History was made at Nimo, Anambra State on Saturday, 27th of August 2022. It was the day, the community rolled out drums and danced in styles to celebrate the 2022 Nimo New Yam Festival.
Although New Yam festival is a yearly celebration across Igbo land, the pomp and grandeur of this year’s event in Nimo was particularly spectacular. The festival was significant because it came at a time when many people are beginning to worry that Igbo culture is gradually fading away.
The passion with which the people engaged in the ceremony, the sheer number of Nimo sons and daughters who returned home for the festival and the number of visitors who attended from neighboring communities and states are indicative that there is some sort wind of cultural renewal blowing across Igbo land. This certainly is heartwarming news for Igbo cultural enthusiasts who are calling for a return to the old good days of Igbo culture.
The event which was held at the palace of the Owelle of Nimo, HRH, Igwe Max Oliobi, started with a Holy Mass presided over by Rev Fr. Wilfred Ekwe. In his homily, Fr. Ekwe, described the New Yam Festival as a time Nimo set aside to celebrate the innumerable blessings God has bestowed on the sons and daughters of the community. Citing the high places and positions Nimo indigenes occupy both globally and locally, the officiating priest invited the people to show some appreciations to God for his benevolence.
The New Yam Festival was also a time for self-examinations, especially pertaining to the use of individual talents. Drawing lessons from the reading of the day, on the Parable of Talents, Fr. Ekwe urged Nimo indigenes to ask themselves how they have used their God given talents to contribute to the development of the community.
Linking the festival to St. Monica whose Feast day was celebrated on 27th August, the priest called on parents to emulate the example of the St. by laying a strong moral foundation for their children. They should avoid encouraging and abetting examination malpractices and other vices that pollute and destroy children. In his prayers of blessing over the New Yam, Fr. Ekwe asked for God’s special unction and protection over the community. He particularly prayed God to grant Nimo peace and prosperity as they partake in the common meal of the New Yam Festival.
The welcoming of dignitaries, colourful procession of the Owelle and Ndi Ichie Nimo, breaking of kola nut, an address by the Owelle and cutting of the New Yam, followed the Holy Mass.
In his address, the Owelle thanked the sons and daughters of the community for making the 2022 New Yam Festival one of its kind. He revealed that the most important need of the community was development and urged all Nimo sons and daughters to key into the developmental policy of his kingship. “Let every son and daughter of Nimo spread the news; let us think of how to promote the good of our community; let those who have support the community’s efforts to assist those who don’t have. My address to Nimo is let us work collectively for the common good of our people.”
The Owelle in a special way thanked those that have giving scholarship to indigent students in the community. He encouraged others who have not to come on board while emphasizing that giving scholarship should not be seen only as sending people to school. Youths should also be sent to places like Innoson Workshop to learn Mechanic and acquire other skills that would make them employable and useful to the community. The community also needs factories to generate employment for the teaming population of unemployed Nimo youths. “One doesn’t necessarily need to go to Onitsha to get employed. Let the sons and daughters of Nimo come home to develop our community. Nimo has people. Let us use what we have to help our people.”
Introducing the cutting of the New Yam, the Onowo of Nimo, Rtd. Justice, G. Ononiba revealed that Yam has a lot of significances in Igbo tradition. Firstly, Yam is the symbol of life because as the king of crops it represented every means of sustenance and nourishing available to Igbo people. Therefore, the festival of New Yam was the festival of life since we cannot talk of life without talking about the means of sustaining it. Secondly, Yam was a symbol of wealth. This was why to have many barns of Yam in traditional Igbo society was a sign that one was very rich. Thirdly, Yam was a symbol of blessing from God. To have a rich harvest of Yam was a sign that God was happy with the community and has bountifully blessed it. It was the combination of this reasons that explained why an average Igbo man would not just start eating news yam without the prerequisite rituals. In the olden days, nobody in Nimo ate new yam until these rituals were performed in honour to God for his benevolence to the community.
Some dignitaries who spoke to ANN on the sidelines of the festival expressed their gratitude to God for the success of this year’s event. Sir Dr. Pete Ibida, the Member representing Njikoka 2 in Anambra State House of Assembly and the APGA flag-bearer for Dunukofia, Njikoka and Aniocha (DNA) Federal Constituency for the 2023 general election, while thanking God for the gift of yam, described New Yam Festival as a period of celebrating God’s blessings “because there is time for planting and time to harvesting.” According to him, the celebration has a lot of significances. Firstly, it was a thanksgiving to God for the gift of fertile soil upon which the Yam and other food crops were grown. It was also an appreciation to God for a bountiful harvest and a celebration of his gifts of life and good health, which the bountiful harvest was meant to nourish. Finally, it was the supplication of the community to God to continue to bless them with the gifts of fertile soil, plentiful harvest and the good health to enjoy the harvests. In essence, the New Yam Festival was an expression of the Igbo man’s total dependence on the benevolence of God for his existence and sustenance. That was why the Owelle, the official repository and custodian of Nimo tradition was the one imbued with the necessary faculties to ritually certify the New Yam for consumption.
Also, in a brief chat with ANN, the PG of Nimo, Agbalanze Ekene Okafor described the festival as a time of commemoration and expectation. Commemoration because the festival remembered in a special way, God’s blessing of bountiful harvest on the community and expectation because the people used the period to plan for the progress of the community entrusting such plan to God for his blessings and sanctification.
Chief Chuks Ide, Omerora 1 of Nimo who flew in from Japan the previous day to join the celebration told ANN that the New Yam Festival was for Nimo people what the Feast of Harvest was for the Jews. It was therefore not just a celebration of bountiful harvest but of all legitimate endeavors, that forms the sources of living of Nimo indigenes. It was also a symbol of peace and brotherhood because after the cutting of the New Yam by the Owelle, every Nimo man, wherever he was can go ahead to eat new yam with his family. It was as well a period when individuals, families and Nimo as a community sat down to deliberate and discuss ways of moving the community forward. This deliberation was important because Nimo has personalities and as one of the most progressive communities in Anambra State, it has what was required to build a prosperous community. Chief Omerora specifically thanked the Owelle and his Council for their tireless efforts to keep the community safe and progressive without which many like himself wouldn’t be able fly in from overseas for the New Yam Festival.
By and large, no matter how one chooses to look at it, August 27, 2022 was a leap year day in Nimo, and it wouldn’t be out of place to say that the culourful and well-attended New Yam Festival, is a message of hope to all Igbo cultural enthusiasts and revivalists who are not only longing but also praying day and night for the rebirth of Igbo culture.
