BY UCHE CHUKWU
The traditional ruler of Amawbia, Igwe Uchenna Okonkwo has celebrated his maiden Iri ji ohuu (New Yam Festival) of the community, an annual cultural celebration held to mark the harvest of new yam across Igboland.
Speaking during the occasion, Igwe Okonkwo (Okpaligwe III of Amawbia Ugbogiliga n'Umunri) in Njikoka Local Government Council Area of Anambra State described yam as the king of crops and most important of all staple crops in Igboland.
The monarch declared that, the cutting of new yam, eating it after performing festival ritual and prayers being marked on the day severe the prohibition of his subjects from officially eating yam and symbolize purification of the season.
Also speaking, the Head of Ozo Amawbia Society, Ozo Okoye said the New yam festival is a period the monarch and the people unite and collectively celebrate the commencement of consumption of yam.
Corroborating, High Chief Willie Nwokoye (Ezeakaa / Ibobo Amawbia) who served as the Principal Secretary in the former governor Willie Obiano cabinet, said: "An agelong custom and tradition forbids the consumption of newly harvested yams until the formal ritual has been performed by the appropriate community authority starting with the monarch as the custodian of culture and traditions.
Contributing , a member of Igwe-in-Council, and a former Rotary President, Rotarian (Dr.) Jude Osita Nwokike noted that in the last, yam stocked in the barn ( Oba ji) is used as a measure of a man's social status and wealth.
Dr. Nwokike said that the annual cultural new yam festival is held to mark the first harvest of yams and to offer thanksgiving for a successful agricultural year.
In his remark, the Sarkin Hausa Community in Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Council Area, Alhaji Sani Mahmud appreciated the Igwe Okonkwo on the occasion of marking his first new yam festival as a monarch, assuring that his subjects would continue remain law abiding to the rules and regulations of the host community.
Sarkin Mahmud observed that the new yam festival is central to Igbo identity, dignity and livelihood. In his speech, a renowned traditional priesthood practitioner, High Chief Dr. Samuel Nnamdi Odo said the event is to appreciate the Supreme Being, Earth deity (Ala), yam spirit (Ifejioku) and ancestors (Ndiochie) for a agricultural abundance in the year and fir the gift of life.
According to High Chief Dr Odo, the festival offers an opportunity to thank the Supreme Being, earth deity, Ala, the yam spirit (Ahiajoku / Ifejioku, and the ancestors, while renewing the agricultural and social cycle.
The event witnessed the cutting, sharing and eating of yams with oil, pepper and and sliced among the participants as well as masquerade displays, women group dance performances and other traditional music entertainment.