The celebration of the new yam crop stretches back millennia and is observed in various ways by various groups in West Africa. The article will take a deep look at a tribe, the Igbo people, known for their spectacular celebration of the new yam festival and its significance to the Igbo people.
The Igbos have five states in southern Nigeria. However, in other neighbouring states, one can also find the extension of Igbo towns in states such as Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Cross River, Rivers, Benue, and Kogi, which celebrate the new yam festival. In addition, Igbos in the diaspora see it as appropriate to identify with this culture. In Igboland, there are various social-cultural holidays, the most prominent of which is the new yam celebration. Dances, eating, renewing agreements with the gods, and thankfulness are all part of the event. It is also an excellent opportunity to express gratitude to the deities and mingle with family and friends. It also demonstrates the religious aspect of the culture and the yam’s status as the king of food crops. The Iri Ji festival honours this reign (new yam celebration).
The Ritual Ceremony of the Festival
Iri Ji is a festive ceremony known by various ethnic groups in Igbo society. It is addressed by Emume-Ahianjoku, Emume-Ifejioku, Ime-Ahiaolu, Iwa-Ji, and Ofala. Each Igbo community carries out the rites of this festival on its market day, which could be on Eke, Ore, Afo, or Nkwo. The Opara, the first son, is also the Oji Ofo and the recognised ceremonial head. He commands authority in any Igbo family and, by extension, the community. The ritual is performed underneath trees like Egbu, Abosi, and Ogirisi. At the time of the ceremonial, the fattest yam tubers are given by the greatest yam-farmer in the village (Di Ji or Eze Ji), a gigantic cock, numerous kola-nuts, alligator peppers, bottles of dry gin, pots of palm wine, and other sundries such as (Nzu) white chalk. Odo yellow chalk and (Uhie) red chalk are collected from the lead yam farmer. The Eze ala carries out the ritual. The priest then cut one new yam tuber into four fragments, representing the market days, as he prayed the following words:
“This day, we are cutting you, New Yam of this year.”
We will slice you into four pieces and see how white you are.
Yam deity, we invite you to bless this yam and multiply it in our barns.
Our ancestors share and eat with us. Then, the prayer is made with a piece of yam on an Otiri stick. The throat of the Oke Okpa (the cockerel) is slit, and the blood smears on the floor of Nwa Ala Ubi. He also prays to the yam deity, Ahianjoku, to bless the development and farming of yam in Igboland. Other prayers for good health, fortification against illnesses, and fruitfulness of the land, people, and domestic animals are made with a libation. All the Opara present expressed their support with a prolonged Haa! (Amin). The leader and shrine assistant step down, holding the remaining sacrificed cock portions and the yam pieces. He then declares the celebration open for families to start the celebration. From the ritual ceremony, the new yam ceremony is an adult male celebration that happens in an open space under a sacred tree at the exit or entrance to the village. This festival marks the opening of the yearly harvest and the consumption of new yams in most Igbo villages. Yam is to the Igbo’s divine. As such, the presence of females at the shrine is prohibited.
The celebration and practice of the festival
The climax of the thanksgiving ceremony is the cooking and eating of the yam meals. Women cook the food. Some of the yams are roasted and taken hot with palm oil. Some are prepared with chicken for leaders to eat as yam pepper soup. The women also prepare Ugba (oil beans), while the menfolk support them with palm wine. The youths use the opportunity to clear the community pathways. There is much drinking and eating in groups during this period. Relatives and guests come from nearby villages as the ceremony is not done on the same day throughout Igboland. The new yam celebration day is greeted with ecstatic celebrations. Collectives, musical performing groups, and masquerade groups parade their dances and gymnastic skills.
It is truly a Thanksgiving festival in which the whole community is involved. Young maidens use the opportunity to show their fashion and beauty to prospective husbands from neighbouring communities. This tradition has attracted illustrious sons of Igboland from all walks of life in recent times. Some have encouraged tourists to make the occasion gorgeous as they grace the event with friends, even foreigners. Igbo families abroad who could not make it home often organize the new yam festivals as a community in the respective nations where they find themselves. This has placed this festival on an international stage where the world has recognized it as a tradition, culture, and practice of the people.
The significance of the festival
The yam celebration depicts the Igbo race as a religious people. A society that yearly recognizes its responsibility to show appreciation to Chukwu, their God, for giving them a costless gift of yam, a chief staple food that gratifies their needs by satisfying their material and physical well-being. The celebration reminds us that the Igbos treasure nature’s generous gifts, particularly those harvests that have sustained their lives for years and have improved the lives of some members of society. Some of these men have become Ogaranya or Oji Aku (rich men) in the environment before the arrival of modern currency and the economy.
Also, the festival reminds us that all Igbos, men, or women, have a sacred duty to grow crops, especially yams, however tiny and whatever kind. The yearly arrival of Ji Uhuru announces a piece of eschatological news in the Igbo spiritual world. It reminds people that their lives rotate like a yam tuber. Like mortals, the yam exists in the shed (Oba). It decays when planted in the ground, yet it develops new tubers. Like yam, the Igbos identify humankind’s route in life to be innate, nurtured, reach adulthood and old age, pass on, and redevelop as a necessary fact. For the Igbos, there is the belief in life-after-life and reincarnation, for which the food crop yam reminds them of their ancestors. Yam is so respected among the Igbos that folk tales, legends, proverbs, and prudent sayings are related. Again, farming, mutual eating, and respecting yam have resulted in events full of ethical values. And these essential values have epistemic standards that the Igbos need to constantly remind themselves of and pass on to the younger generation.
CONCLUSION
The main lesson of the IRI Ji Ohuru festival is that the Igbos must endeavour to excel in any business in which they participate. The magnanimous increase of yams in primaeval Igboland with essential tools reminds them of their ancestors’ commerce and meticulous hard work and strength. This is the truth that permeated the Igbo ancestors and stimulated in them the spirit of hard work. The custom of the Di Ji and their considerable skills and talents of yesteryear must be imitated by modern-day Igbos. To achieve this, they need to follow the path supported by the newest signs of progress in biotech essential to transforming contemporary farming, growing and marketing of yams. To achieve this desire, the Igbos must limit their dependence on oil since the current economy in Nigeria can effortlessly be undermined by unforeseen winds tomorrow. The position of yam reminds Igbo Christians of the Christian doctrine of Holy Communion, rebirth, and fellowship that describe a community assembly around the Lord’s table.