Oka Day: A celebration that unites all religions

It was a beehive of activities as one drove around Oka Akoko town observing preparations of the community in anticipation of their new yam festival just a few hours away. Saloons were busy as women, ladies and girls besieged them making a variety of hairstyles. It was the same way tailoring shops were full as […]

It was a beehive of activities as one drove around Oka Akoko town observing preparations of the community in anticipation of their new yam festival just a few hours away. Saloons were busy as women, ladies and girls besieged them making a variety of hairstyles. It was the same way tailoring shops were full as clients impatiently waited to pick their outfits as some of them exchanged words with the tailors who responded while at the same time trying to avoid being pricked by the needles of their manual sewing machines.
The atmosphere was fun-filled, yet busy as last minute shoppers flocked the town’s main market which had begun the day before, ‘aggressively’ displaying tubers of yams strategically in their stalls or tables as if beckoning on prospective buyers. Groups of young girls dressed in costumes with their heads adorned in coral crowns.
As the rain beat against roof tops and gave the mud houses new colour hues, occupants didn’t consider it a hindrance as members of the community along with guests flocked to the palace of the Oba to get there first so that they could witness who came in what car and attire.
Grace Aboyade, who spoke to our reporter said: “I stay here and attend this event yearly. I like to be seated early so that I can see who comes in and who can benefit me. I like looking at the new styles of cars and know about the new laces and dresses that Lagos people wear. Even if I can’t buy them, I can at least feed my eyes.  That is enough for me.”
Mrs. Abosede Olawale declared that: “It is Christmas o,” adding that: “Me I dey sew the cloth for am and is white [sic]. I’m happy that all my family comes home because many of them don’t come during Christmas and New Year celebrations.”
Another guest, Iyabo Ojolanre, who came from Ibadan to witness the event, said she was invited by a friend who is from Oka. “The most interesting part of the entire celebration is the cultural display by the groups and the elderly men in white with their canes,” she stated.
Olubaka of Okaland, Oba Yusuf Adebori Adeleye (oon), explained the origin of the festival. “When I became Oba, I was looking for an avenue to bring the people together under a common platform. In the past, different quarters celebrated their New Yam festivals at different times,” Adeleye explained.
“When we celebrate Muslim festivals, although Christians join, it is not everybody. When we celebrate Christian festivals, Muslims join but not all. I thought we should have one common celebration that brings us all together. That’s how we came about celebrating New Yam and Oka Day festival on the first Saturday of August. We celebrate our farmers, and call it ‘Agbe l’oba’, ‘farmers are kings’, because without food, there’s nothing anybody can do,” the Oba said.
“People come from all over the world to celebrate. All our sons and daughters abroad come home at this time and reunite. When you see what those you left behind have done, you’ll be motivated to do the same. We also use it as an occasion to raise funds for the development of the community. This palace is a product of such effort,” he added.
“Oka Day also gives us the opportunity to appraise what have happened in the past and helps us chart a course for the future. Our friends from outside ask what they can do in the community and we encourage them to invest in businesses like quarry because we have a lot of rocks. It has become a day everybody looks forward to celebrating,” the monarch informed.
Before the community can begin consuming the new yams, the Oba first has to bless them. In a procession lead by two farmers, young girls carried hefty tubers of yams in trays on their heads. The Olubaka blessed them and asked the farmers to take two tubers each and one of the ladies, the fifth. This provoked cheers and applause from the gathering as some of the crowd dispersed in what seemed like they were in a hurry to start consuming the yams.
Another highpoint of the ceremony was the conferment of the ‘Okarufe Golden Merit Award on Nigeria’s envoy to the Central Africa Republic, Amb. Roland Omowa, an indigene of Oka.
According to Oba Adeleye, it was important to give the honour during the festival because “all our people are around to know who and who has made one form of contribution or another to the growth of the community.”
Omowa, who first received a certificate and a plaque before being presented with the bronze crafted staff of office by the Oba, is the first Oka indigene to receive the honour and the second in the state after its governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
An elated Omowa said: “In joy it is quite difficult to express oneself. I’m most grateful that my little efforts to make my community better have been recognised and amount to this. Although, it is a greater call to duty, it is a very special day more so because this award is coming from my community. It is something which I least expected to come to me at this stage of my life.”
Thanking the oba and chiefs, who had found him worthy, he also prayed that God whom it had pleased for this to happen, will continue to empower me to do more.
The word ‘Oka’ is a contracted form of ‘Okarufe,’ meaning Oka-Ife. Oka people migrated from Ife some centuries ago in search of a suitable abode, migrating through Ijeshaland and Ekitiland before settling in the southern parts of the hills and became known as Okaodo.
It is made of 15 quarters – Owalusin, Okado, Agba, Ikanmu, Korowam Okia, Ikese, Iwonrin, Ebinrin, Owake, Iboje, Idofin Ibaka and Owase – each one ruled by a high chief, who has other chiefs under him.