No part of Igboland is strange with yam, the king of all crops today. Yam, according to Wikipedia, is the common name for some plant species in the genus dioscorea that form edible tubers.
Yams are perennial herbaceous vines native to Africa, Asia, and the Americas and cultivated for their starchy tubers in many temperate and tropical regions. The tubers themselves, also called "yams," come in a variety of forms owing to numerous cultivars and related species.
The celebration of the New Yam Festival has become an annual event, offering a deep insight into the context of the identity, rich heritage and cultural nicety of the Igbo people, especially in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and other states where they reside.
In Igbo land, different clans or lineages have peculiar dialectical names for the new yam festival, such as Ojijji, Iriji-Ophu, Okeaku, Nnesweoha, Ikeji, and Iriji, among others. But the truth is that the New Yam Festival is a symbol of enjoyment, peacebuilding, demonstration of love, unity, progress and prosperity for the Igbo people.
During the grand finale for the 2024 Ojiji (New Yam) festival of the Izhi Nnodo Ekumaenyi clan in Ebonyi State, Governor Francis Nwifuru described the New Yam festival as a testament to the rich cultural heritage and commended his kinsmen and women's unwavering commitment to sustain their agelong traditions.
He further described the Ojiji festival as a time to reconnect with their roots, honour God and celebrate the resilience and strength of the Izhi Nnodo Ekumaenyi people, as evidenced by the quality and quantity of yam they produced every season. Nwifuru expressed the belief that the Ojiji festival has great positive impacts on the overall development of the people, especially in engendering love, peace, unity, and progress in their land.
The Chairman Publicity Sub-Committee of the Ojiji Izhi 2024 and Director General of the Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation, EBBC, Comrade Tony Nwizi explained that the festival marks the arrival of the new yam, a time when the old yams of the previous harvest give way to the fresh bounty of the earth, signalling the end of famine and renewal of hope.
Nwizi said Ojiji is more than a feast in considering its cultural tapestry, usually woven with acts of thanksgiving, almsgiving and prayer.
"It is a time for cleaning homes and compounds, visiting in-laws and relatives, constructing communal roads, initiating agegrades, reconciling differences and clearing pathways, both literal and metaphorical, within the community. The festival's timing is decided by the Ishiuke Izhi, the highest decision-making body of the Izhi Nnodo Traditional Institution, which decrees that the event be held on an Iboko day.
"Before any new agricultural produce, particularly yam, can be consumed or sold, the people must visit Enya Ali Izhi, where the clan originated, to seek the continued blessings of their land. Only after these visits are completed does the Ishiuke people give the order for the new yam to be introduced into the markets, heralding the approach of the Ojiji," Nwizi said.
Nwizi further disclosed that during the festival, son-in-laws are expected to present tubers of yam, fowl or dried bush meat to the in-laws, while the daughters send firewood to their mothers and grandmothers. The exchange of gifts, in his words, normally reinforces the deep familial ties and respect for traditions that have been passed down through generations.
"In Izhi land, as in many Igbo communities, yam is not merely a crop; but the king of all crops, a divine gift from God. It's no surprise, then, the ancient Izhi Nnodo people were strictly forbidden to plant yam and cassava in the same mound, a practice that had faded over time due to the increasing pressure on land for homes, schools and churches," he said.
Nwizi noted that the reverence of yam endures today because it has become a cultural imperative that every male child at the age of fifteen (15) years must cultivate his yam farm. He observed that the tradition does not only sustain the economy of many households but also empowers families to educate their children sometimes even to the university level.
He said: "The respect for yam is so profound that dictates many taboos within the community. In the accident times, no one was allowed to put a yam in a sack, tie it with a rope or wash it in the stream. Sweeping a yam barn with a broom was strictly forbidden, for it was believed that doing so would bring poor harvest in the years to come," according to Izhi people's belief.
Nwizi recalled that in the past, man's wealth in Izhi land was often measured by the size of his yam barn, proudly displayed in a prominent place to catch the eyes of the visitors. He noted that amidst the merriment of the 2024 Ojiji Izhi, the festival remains a time for deep spiritual reflection, prayers, and thanksgiving. He described the Ojiji festival as an opportunity for the Izhi Nnodo Ekumaenyi clan to express their gratitude for a bountiful harvest and seek the signs for the year ahead, strengthening the bonds of friendship, love, peace and unity among the people and their neighbours, providing a foundation for rediscovery of their lost values and glory.
Recall that a Lecturer at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia in Abia State, Dr Ikenna Ukpabi Unya, has observed that the new yam festival is linked to the agricultural calendar, philosophy and economic structure. Dr Unya who made this known during the 2024 Ikeji Ehugbo (Afikpo) Festival, said the feast involves a celebration of existence and paying homage to the ancestors.
"The festival is a period of reverence and open show of gratitude to God for his protection and kindness in leading the Igbo from lean periods to the time of bountiful harvest without deaths resulting from hunger. To be sure, among the Igbo, the new yam festival is symbolic of enjoyment. During this period, sharing of food, especially yam is an important aspect of the feast. It was this concept of gifting and plentifulness associated with the new yam celebrations that motivated Chinua Achebe to declare in his work Things Fall Apart that "the pounded yam dish placed in front of the partakers of the festival was as a mountain. People had to eat their way through it all night, and it was only during the following day, when the pounded yam had gone down, that people on one side recognized and greeted their family members on the other side of the dish for the first time," he disclosed.
Unya, who teaches History and Politics in the School of General Studies, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, also described yam as the king of all crops, saying it is the only crop ritualized by having a deity (Njoku Ji) dedicated to it. He further explained that the new yam festival is a celebration in honour of the prominent role yam plays in the socio-cultural life of the Igbo people because yam remains superior to all other crops and its feast, means the flag off for the harvest of all crops symbolizing the conclusion of harvest season and the beginning of the next work cycle for farming."
Tracing the origin and development of yam, the University Don quoted Thurstan Shaw, who believes that the history of yam crops in Igboland dates back over 5,000 years. He said various studies about the origin of yam in Igboland exist in many communities. According to him, the oral evidence about the origin of yam was grouped into two, namely; those claiming that the crop is as old as human existence in Igboland - that God presented the yam as the first food to Igboman while the second hypothesis claims that yam consumption in the area though of relative antiquity was as a result of experimentation or accident.
He gave the example of the Nri community people in Anambra State, saying their myth on the origin of yam states that there was a time when a severe famine struck; Eze Eri (King of Nri) considered what should be done to remedy the situation. Unya said the king asked God (Chukwu) to kill his son and daughter but later took a drastic course of killing his eldest son and daughter, cutting their bodies into pieces and burying them.
Strangely, in his words, yam and cocoa yam were observed to be growing at the very places where the dismembered parts of the bodies of the king's son and daughter were buried. In the same mythology, he said, another version avers that Eri killed male and female slaves and buried them in separate graves, where yam and cocoa yam began to emerge.
The Lecturer revealed that some traditions buttress the notion that yam cultivation, just like the other crops in Igboland, may have resulted from the people's experimentation with the different plants in the area to identify the edible ones.
"Among the Ehugbo group of communities, their myth on the origin of yam is of two folds - one claiming the God factor while another supports continuous experimentation. According to the God factor mythology, the acclaimed founder of Ehugbo, Igboukwu, had a younger sister called Nne-Oriete-Imomo who disliked the taste of wild yam (bitter species that were common then). So, Nne-Oriete-Imomo communed with Obasin'elu (God) and she was instructed to clear a portion of arable land. To have her wish of good yams, she was asked to offer a male child born of one of her brother's seven daughters. She summoned her seven daughters-in-law (as they are known in Afikpo tradition) and narrated the revelation. One of them, Aliochalmaga-Orie, offered her son. After the sacrifices, four or five months later, good and edible yams sprang out from where the boy was buried, and God warned that she must at all times accord great respect to the yam.
"Similarly, Ndi-Ehugbo people also traced the origin of yam to Enohia Nkalu, a community Ottenberg described as one of the earliest inhabitants in Afikpo. According to the oral tradition, yam was first cultivated, eaten and domesticated by the Nkalu people. To date, the community is celebrating new yam festivals. Unlike other communities in Igboland, where the kings or the oldest men moderate the celebration of the new yam feast, in Afikpo, the date and celebration must be announced by the elders of the community. Again, the yam deity priest called Eleri also plays a prominent role. For instance, no village in Ehugbo celebrates the festival or eats the new yam until the priest performs the rituals associated with the celebration with an indigenous species of yam called Akiri.
"Describing the processes involved in the Ikeji celebration in Ehugbo, Professor Uro-Chukwu submits that 'the preparation for Ikeji in Ehugbo starts in July of every year when a dance (Egwu Imo) is performed seven to eight market weeks (Izuessa) to the Ikeji festival. In this preparation, the maidens from Enohia-Nkalu will pass a night at Ohia-Eketa forest just a day before the dance. Within the Izuessa, a delegation of elders' council (Horri and Essa) will pay a visit to Enohia-Nkalu elders for a possible date, following which a large council of elders meets in a solemn conference "Ngidi-Ngidi" to deliberate on the possible date for the Ikeji festival. The Egwu Imo dance is performed for the yam Chief priest, Eler, I, who then carries out a major spiritual assignment, the breaking of cola nut, Eleri-Iwa Oji, signifying permission for farmers to harvest their new yam. As the yam is harvested and brought home, it is heralded by traditional folk songs such as "jiaayiawafuwoakirikpokpo."
Unya, unveiling the contemporary modification of the new yam feast, said the celebration depicts the Igbo people as a religious people, for all the people who annually acknowledge their duty to return gratitude to Chukwu, their God, for providing them with such a gratuitous gift of yam. He disclosed that presently, the new yam festival in Ehugbo is not only relevant in this contemporary age, but it has gone through a series of changes as a result of Western education, Christianity, economic changes and an increase in population; in the process, purging itself of those rituals and fetish practices that were associated with it. He said the modifications that occurred triggered ramifications everywhere in the conduct of new yam festivals in Ehugbo because the Ehugbo sons and daughters in the diaspora and other major cities in Nigeria celebrate the festival without the traditional rituals associated with the new yam feast.
He maintained that celebration of the new yam festival exists in almost all Igbo communities in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa region, because the the yam originated in Igboland, and its ceremony provides a heritage of dances, feasting, renewal of kingship alliances, as well as mark the end of one agricultural season with a harvest to express gratitude and thanksgiving to the society, gods, friends and relations.
He asserted that in the present dispensation, the Ehugbo people and other Igbo communities scattered in different cities in Nigeria gather together every August to celebrate the new yam festival as a unique heritage of the Igbo to the world.
In the course of the celebration, according to Unya, the Igbo federal civil servants and businessmen usually use the time of the new yam festival to invite federal government Ministers and permanent secretaries to draw attention to areas of neglect and interventions, while the Igbo in diaspora uses the opportunity of the new yam festival celebration to raise funds for project execution and scholarship award to the Igbo people in the villages. The lecturer said, one unique aspect of the celebration today remains that the festival is held without the traditional rituals associated with the new yam festivals of old.
Unfortunately, most Igbo farmers buy imported yams to celebrate new yam festivals today. Unlike in the olden days when each farmer harvested new yams directly from his farm to mark the new yam festivity in Igboland. This calls for aggressive mechanized agricultural practices and soil revitalization to encourage massive yam farming and bountiful harvests for the sustainability of the rich cultural heritage and community development in Igboland. Introducing the Yam Innovation Centers will be of great benefit to farmers in Igbo communities and villages. This will not only fight hunger but largely contribute to the improvement of the national economy.
