New Yam festival a feast for Nigeria and beyond

The New Yam Festival usually celebrated in August or September just as the rainy season is coming to an end, and crops are ripe and ready to harvest. It is a festival which has religious meanings as many still honour the spirits of the land and the souls of their ancestors every day. According to […]

The New Yam Festival usually celebrated in August or September just as the rainy season is coming to an end, and crops are ripe and ready to harvest. It is a festival which has religious meanings as many still honour the spirits of the land and the souls of their ancestors every day.

According to Ibo legend, a man named Ibo, or Igbo, gave the tribe its name. A very old legend explains how the yam and the cocoyam, another starchy root vegetable, became such important foods for the Ibo.

During a time of terrible famine, a tribesman named Ibo was told by a powerful spirit that he must sacrifice his son Ahiajoku and daughter Ada to save his other children from starvation. After Ahiajoku and Ada were killed, the spirit told Ibo to cut their bodies into many pieces and to bury the pieces in several different hills of soil.

Ibo did these, and, in a few days, yam leaves sprouted from the hills containing pieces of Ahiajoku’s flesh, and leaves of the cocoyam sprouted from the hills where Ada’s flesh was buried. The spirit told Ibo and his living children to farm these two crops. They did so, and when the yam and cocoyam were harvested, they provided food that kept the family from starvation. Because of this, Ahiajoku is worshiped as the god of yam. He is greatly honored during the New Yam Festival.

Amongst the Ibos, on the first morning of the celebration, families make an altar in honor of their ancestors, the earth god Ala, and the yam god, Ihejioku. Village men go out to the farms to dig up the new yams, and give thanks in the village square. Yams must be carefully dug up as they bruise easily. In their homes the men make an offering to the ancestors of new yams, some white chalk, and a chicken. The chicken is for slaughter, and the chalk symbolizes purity and well-being. Some of these traditions are changing now, as Christianity becomes stronger in the region. A feast with family, friends and neighbors follows.

On the second day, the villagers gather to watch young men in wrestling contests. In the morning the wrestlers eat roasted yams, which they believe will give them strength, and village elders are chosen as judges. Drums welcome the wrestlers, divided into two teams, into the village square. When a wrestler wins a round, drummers beat their drums again, and young women come into the circle and dance. Eating, drinking, and talking also continue the whole day into the evening. It can be a noisy celebration with gongs, musket fire, calabashes, and flutes as well as the drums.

Amongst the Yakurr indigenes of Cross River State, the New Yam Festival is known as ‘Leboku’ and is also celebrated annually as a week-long celebration and entertainment spree.

In recent times the festival since 2005 has been celebrated as a state fiesta whilst still maintaining its essence and flavour.

Like in the past, it was a gathering of the young and the old, the rich and the poor. It was a forum where government and the people meet, where barriers created by officialdom are, at least temporarily, kept aside.

The festival known as ‘To Hoot at Hunger’ traditionally referred to as Homowo in Ghana takes place in many rural communities.

Women dig up the yams and carry them home in baskets on their heads. Everyone is proud of the harvest and wants to be the family with the largest crop. Villagers gather together as the women and young girls prepare the feast, with the yams as prized food. They choose a young boy to carry the best yams to the festival dinner, and another boy follows him beating a drum. Other young people from the village march to the beat of the drum and the sound of a woodwind instrument, and sometimes musket fire. Chiefs, under umbrellas and wearing robes made from the famous, brightly colored, Ghanaian Kente Cloth (which spread, as a symbol of African design, to other African countries) follow the yams, and the young people dance. Other activities include singing, wearing animal masks, and displaying fetishes.

In Indonesia, the traditional yam festival occurs once every four years. A big seed yam weighing 2-3 kg is planted near a tree which is stripped of its bark to provide the yam vine with sturdy support. The yam is watered during the dry season and harvested after 4 years for the festival. Similar festivals are celebrated in the Pacific Islands, especially in Papua New Guinea.