By Kelechi Osuji, Joy Onyishi
Yam is staple food in West Africa that provides essential nutrients and is a well consumed food item in a lot of cultures. It holds cultural and traditional importance in some regions, and is classified as a tuber crop, meaning it grows beneath the soil surface and the swollen stem stores all the food and nutrients. It is rich in starch and carbohydrates. The New Yam Festival is a common occasion in Nigeria and is celebrated by every ethnic group in Nigeria and is observed annually at the end of June.
According to the article, New Yam Festivals in Nigeria, the crop is historically considered to be one of the major and most important crops in Nigeria as it is grown in mostly all the states. In some communities, whoever has a yam barn is listed among the wealthy sets of people in the community. Yams are very well respected in Nigeria as they are one of the major food items accepted as bride price when a man is seeking to take a wife. The festival is mostly celebrated among the Igbo people due to different spiritual ideologies surrounding yams, as told by ancestors through stories passed on until present day. Yams are annual crops, although they are sometimes regarded as perennial crops due to their life cycle. Therefore, New Yam Festival is celebrated annually, after new yams are harvested.
According to the article, How Is Yam Festival Celebrated In Igbo Land?, the New Yam Festival or “Iri ji” in Igbo, is a significant cultural event for the Igbo people, signifying the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the harvest period, and marking gratitude for the season’s bounty and the hope for future prosperity.
In the Yoruba tribe, the New Yam Festival (Odun Ijesu) in the Yoruba tradition signifies the harvest of the new yam crop, marking the end of the farming season and the beginning of the harvest, and symbolizing gratitude, community, and renewal.
In the Idoma culture, the New Yam Festival (Orureshi or Iwa ji), is a celebration of the harvest and the beginning of a new planting season, signifying a time of thanksgiving to the gods for a bountiful harvest and the expectation of a good year to come.
The Igbo, Yoruba, and Idoma tribes all celebrate the New Yam Festival, and it signifies one thing in each tribe, “HARVEST”.
