Expdonaloaded News; Nnewi New Yam festival: Things fall apar

In Nnewi, the Afia Olu (new yam) festival is the cultural binding factor of the four quarters of Otolo, Uruagu, Umudim and Nnewichi that make up the industrial town in Anambra State. But now, things have fallen apart, and the centre can longer hold about the festival. And the Nnewi people are accusing the former governor, Mr. Peter Obi of being responsible for the abandonment of the all-Nnewi Afia Olu festival.
According to a prominent Nnewi son, Chief Ben V.C. Aghazu, Kpapkando Nnewi, the celebration of Afia Olu festival in its former format was an all-Nnewi affair, which was conceived by Nnewi cultural group, Enugu.
The group, he said, made up of enthusiastic young Nnewi men resident in Enugu was dedicated to promoting the Nnewi culture.
To advance their purpose, they held several cultural events in Enugu, including the new yam festival, learnt and performed traditional dances and masquerades. With time, the leadership of the cultural group conceived the idea of an all-Nnewi Afia Olu festival. A committee was set up which paid a visit to Igwe Kenneth O. N. Orizu III and shared with him the vision of a new festival that would showcase Nnewi cultural heritage and help strengthen the ties amongst the Nnewi people.
The all-Nnewi Afia Olu festival usually hold at Nkwo Nnewi Triangle which is central to all the quarters that make up Nnewi, he said, went on very well for many years and received wider acceptance as a world class cultural festival to mark the end of every successful farming season in Nnewi. And Nzuko Ora Nnewi (Nnewi Town Union) played significant roles to ensure a successful Afia Olu annually as the unity of purpose of the town lasted.
But this togetherness, he said, was rather scuttled towards the end of the eight-year tenure of Governor Obi who brought in the idea of a multi-million-naira shopping mall for the business community, right now under construction at the Nkwo Nnewi Triangle.
As the Nkwo Nnewi Triangle, the rallying point for all the Nnewi people, is no longer available for the general Afia Olu celebration this 2015, the Obis of the four quarters individually decided to celebrate in their domains with their subjects, friends and well wishers, and yet determined to make the event in their domains as colourful as they could though not without grudges.
While celebrating the Afia Olu festival in his domain, Obi George Onyekaba (Obidiugwu), Obi Nnewichi, did not hide his feelings over the issue that has torn Nnewi apart.
“What makes this year’s Afia Olu different is that we are celebrating at our individual Obis in Nnewi. We are doing this to show our grievances over the Nkwo Nnewi Triangle issue. Sometime ago, we were made to understand that the Anambra State government under former Governor Peter Obi had taken over the Nkwo Nnewi Triangle for a project we were not consulted for and this has divided Nnewi people. The manner and way it was done is unacceptable to us. It is unconstitutional and does not follow the pattern it is supposed to follow. We were not consulted and that is why we are protesting, showing our grievances in this year’s celebration of Afia Olu. We will continue to celebrate at our individual Obis until government restores our land to us,” he said.
The 2015 Afia Olu festival in Nnewichi, however, was quite glamorous by every standard despite all odds. By 10:00a.m on the day of the event, August 26 elders had started trickling to the palace of Obi of Nnewichi as custom demands. In the next one to two hours the canopies mounted within the palace had already been occupied. Traditional music was played intermittently to the dancing pleasure of groups of masquerades that came to the arena to pay homage to the Obi as the ceremony progressed.
The preliminary things including breaking of the kola nuts were earlier done and thereafter there was a speech from the throne when the Obi Nnewichi addressed his people. “As we happily gathered here,” Obi Onyekaba said, after clearing his throat, “to declare this year’s Afia Olu in my Obi open, we thank God that we are alive to participate in celebrating the successful end of this year’s farming season and are expecting a bumper harvest, based on this year’s farmer-friendly weather conditions.”The Obi encouraged his people to always endeavour to plant yam seedlings and other crops during the farming season so as to reap when others were reaping.
He later performed the traditional yam-cutting (Iwa Ji) as he cut fresh yam placed on a table and a roasted one, assisted by specifically his red cap chiefs as directed by the Master of Ceremony. The Obi first ate the roasted yam with raw palm oil source which was passed round to first the elders and later youths, women and children.
Indigenous masquerades and those from other neighbourhoods took turns to entertain. Some of them rendered their music in the esoteric language of the unseen spirit (mmuo).