By Uzo Ugwunze
Akwuukwu Community in Idemili South LGA, Anambra State has called on both Federal and State Governments to assist the Youths with tractors for mechanized farming to enable large scale cultivation of Yam and other farm produce.
The community also requested for the construction and tarring of some intra community roads that lead to the farmlands and Akwuukwu villages saying that the community is known for raffia palm tapping, fish farming and crop farming as their major source of income.
The request was made by the President General (PG), Akwuukwu Improvement Union (AIU), Sir Udoka Ejiakor during the 2024 Akwuukwu ‘Alo muo’ or New yam festival saying that as a panacea to hunger and an alternative to the elusive white collar jobs government should make farming attractive to youths by assisting them with tractors and other modern farm implements.
Addressing newsmen during the festival the PG who thanked Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State for appointing one of Akwuukwu’s illustrious sons as a Honourable Commissioner said that apart from the major Onitsha -Owerri Federal Expressway that passed through the community no other road which leads into the other parts of the villages within the town was tarred by any government.
Cutting the New Yam, Ejiakor said that the festival was inherited from their forefathers adding that it is an age long cultural heritage that will never go into extinction.
“During this period of newyam festival there is no feuding among the people.We prepare ourselves for this period to be in good terms with our brothers and ensure there is no enenmty or grudges”.
“Yam is the king of all crops and it is worshipped like a deity. After the newyam, we embark on next planting season. Tradition is dynamic and as such can not go into extinction. After my cutting the newyam the eldest man in the community will follow suit by doing same before the entire community,” Ejiakor said.
He advised those who believe that new yam festival was fetish to change their minds adding that there is no way they will condemn yam which they would eventually eat. “It is a mystery to plant a small yam seedling and harvest big tubers, it is just a festival in appreciation to God”.
Earlier in his remarks, Anambra State Commissioner for Entertainment, Culture and Tourism, Hon Don Onyenji reiterated that newyam festival is one of the rich cultural heritages of the Igbo race.
“It is our culture,a time to thank God for the abundant harvest and pray for guidance and protection during the next farming season hoping for a bumper harvest.
During this period also it calls for blessing from God on us and the land. The new yam festival is being observed mostly from August,September and October after which we plant for next season.
“In some communities it is called Ufejioku, and so on.So it is not fetish and whoever that says it is fetish may not even know the name of his father.. Such a person needs his head to be examined,”Onyenji quipped..
On farming he stressed the need for all especially the youths to go into farming adding that it is a lucrative business and major means of fighting hunger in the land. “We have yam barns and in those days the rich was measured by the number of yam barns he has”.
He advised all to emulate Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s action by going into agriculture stating that the governor has given out incentives to the people to assist them embark on farming even if it is on small scale to feed one’s self if the individual cannot go commercial.
He commended the President General of his community, Chief Udoka Ejiako who presided over the newyam festival on behalf of the community in the absence of a monarch.
Also, a youth leader in the community, Chief Peter O. Anamchukwu, said that newyam festival is inherited from their forefathers and can’t go into extinction.
“We inherited it from our forefathers and it is not fetish as believed in some quarters. It is a cultural festival practiced by the Igbo race, he explained.
Highlights of the New yam festival include cultural dances, masquerade display, demonstration of raffia palm tapping by Kwulunaukwui and Isimmiri Akwuukwu who were known to become outstanding and well to do in the community through Yam cultivation and raffia palm tapping.