu early that morning went to the farm, performed the rites and harvested some tubers of new yam.
Daily Sun learnt that it is an abomination to harvest new yam in Okposi or even bring in the crop from outside the community until the new yam festival was performed. Agwu said if anybody did that, he or she would be infected with a chicken pox disease for going contrary to the tradition:
“Another good thing about the new yam festival is that if any barren woman would pick that sand that was dropped in the market and put it inside her mouth, she would definitely conceive within a year, two women (from Umuka and Okposi Okwu) are testimonies of such good tidings.
“No other newly harvested food or crops are allowed into the main Eke Market for any reason until after the new yam festival, because the yam is the king of all other foods and it is sacred. It is against the tradition for another newly harvested food to be sold or being carried inside the Eke Market until after the new yam festival.”
Ebubechi Okoronkwo carried the sacred basket bearing the new yams (Abo Ji), during the procession from Amaechi to Eke Market and back. On arriving the market, a man from Mebi-Ameke village came and lifted the Abo Ji from his head and kept it on the ground. He, then, picked sands from the sacred basket and dropped into four places.
Okoronkwo spoke on the significance of his role: “That Abo Ji which I was carrying is a sacred basket meant for carrying new yams on the new yam festival day. The palm fronds tied to it mean that it is really sacred and cannot be carried by anyone who is not traditionally into the sacred family.
“The palm fronds also signify that people are not to come close to the Abo Ji (new yam sacred basket) or to touch it for any reason except for those who are into the sacred family.
“Those people you saw running away while we were entering the market was because women who are still bearing children are not supposed to meet me face-to-face as it is against the tradition. Women are not allowed to talk to me or to greet me at the moment.
“But if they do (greet me) out of excitement, I will not respond to their greetings until I enter inside the market and do the sacred tradition as the custom demands before I can respond to any woman’s greetings. If I respond to any of the women, it may deprive her of conceiving again. It’s better I don’t respond to their greetings until when we are through with the sacred tradition.
“Amaechi and Mebi-Ameke people are the owners of the new yam festival. No one has the right to lower or bring down that sacred basket (Abo Ji) from his head except a man from Mebi-Ameke.
“If not, the traditional rites will not be performed because the child used by our forefathers to appease the new yam was the grandchild of Amaechi and Mebi-Ameke. That’s is why it’s only the two communities in the entire land of Okposi Ezi N’asato that have the right to perform the sacred sacrifice of the Iri Ji Ovuu (new yam festival) in Okposi.”
Recently, some spiritual components were infused into the Iri Ji Okposi festival. The first indigenous priest of the area, Monsignor Lawrence Aja led four other Catholic priests at the mass before the ritual of cutting and eating of the new yam.
Aja said it was important to declare that there was nothing wrong in identifying with the good cultures of communities like the Iri Ji festival: “Okposi people have various heritage but the greatest is the New Yam (Iri Ji) festival.
“We are pleased as priests that the festival has been resuscitated in Okposi. And they have also added Christianity into it such that we are celebrating mass during the occasion.”
In his homily, Rev. Father Augustine Chukwu noted the biblical underpinning of New Yam festival as captured in the book of Exodus, where it said that people should bring first fruit for blessing:
“That someone planted a seed, it germinated, flourished and yielded big harvest, it’s the making of God.” He prayed that the Iri Ji ritual should bring unity, love, blessings, progress and development to Okposi land.