A Reflection On The Ngboejeogu Revered New Yam Festival: Itsukwe

Ngboejeogu, since the idyllic settlement in their present abode, is widely known as a unique nation with much value for its culture and traditions. Despite western cultural imperialism, which suppressed some cultural practices adjudged to be obsolete, Ngboejeogu New Year/Yam Festival, otherwise known as “Itsukwe”, remains an outstanding and resilient celebration, resisting external influences, and is celebrated with vigour in the Ngbo Nation.

This is perhaps a result of the great importance attached to yam, the chief superintendent of crops in Ngboejeogu, and the beginning of a new calendar year in Ngbo. It was celebrated across the board uniquely before, but presently, the wave is drastically low due to some Christian believers who view the feast as inconsistent with their faith. The date for the Itsukwe feast, which was formerly called JI-OHA, has been fixed by Ndu Anmegu in Emezaka Ngbo, Autonomous Community, who are traditionally vested with the power to make announcements and fix a date for feasts in Ngbo. 

However, New Yam/ New Year is celebrated in almost all Igbo Lands, though in different patterns, months, and seasons. While the people of Ezekuna call it Oke-aku, the Izhi clan, which a school of thought believes to be our progenitor, call it Ojiji, but in Ngbo, it is called Itsukwe. The word, Itsukwe, is derived from two words with literary meanings: “Itsu”, meaning to pound, while “Ikwe” means Morta.

The Itukwe festival is celebrated annually in the ninth month of the Ngbo calendar, which usually falls between July and August on the fourth Ekoshi market day of the month, depending on the calendar year. Significantly, it’s celebrated to mark the end of food scarcity and to announce the beginning of food abundance in Ngbo. The festival is usually a historic event in the annals of the Ngboejeogu Nation because of the glamour and fun associated with it. The Itsukwe festival is heralded by the appearance of a momentous moon, which is called “Onwa Itsukwe”. Whenever the moon is sighted, children give it an ovation which signals a step to the beginning of a new era. As a celebration of a populous Nation known for its outstanding farming skills, especially in yam crops, the Itsukwe festival enthrones a healthy competition among men, on who would produce the best new yam tuber for the year, both in size and quantity. In Ngbo, there are three types of yams with different varieties: White yam, Yellow yam (Ogomodu), and water yam (Mbala). Among the white yams, Obela and Opoke are the best for making pounded yams (Utara Ji). 

Accordingly, the Itsukwe New Yam Festival is accompanied by a strict protocol of lined-up activities and preparations to make it attractive and memorable. Those lined-up activities marking the feast usually commence with the traditional driving away of illnesses in Ngbo. (ichi oria). On Okwo Market Day, people are expected to buy items that will be used for the celebration. On the preceding day, Azu-okwo market day, two days before the festival, is designated as a thorough clean-up exercise in all compounds and paths leading to multifarious villages. At the same time, women scrub their houses with cow dung (Nshi efwi). Children, on their part, gather in their numbers to bang the elephant grass called “Ekperima”, which has been smoked on firewood or dried palm frond. All these are geared towards welcoming the new yam, the chief crop of Ngbo land. Unugwe market day, a day before the feast is designated as “Nfioji Day.” On this day, both Bachelors and married men who are yet to wed officially (igba ngu) harvest their new yams for the feast. On the night of Unugwe, Children usually keep a night vigil with the use of Ekperima (Elephant grass), whose sound is akin to the gun, accompanied by exciting songs that make the banging of ekperima interesting, among other activities marking the feast. The climax of the Itsukwe festival, therefore, is held in grand style on Ekoshi market day following a declaration by the elders of Okposhi Nkwolu, who are saddled with the responsibility of performing a ritual called “Sacrificial eating of yam and pounding of empty mortar”. Indeed, the Ituskwe festival is momentous in the life of an average Ngbo man irrespective of sociopolitical and religious background. Ngbo people attach more value to yam, and that is why yam peels are not poured into the compound, nor a broom used to pack it. As culture demands, anyone who steps on a yam in Ngbo must embrace the yam immediately to appease it.

It is noteworthy that yams are not harvested in Ngboejeogu before the Itsukwe festival. Such an early harvest, if found, is viewed as a breach of tradition, and the person involved is regarded as a poor man. The amount of yams one has in the farm or barn determines how industrious one is. At this period of festivity, people would invite their in-laws, friends, and well-wishers to celebrate the feast with them. The festival offers women the golden opportunity to encourage and give praise to their husbands for their industriousness in the season. Furthermore, it should be well noted that yams are not sold in any market across the ten autonomous communities in Ngboejeogu (Akpa Ngbo Iyri) until the Pronouncement and ceremonial sales of yam in the market have been done and performed at Obodo Anmaubwi by the Okposhi Eshi Community.

The significance of the Itukwe New Yam Festival in Ngbo land cannot be overemphasised: Among others, it is a period where all the kindreds settle their differences and embrace one another to propel development and engender peaceful coexistence and harmonious relationships. Kindred units also use the period to determine their population and allow all the men to choose where to plant yams in the next farming season. The festival promotes unity and peaceful coexistence among 10 the ten autonomous communities that make up the Ngbo Nation. It is a period for the exchange of gift items with friends, relatives, and well-wishers. More so, the Itsukwe festival encourages a sense of cooperation among children as they go in unison to gather Ekperima in the bush, bang it together with folk songs, and sojourn for Itsukwe Night coral (Nmbia Ahuu) without altercation. It is pertinent to note that the festival discourages social vices like cultism, stealing, infidelity, unwanted pregnancy, indolence, rape, witchcraft, use of masquerades to molest people, among others.

Remarkably, Itsukwe is a period where those who did the second funeral ceremony of their parents slaughtered a ram to the Chukwoke gods ( Barn gods) to give their loved one a full-fledged burial rite in line with Ngbo tradition. It’s not basically for gastronomy. However, delicacies like: Pounded yam, meat, melon soup (Ohve Ahu), Palm wine, and porridge yam are being enjoyed by friends, in-laws, and well-wishers during the feast.

As the 2025 Itsukwe New Yam Festival is celebrated today, the 18th of July 2025 being Ekoshi market day in Ngboejeogu, it calls for sober reflection on how far we have adhered strictly to our ethics, values, and promoted and preserved our valuable cultural practices amid cultural imperialism.

As we convive amid gusto in appreciation of God, we chant the cantata of abundance; Ngboejeogu: Efo Tsa mputu le nyri abia oo!