PAUL NWOSU
The first thing a visitor notices on entering Omor is rice in every form — the lush green, seemingly endless farm fields; the threshed grains spread out on local mats along the roadsides; the dried ones already bagged and ready for the mills; and the hum of large and small-scale rice mills working at full capacity. One might be tempted to assume that rice would be the premium crop celebrated at harvest time, and not yam.
But His Royal Highness, Igwe Chris Oranu Chidume, Eze Igulube of Omor, says otherwise. “We’re known for planting yams. Yam is the king of crops,” the Igwe declares.
According to him, yam holds spiritual and cultural significance in Omor. It is the crop used to purify the land and to pray to the ancestors on important occasions – something rice cannot replace.
Rice, he explained, only rose to prominence in Omor in 1983, when President Shehu Shagari’s government created the Anambra/Imo River Basin Development Authority, from which the Lower Anambra Irrigation Project was derived. This initiative spurred mechanized rice farming, leading to a rice boom. With irrigation and mechanization, Omor farmers could now plant rice up to three times a year, making it highly lucrative and putting more money in their pockets.
Yet, this did not diminish yam’s importance. “As the king of crops, yam remains deeply significant in our traditional life,” the Igwe emphasized.
To highlight this, Igwe Chidume explained that before anyone in the community can eat new yam, a series of sacred processes must first take place, culminating in the Iwa Ji (new yam festival). The sequence begins with “Igu Aro”, then “nmuo na mmadu ga ejioku”, and “nmuo na mmadu ga edo”, before climaxing with the Iwa Ji. Only after this formal celebration can everyone in the community eat new yam.
The festival, he noted, also serves as a check against impatience in the households. In the lean season, when newly planted crops are still maturing, women often rely on “igwe nri” (grinding corn and other grains” to feed their families. This backbreaking task continues until the “Iwa Ji” is performed, after which the women can finally give their hands a reprieve (itufu aka) as yams enter their kitchens in abundance.
This year, the Iwa Ji festival of Omor will take place on Saturday, August 23rd.
And we are all invited.
*Sir Paul Nwosu PhD writes from Awka, Anambra State.