By Nkechinyere Ewa
At Amegu, the ancestral home of the Izzi Nnodo people in Ebonyi State, the atmosphere was one of colour, tradition and communal pride as sons and daughters of the Izzi clan gathered to celebrate the grand finale of the annual New Yam Festival ( Ojiji Izzi) .
Beyond the feasting, dancing and display of cultural heritage, the celebration offered an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on the significance of culture in shaping identity, preserving values and transmitting the history of a people from one generation to another.
For the people of Izzi, the New Yam Festival is more than an annual social gathering. It is a cultural marker that signals the end of one year and the beginning of another, while providing an opportunity for the people to thank God for the harvest and reconnect with their ancestral roots.
Senator Professor Anthony Ani, who represents Ebonyi South Senatorial District, described the preservation of culture as an important responsibility of government, stressing that a people could hardly achieve fulfilment without understanding and embracing their cultural identity.
According to him, culture gives people a sense of belonging and helps to shape their behaviour and values.
“The role of government in preserving culture is to sustain it and enable it to survive so that people will not forget their roots,” Ani said, adding that people came from different backgrounds and cultures and that government had a responsibility to serve as a unifying factor.
The senator said the Izzi New Yam Festival was symbolic not only to the clan but to the Igbo people as a whole, noting that the celebration was observed across Igbo land and remained one of the traditions that united the people.
He said the festival marked the end of a farming cycle and the beginning of a new year, providing an avenue for families and communities to celebrate their common heritage.
Ani also called for greater government support for farmers and cultural institutions, arguing that sustaining the festival must go beyond ceremonial celebrations to include supporting the agricultural activities that give meaning to it.
For the Izzi people, the strength of the festival lies in the values embedded in the traditions surrounding it.
One of such traditions, according to a stakeholder prince Chinedu Uhuru immediate past chairman of Ebonyi local government, is ishi-nri-nwanyi, a cultural practice associated with marriage and communal support. Through the tradition, friends and members of the community support a newly married man with farm produce, particularly yam, as he begins a new phase of family life.
The practice, stakeholders explained, reflects the communal spirit of the Izzi people, where success and responsibility are not regarded as the concern of an individual alone.
The tradition also demonstrates how cultural practices can provide social support systems for young people and families, particularly at important stages of their lives.
Ani said such traditions, handed down by the forefathers, had continued to shape the conduct and relationships of members of the community.
He stressed that the erosion of culture could have consequences for younger generations, urging communities to preserve the positive aspects of their traditions while passing them on to their children.
Also speaking, a member of the House of Representatives, Joseph Nwobashi, described the gathering as an opportunity for the Izzi people to celebrate and preserve their culture.
Nwobashi said the large turnout at the grand finale demonstrated the importance the people attached to their heritage, noting that participants came from different places to identify with the celebration.
He urged young people not to allow their culture to go extinct.
“We should imbibe our culture. We should not allow our culture to go extinct. Our culture is what we should sustain,” he said.
For Ebere Nwogba, immediate past chairman of Abakaliki Local Government Area, the festival represents the people’s way of life and an important moment of thanksgiving.
Nwogba said he was delighted to identify with the Izzi people at the celebration, stressing that the New Yam Festival signified the completion of one agricultural year and the beginning of another.
“It is commonly said that culture is the people’s way of life,” he said.
According to him, the celebration was an opportunity for the people to thank God for the good things that had happened during the year while looking forward to another year with hope.
He urged the people to sustain the tradition and ensure that it was transmitted to their children and the generations yet unborn.
The gathering at Amegu therefore became more than a celebration of the yam harvest. It was a reminder that culture can serve as a bridge between the past, present and future.
As the drums sounded and families gathered around the new harvest, the message from the stakeholders was clear: a people who preserve their culture preserve their identity.
For Izzi, the New Yam Festival remains a living expression of who they are, where they come from and the values they hope to hand over to those coming after them.