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Iwu Festival of Ibusa, Ubulu-Uku
Iwu Festival is one of the numerous
annual festivals celebrated within the Anioma region. Some of the other
festivals are Ogbanigbe, Ine, Igue, Ife Ji Oku, Iwaji, Irua Nmor and Olia Oma.
Iwu Festival is particularly celebrated by Ibusa, Ubulu-Uku, Ubulu-Unor, Ewulu,
Ogwashi-Uku, Illah and a few more Anioma communities. However, the discussion
here will be based on its celebration in Ibusa and Ubulu-Uku, two communities
with striking similarities and dissimilarities of the festival.
Like other known festivals in secular societies, Iwu is a communal festival with
carefully planned programme and high revelry. It lasts for some days and its
celebration mostly involves adult and youths who engage in it. It is generally
believed that as typical of other festivals, Iwu may have evolved based on
communal efforts to placate forces and allow fruitful existence of man. It is
also a festival associated with planting and harvest times. Though Historians
have not been able to link the origin of the festival to any historic happening,
it is believed like other major secular festivities that the festival may in
some ways be associated with a momentous occurrence before spreading to the
other parts of the region.
In Ibusa, the festival is celebrated
by Ogbeowele and Umuodafe
Quarters of the town. Ibusa tradition traces the origin of the festival to
certain Ibusa warriors who went to Ani-Nmor (Land of the spirits) and returned
with the idea of the festival. This according to the mythology explains the
dance step of the main characters during the festival. However, popular opinions
claim that the festival was imported to Ibusa by Diokpa
Oyana of Adigwe family from Umuga Clan of Umuwor in Ogbeowele. It was from
Ogbeowele that Umuodafe borrowed the festival and consequently began to
celebrate it. The Ogwa (shrine) where Iwu was first celebrated in the town can
still be seen standing at the entrance of Adigwe family compound. While
Ogbeowele celebrates the festival in November, Umuodafe celebrates it in
December. Celebration of the festival comes in stages and can be described
mainly as an outdoor festival.
The period of preparation for the celebration of Iwu in Ibusa is known as
“Isibe-Iwu” or “Isibe-Ife”. This is known as the period of silence. It
is a period that cries, quarrels, fighting, breaking of firewood and all sorts
of noise are forbidden within the vicinity of Iwu. The fine for breaking this
law may be kolanut, drinks or goat. This period lasts for four days and also
forbids performance of Okanga, the running dance and marriage within the Ogbe.
Mourners conducting Okanga dance are usually advised to follow alternative
routes to avoid disquieting the period. During this period funeral ceremonies
are also conducted which means that the dead may be quietly interred without any
form of ceremony. This period may be described as “traditional lent”.
The next stage is “Ihoda-Iwu” or “Ihoda-Ife. This marks the stage at which
Ohene (Chief Priest) of the ceremony declares an end to the 4-day period of
silence. It usually takes place in the morning of the fourth day which in turn
ushers feral euphoria among inhabitants. These inhabitants then take to the
streets in celebration of a new season of rewarding farming.
It is on this occasion that the people move from house to house congratulating
themselves. They may also congregate in groups to other villages to greet their
illustrious daughters (Umuada) married in these villages, greeting them “Na
ahor, na ahor ka anyi ga eji na gba Iwu, anyi ama gba na ahor yali ahor”
literarily meaning that “We shall celebrate Iwu Festival from year to year. We
shall never celebrate Iwu in a year and leave celebrating it in another year”.
Iwu comes with unique songs and dance-steps which are rarely sung on normal days
and celebrants appear in groups singing and dancing to tunes composed by them.
Major musical instruments are “Agogo” (small gong), Ekwe and Akpele (native
flute). Not only does Iwu go with these traditional musical instruments, it also
has a tune inimitable to it. Principal characters of the festival are Ohene
(Chief Priest), Eze-Iwu that are three in number and Enem. Ohene appears in
small plain white fabric called Akwa-Ocha covering his waist with a white
feather strapped to his head while the Eze-Iwus and Enem appear in red attire.
Ohene’s body is robbed with white native chalk called “Nzu” in local
parlance.
These characters are also known to be beautiful dancers that entertain the
crowd. Iwu Festival of Ibusa presents the opportunity to pay great indigenes
visits and applaud them for the wonderful deeds rendered to the town; this is
done with the symphony of songs. It is also the period to compose traditional
songs to ridicule the defaulters of the norms and traditions of the society no
matter their position in the society. In ancient times, Iwu was a social means
of exposing evils committed by natives and other inhabitants of the town
believed to be clandestine. Such evils were publicly chanted round the town as
celebrants move in groups. The last day of Iwu Festival is known as “Idune-Iwu”.
It is a day that the festival is rounded-off. Crowds gather and dance forming
“Ogbor”. These spectators circle the characters to enable them entertain
them with dance. Few hours later, at dusk, the characters are accompanied by the
crowd to a certain point where they (spectators) return allowing only the main
actors to journey down to Oboshi River where certain ceremonial acts are
performed for the community’s growth and prosperity. For the spectators the
point at which they turn back signifies the end of the festival.
Iwu of Ubulu-Uku resembles that of Ibusa in some ways yet differs in other ways.
The characters are the same except that the Obi of Ubulu-Uku also has some royal
roles to play before and after the festival. There exists Oshene (Ohene) who is
also the Chief Priest. There are three Eze-Iwus, one for the Obi, the other for
Nne-Ubulu and the last one for Ezemu. Oshene has one Eze-Iwu, Ezemu has one and
the Obi of the town also has one. Isibe-Iwu (Cooking of Iwu) starts on a Sunday,
brought down on Friday which for Ubulu-Uku is the period that nobody talks
signifying the period of silence earlier mentioned in the case of Ibusa.
When
brought down, a period also known as “Ihorda Iwu” celebration continues
ending on a Saturday. A major rite of the Ihorda Iwu is the Otito which the Obi
gives to the Eze-Iwus after the Iwu has been put down. Nne-Ubulu and Ezemu also
gives Otito to the Eze-Iwus. With these Otitos handed to them, the Eze-Iwus
embark on a journey to
As noted earlier, the climax of the festival is the journey to the sacred
Native chalks are also held sacred in the land and must never be ordinarily
rubbed on any part of the body particularly at the time of celebrating the
festival. Traditional wrestling also importantly features in Ubulu-Uku
celebration of Iwu. This is strange to what is witnessed in Ibusa. Challenges
are openly thrown to enemies for a friendly wrestling match to test their
strength. It takes only cowards to rebuff such attempts when such challenges are
thrown in the eyes of the public usually with a handful of sand thrown at the
enemy just as it requires the Lion’s heart to openly accept such challenges
before watching eyes. Significantly, a lot is expected from contestants.
These
traditional wrestling bouts take place at the eve of Iwu Festival. In ancient
times, quite a number of men acquired their wives through throwing their
opponents to the ground. The friendly traditional wrestling contest thus served
as a means of getting married. Iwu for Ubulu-Uku may also follow with a great
feast in which sumptuous meals are prepared for household members and visitors.
The festival may also require special kind of delicacies. This is also not known
in Ibusa.
The
purpose of Iwu festival wherever celebrated is for purification of the land. It
also serves as an appeasement and extension of gratitude to the gods for
abundant harvest reaped at the season. It is believed that once the festival has
held, evils committed in the town have been cleansed with a new beginning put in
place. It is the cleansing of the land that makes it possible for the land to
experience prosperity which is the chief motive of celebrating the festival.
In
today’s world, there are certain challenges confronting the celebration of the
festival in almost all the communities where it is celebrated. The first major
challenge generally is the submission by Christian adherents that partaking in
the festival does not glorify God. This belief is fast making the festival to
lose the large number of enthusiasts that once greeted it. In Ubulu-Uku, Iwu was
not celebrated for six years until 2011. Even then, the celebration in that year
was greeted with crass irregularities as reported by indigenes of that town. In
2011, Umuodafe shelved the celebration of the festival for the first time in its
modern history due to what was attributed to security reasons but particularly
because Odanta and Odaukwu clans that make the quarter could not agree to come
together and celebrate it. The decision got many indigenes of the town forlorn
particularly traditionalists.
There
is no doubt that Iwu Festival is one of the finest festivals celebrated by the
Anioma people, there is therefore the urgent need to revive and preserve the
festival so that it does not die a natural death.
BY
EMEKA ESOGBUE