By Uduma Kalu

IT had a personal appeal to me, the Igba Uche ceremony of the Uke Item, this age grade in my town Isiugwu Ohafia in Abia state which my mother, Mrs Lucy Kalu Uduma belongs. That day, Dec 27, 2010, the members danced like never before.

The festival, common to Ohafia and beyond, runs for about three days. On the first day, the celebrating age group goes on procession round the village, dressed in the traditional George cloths and blouse and head ties for women or T shirt, George wrappers and walking sticks for the men. The procession is full of lavish and splendour. The members, made of men and women, danced to the drums, and gongs, the flutes and the songs. On the second day, they handed over the project they built to the community. This could be school, road, water or any other project that impacts positively on the lives of the people of a community in Ohafia. In the case of my mother’s Uke Item Isiugwu last year, it was a school building.

On the third day, the community comes alive in what is regarded as the grand finale.

The beauty of Igba Uche

Each family erects a marquee, called efe, with George cloths as covering. Visitors are served drinks, kola-nuts, foods, and as is now common, all kinds of gifts, as it is done during weddings, in return for a small donation (each donation is written in a visitor’s book). Inside, some of the family’s furniture is positioned to create a living room effect. On the front of the marquee, there is often a large photograph of the family’s person of honour who is being celebrated. Each marquee also has its own music system. With so many marquees jammed together like in a market, they are also a cacophony. and the crowd, it is like a gathering of locusts.

There were the elders who sat in their hall made for them for that purpose. Led by the Ezeogo, the men and women danced round in circle, to the rhythm of the drummers. They marched from the market place up through the village to the new building that they had all contributed to build.

In the absence of funding from the State and the Local Government, the Igba Uche ceremony is now a way of organising and creating public works. This is a ceremony which through the years, launched my mother into the conclave of the elders. It did not start with her. Her forebears had performed the rites before. My uncle, my mother’s brother, Mr. Kalu Okereke will perform his in the next four years. My turn will come. So will be my children’s turns. It is like season, or the sea which flows eternally. Even then, the Igba Uche is just the first step to other steps within the elders cadre. As my motehr’s age mates enter into this circle, they graduate, step by step, within this system till they begin to sit in the Obu Isiugwu, the elders hall where issues of higher scale, such as jurisprudence, crime, politics, and others of such serious engagements that affect the town are handled.

So, for my mother’s age mates, there was every reason to celebrate. Igba Uche is once in a lifetime celebration. And out of the 198 or so that were members of the age grade, over 46 of them had died, including some of their very best such as Engineer Azu Kalu Uka, trained by the Federal government in Norway, the Uke Item, Former General President, Chief Ajike Ajike Onwuka, Mrs Eguzo Nnachi, Mr. Kalu Okoronkwo, Mr Iro Eke Kalu, and Mr Ukaha Kalu, the late general financial secretary. For so many of them, it was a memorable day. Between 1967-70, the young adults were nearly drowned by the Nigeria-Biafra war. But last Dec, they had become elders in the community. And by this, they had joined the decision making arm of the town. Indeed, the young had grown.

Former Chairman of Union Bank plc, Elder Kalu Uke Kalu was elated that so many young men and women were coming of age and had realised the need of self effort in the development of the community.

Elder Kalu was referring to the various projects completed by the Uke Item, like many age grades before it. The Uke Item age grade had built the elders hall in their Igba Ekpe celebration, a period of real acceptance by the elders as capable of being taken seriously. For their Igba Uche, the age grade built class room blocks comprising of several classes.

The community embarks on self help in various aspects as over the years, governments in the state had not done anything there. In fact, a road awarded by the Theodore Orji government has not been touched, and the community was impassable until one Mr. Kalu Eke, vying for Ohafia South state assembly seat graded it with an earth moving machine. The electricity there is non functioning, in fact all of the Ohafia LGA, made of Ohafia, Abribia and Nkporo was in darkness, and this had been over a year. There is no water there. The people drink streams and springs.

But that day, Dec 27, they were retiring from all these and joined the decision making body of the town, which requires wisdom. A former banker and one of the most respected of the Ohafia community, Chief Obiwe U Kalu (Joy), in assessing the age grade as capable of legislative duties, said the members have the leadership capability and they need to translate that into reality.

These illustrious sons of the community have every reason to refer to the Uke Item in such superlative terms. Their coming of age, as the Ezeogo Okorie Kalu Okorie of the community said, is a memorable, with Justice Agwu U Kalu explaining that the members survived extreme vicissitudes of life, including the terrible civil war the members encountered in their prime, hence a great reason to roll out the drums.

UKE ITEM

The Uke Item came into existence at

the height of the Nigerian Civil War, when most of their first children were born. It was a harrowing time for most of them as the war meant that some of them were also conscripted into the war. In 1970, immediately after the war, the group acquired its self given name, Isiagboncha. They were given their real name by the community in 1987 after completing their building project, the Uduma Ali Hall. The name given to the age grade was Item Ometemba by the elders. It is important to note the stages of growth and naming attached to this growth. Over the years, the age grade, performing various activities in the years, grew capable to celebrating the Igba Uche. And in recognition of this, the Uke Item was called upon to embark on a five classroom- block at the Junior Secondary School site. It finished it in record time.

As was expected, the Isiugwu Town wore a different look throughout the festive period. And it would indeed be important to have something very communal to look forward to, every year , something that can pull the same type of crowd every yuletide in the town. For such will enable the people have a robust tourism system for development.

For example, the cost of holding the event individually runs into hundreds of thousands of naira. Guests from home and abroad usually grace the event. But most importantly, the event is used to develop the community. And this is where the government of the state comes in. Sadly, the Abia government was not at the event, although contacts were made for it to attend. Perhaps, the highest government presence there was the former Ohafia LGA chairman, Chief Uche Ogboso who came from Akanu, along with Barrister Awa Obasi and his wife, Ngozi who visited Justice A . Kalu.

IGBA UCHE

Some Ohafia elders explained the origin of the Igba Uche thus, “Igbotu Omu means tying the shield with a palm frond. The Ohafia people in the olden days were warriors who engaged in battles and slave raids for their partners such as the Arochukwu slave merchants. So, at that age, when the warriors have survived so many wars and are ageing, the community deems it fit to retire them. By tying the palm frond on the shield, it means that particular Ohafia man has ended the act of war on behalf of the community. But being in the modern age when inter-community or tribal war has become a rarity, things have changed. The community now retires a particular age group upon completion of a given developmental project. On completion, the age group would then perform its Igbotu Omu or Igba Uche.” The festival is normally held to coincide with the yuletide period when most people would be free to travel home. Normally, it is held between December 27 and 31.”