Is It Right for Igbos to Celebrate New Yam Festival with Imported Yams?

Written by Nze Tobe Osigwe

Is It Right for Igbos to Celebrate New Yam Festival with Imported Yams? Let’s Discuss.

I have been asked to weigh in on the essence of Ndi Igbo celebrating new yam festivals when we the Igbos hardly cultivate yams nowadays.

The rationale of Igbos celebrating New Yam festival with yams from the North has been condemned by many well meaning Igbo cultural enthusiasts. Indeed, there is a whole of lot merit in their argument, however, i will beg to play the devil’s advocate in order for us to have a richer perspective to the discuss.

Yam barn

Afiaolu Nnewi starts today. Afiaolu is a traditional festival that celebrates farm work. The festival has its root in days all Nnewi people were largely farmers and worshippers of Igbo Gods.

Today, many Ndi Nnewi are largely business men, modern day professionals and also Christians. In fact, Igwe Nnewi prides himself as Igwe na eje uka.

Yet, Nnewi people, despite the majority of them not being farmers and traditional worshippers, are still celebrating this traditional festival.

Should we then stop Afiaolu Nnewi because majority of Ndi Nnewi are now Christians? Should we stop Afiaolu Nnewi because majority of Ndi Nnewi are no longer farmers?

Should we stop an aspect of our cultural heritage that have managed to survive modernity because we no longer plant yams and coco yams as it was done in the past?

My point is, while we must condemn our peoples disdain and indifference towards large scale agriculture, we should be careful not to condemn few ancient traditional festivals we still have all because an aspect of it is not done how it was done the past.

We must not forget that this new fervent rush for our people to celebrate new yam festival was not there 10 to 15 years ago. Iri ji ofu festivals was almost losing its allure till this recent renewed interest.

One of the resultant effects of this renewed rush to celebrate Iri ji ofu, especially at individual level is that, in coming years, many Igbos, especially those living in the East, will want to do it properly by using yams they personally cultivated.

For example, it was when I started celebrating my own new yam festival that I saw the need to cultivate yams every year no matter how little.

I equally know a lot of people that this new love to celebrate new yam festival has forced their hands into planting yams so that they will use at least one yam from their farm for their iri ji ofu celebration.

In fact, one of these people whose name is worthy of mention is Mr. Oliefi Ejiofo. Yesterday morning, he brought four tubers from his farm to me. He insisted that it is these yams from his farm that will be used in thanking our ancestors and the Gods of our land in this year’s Afiaolu Nnewi.

Moving on, while we encourage our people to go into agriculture, we must admit that, with the reality of today’s world, it’s not every Onye Igbo that will be yam farmers like our ancestors who were all farmers.

We must admit that there are many Igbos who do not have land to cultivate. The reality of our modern existence has made land a scarce commodity out of the reach of many.

In the past, so much premium was not placed on land in Ala Igbo land like we do today.

So, there are a lot of genuine reasons why some of our people may resort to buying yams from market to celebrate Iri ji ofu. This reason ranges from unavailability of land to farm, being far from home, being preoccupied with modern means of livelihood, lack of knowledge of farm work etc.

One may then ask, why should one, let’s say a lawyer, bother to celebrate new yam festival when the said person did not plant yam or is not a farmer?

Well, new yam festival is part of our heritage as Ndi Igbo. A lawyer is no longer Onye Igbo because he did not plant yams. A lawyer who did not plant yams but dedicated a great amount of time winning cases may have planted yams without planting yam literally.

From this perspective, new yam festival is a metaphor and also a perfect opportunity for every Onye Igbo to celebrate resilience, hardwork and return on investment.

You really do not have to continue farming yam as our ancestors did to celebrate the values or ideas behind new yam celebration. If you, however, can succeed in planting yams it becomes all the more beautiful.

So, i believe we can encourage our people who have the talent and knowledge of agriculture to embrace large scale farming without falling into the temptation of condemning new yam festival celebration. A festivity which on its own is our own version of Christmas or Eid celebration.

To this end I plead, Iri ji is Igbo trado-spiritual activity. It reminds us of who we are as Ndi Igbo. We should therefore be careful we do not throw away the baby with the bath water by being overly fixated on the parameters of its celebration.

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