By EBELE ORAKPO

YAM is regarded as the king of crops among the Igbo people of South-East Nigeria. No wonder then that it is accorded so much respect and celebrated by the people every year. It is often believed that if a new yam is celebrated, the subsequent year will be more productive.

Therefore, come October 20, 2012, the Eze Obosi, Igwe Chidubem Iweka, Eze Iweka III and the entire Obosi people in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, will celebrate his first Ofala on the throne of Obosi. Vanguard sought the views of the Igwe on this popular festival and what to expect at the four-day event. Excerpts:

OFALA: According to Eze Iweka III, the new yam festival, popularly called Ofala or Afiaolu/Ifejioku/Ahajioku festival, is the traditional name for Iwa Ji and Iwa ji connotes what the festival is all about. In Obosi, it is called Obiora, Ofala or Iwa ji, all mean the same thing and it is all about the celebration of the new yam.”

Yam in Igbo culture: “In the Igbo culture, yam is a very important subsistence crop. It  is  respected because it was the major food of the Igbos and the major crop cultivated by the Igbo farmer and so much importance was attached to yam in the olden days. For instance, your wealth is determined by the size of your yam barn and the number of yams in the barn.

A typical yam barn in Igboland

“The barn, called oba ji, is where yams are kept. The yam seedlings are collected after the harvest and also kept in the barn in preparation for the next planting season. Then the harvested yams are also kept in barns and those were the yams that the farmer sold or traded by barter in exchange for other materials. A rich farmer is one that has a lot of yams and a big farm where he cultivates and harvests yams.

Stealing of yam akin to murder: “In those days, it was forbidden for one to go to the farm and steal yam. You can steal anything, chicken, goat etc., and not be banished from the land. But if you stole yam in in those days, it was one of the most serious offences next to murder. At a time, it was considered murder because when you stole a man’s yam, you wanted that man to die of hunger.

“The yam was his bank account because the yams he harvested for the season would suffice for his family through that harvesting season to the next harvesting season, so if you stole somebody’s yams, you wanted that person to die of hunger. So anyone that broke into your barn or your farm to go and dig up planted yams, had committed a very big offence.

“In some towns in the olden days, it even attracted death penalty, but in Obosi and other towns with similar culture, it attracted banishment. That means if you are caught stealing yams, you will be sent away from that town for a long period of time and sometimes for life. That shows you how important the yam was in Igbo land and still to a large extent,” he said.

The celebration proper: Speaking on the celebration proper, the Igwe said; “Well, there are a lot of traditional aspects to it. It is roughly a four-day event. It starts with activities some of which are traditional. For instance, there is something we call Ikpa onunu. On that day, the custodians of the culture, the ndi isi mmuo (heads or priests of the shrines), carry out all the necessary rituals that are pertinent to this exercise.  The Ikpa onunu is one of the prominent activities of the ofala.

Roasted yams
Then yams will be roasted,  and afterb that,, palm wine is served, then the Igwe will cut the yam, dip it in spiced palm oil and distribute to children first. After all the children have eaten, the adults will eat. It is like an open declaration that the new yam is now edible and everybody can eat. After that, the Ndi Ichie ie members of the cabinet, will do their individual ofala in their families.”

Other activities: “You know that as time goes on, a lot of modifications take place. We are going to have a lecture and we will have a couple of notable people. We are expecting Professor Ezeonu from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka who will give us a lecture pertaining to Ofala festival in Igbo land.  There are other activities lined up like the Mmanwu (masquerade) festival.

“Our people love entertainment  and usually, we will have some dancing, beautiful masquerades; none of those terrible evil masquerades, the terrible egwugwus that people fear. There will be cultural dances as well. There is also a very special part of the ofala festival worthy of note. It is called the Owuwa. It is done on the actual day of the ofala. It is when the king dresses in some war-like attire.

First of all, in his first outing during the ofala, he will wear nice clothing, move around waving at the crowd but a little later in the day when he goes around again for the owuwa, it is a different attitude altogether; he will no longer be a gentleman, he will look mean and war-like because in the olden days, by that time, when the arena is very crowded with people, a lot of people attend, including native doctors, bad and evil people.

Some of them may be hired assassins or whatever. So as the king goes out for the owuwa, he wears war-like clothing. In those days, he wore amulets for his protection and all sorts of things around his body that will make him look formidable and war-like.

And when he dances through the arena this time around, he would not look very friendly. He will charge at the crowd and that is like a warning to evil people in the crowd that it is time for them to leave. It’s part of the culture,”  he enthused.