Prof Demian Opata, Emeritus Professor of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) has urged Ndigbo to use New Yam Festival (Iwa ji) to promote yam cultivation in Igboland.
Opata made the call in Nsukka on Saturday in a keynote presentation with the theme “The Event, The Celebration and The Futures,” during the 2024 New Yam Festival organized by the Anambra People’s Assembly (APA) in UNN.
He said that it is disheartening that many Igbos do not value or give attention to celebration of yearly new yam festival which according to him is a veritable tool to promote and encourage yam cultivation.
“Every community in Igbo land should use the period of their new yam festival celebration to promote yam cultivation as well as teach the young ones the rituals and process involved in celebrating new yam.
“It is expected that every Igbo man should use the yam harvested from his farm to perform the new yam ritual.
“Regrettably, what most people are doing these days is celebrating the new yam without knowing or observing the ritual process involved in it.
“It is abnormal that most men are using the yam they bought from the market to perform the new yam rituals, Igbo tradition demands that a man should use the yam harvested from his farm to celebrate new yam,” he said.
He appealed to traditional rulers and other traditional institutions in Igboland to use the New Yam Festival of every community to educate the younger generation that yam holds significant cultural, economic, and social importance for the Igbo people and the need for everyone to cultivate it.
Opata commended the APA for promoting the Igbo-rich cultural heritage of new yam festival, as well as finding him worthy to be their keynote speaker.
In a remark, Prof. Florence Orabueze, the Founding President of APA, who spoke on the “Spiritual Significance of the New Yam Festival in Igbo Land,” noted that new yam festival holds profound spiritual, cultural, and religious significance for the Igbo people.
She listed some original insights into the festivals spiritual implications to the Igbo in the past to include; Connection to the Earth Goddess, Purification and Cleansing, Ancestor Veneration, Divination and Prophecy, Prayers and Offerings, among others.
Orabueze who is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English and Literary Studies UNN noted that in the past, New Yam Festival was a time for census taking of all the adults male members of the community.
” The gods were praised and worshiped when there was an increment in the population of the community, they were also appealed for intervention when there was a decrease in the population.
“During the new yam festival period, Igbo priests and diviners use various methods to communicate with the spirits and gain insight into the future, as well as community honouring their ancestors through offerings, prayers, and other rituals.
“Today, almost all of us here are Christians, and as we celebrate this year’s new yam festival, we should reaffirm to the Almighty God the values of egalitarianism, honesty, love, justice, selflessness, and compassion for others and our society in order to create and build a new peaceful world order,” Orabueze said.
Speaking further, Orabueze said that APA is made of Anambra indigenes from the thirteen local government areas that constituted the former Onitsha Area Provincial Council in Anambra State living and working in UNN.
She urged members of the assembly to always remember the motto of Anambra state (The Light of the Nation) where they came from, adding that they should not allow the light in them to go out.
“Our daily actions and interactions should be guided by the principle of equity, fairness, and communalism in the proverb of ‘leave and let’s leave.’ Orabueze said.
Earlier in a remark, Prof. C.C. Mbajiorgu, Department of Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering in UNN who Chaired the occasion, commended APA for organizing the celebration of new yam festival every year which he said was a way of promoting Igbo rich cultural heritage and urged other associations to emulate APA good example.
The occasion had HRH Igwe George Asadu, the Traditional Ruler of Ihe Community in Nsukka LGA as the Royal Father of the day among other dignitaries in attendance.
Highlights of the occasion were cutting and eating of roasted yam
