On August 29, the Edda people of Ebonyi State will converge at Nguzu Edda, their traditional headquarters, for Ike Ji Edda, a grand new yam festival that blends culture, heritage, and tourism with economic potential. Led by the Edda LGA Chairman, Hon. Chima Ekumankama, this year’s celebration promises to elevate the age-old tradition into a cultural carnival, showcasing the significance of yam in Igbo identity while positioning Edda as a hub for unity, tourism, and economic growth, Uzoma Mba writes
August 29 has been slated to be a day of culture, fanfare, celebration of heritage, and the promotion of the tourism potential and economy of the Edda people of Ebonyi State.
All roads will lead to Nguzu Edda, the traditional headquarters of the Edda people that day.
Even though the people had always celebrated the New Yam Festival, but this year, it will sound a higher note and expected to be an integration of cultural carnival with the sustenance of the tradition of the people.
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At the fore of this cultural event is the Chairman of Edda LGA, Hon. Chima Ekumankama who assured to pull the stops and make the event loud and memorable.
In his words “New Yam Festival is a mark of Igboness. Every part of the Igbo world celebrates the king of food – Ji. Edda is part of that.
“This eight month of the year in the common calendar is actually the first month of the Igbo Calendar, the beginning of the year and season. We begin our year in a season of abundance when the rains fertilise the earth to yield food, when the harvest of the labour of the people starts to come from their fields and toils.
“Like every member of society, I am a product of culture, I am a child of my heritage and it is an obligation on me to make sure that what our people, the Edda Clan is known for is preserved.
“This is why I am mobilising our people to roll out fully for a grand new yam festival we call Ike Ji in Edda. The reason the Igbo celebrates yam is because it is indigenous to our people and our world. Wherever you find yam in the world, such place borrowed it from the Igbo and the West African region.”
Why the celebration
Borrowing from scientific evidences, domestication of wild food which is farming gave rise to sedentary lifestyle of the human race. Settling to look after the domesticated/planted crops which assured the population of food security rather than relying on the vagaries of wild harvest gave rise to the building of towns and cities.
Therefore, the founding and settlement of the Edda Clan derive from the cultivation of yams, and owes its consolidation of a stable society to the crop and others. That is one of the major reasons it is the king of foods of our people.
The importance of the festival expanded over time to incorporate diverse manifestations which involve all the segments and genders of the population.
Among all the traditional festivals in Edda, only Ike Ji cuts across all the four days of the Igbo week, and also encompasses different and specific roles for all the people – the men, women, young people, not leaving out the children.
Celebration
Ike ji in Edda starts on Orie, the day the ikoro is sounded to herald a new era that ushered the people out of lack during unwu (famine season) into abundance. On Afo day, the people shopped for the necessary items for the cerebration ahead, while the new yam is harvested the following day, Nkwo.
In the evening of this day, the young men hold Ichu Afa (sending off the fading year because the following day starts a new year). They dance around in jubilation for seeing the end of a year, and bid the twilight year a farewell while looking forward to the coming day that heralds a new beginning.
The following day is Eke Ipo, which is actually the New Year’s Day. It is the most significant of the days. The significance of this day is the commensalism that accompanies a new yam delicacy of Ipo, a mashed new yam dish eaten among the kindred.
All who eat the ipo together are bound by blood and by mutual social responsibility of being each other’s protector in kinship.
From the day the new yam is harvested, the Edda traditional priests of yam collect new yam peeling in their homes and drop them in the Nfijioku until Izu ato (eight market days) is complete, when the stone slab of the shrine is covered again. It is after this period that Edda can roast the new yam or boil it with the skin.
Celebrations ended with Orie Eyighiya, the day for the women and maidens, which lasted all night when they sang and danced in merriment. Such nights used to be the only moment young maidens were taken to their husbands in marriage, especially the ada.
A new order
Leadership is the society’s rudder. This novel unified Ike Ji Edda starting in 2025 is with credit to the LGA Chairman, Hon. Ekumankama. The new order his administration engendered is befitting of the royalty he belongs to as a prince in Edda land.
Credit also goes to all the traditional custodians of Ike Ji in Edda and other leaders who aligned with his innovative idea to make such a landmark moment possible.
Significance
Th festival symbolises communal sharing, celebration of the king of the food crops and its origin, and Igbo identity, the Igbo New Year, foundation of our consolidated sedentary society and advancement, celebration of purity of the young virgins and the elevation of moral values where the older women taught the young maidens the virtues of motherhood, being good home keepers and wives, and industry.
To the Edda world, the festival further renews the bond of kin ties, celebrates industry since only the diligent in farmingcultivated and harvested yam, social responsibility of a man being able to provide for the family, and above all a thanksgiving to Chineke for preserving their lives to harvest the seed they sowed
Economy and tourism
Cultural celebrations such as Edda and Igbo New Yam festival are magnates that propel the economic growth.
The Council Chairman said “In the quest of my administration to set Edda on the path of economic growth, we have to harness the cultural component and project it to the world to come and see. Such grows the economy, deepens the sustainability of our culture and endows us with pride as a people that have roots.
“When our Ike Ji starts attracting up to 20,000 external visitors every year, our economy gets better. Ike Ji Edda will make so much progressive sense and elicit multiple benefits to the people in tourism, unity, and economy.”
Yam occupies a very important place in global food trade and economy today. Conversely, the cultivation of yam in Edda is actually in decline with less importance attached and fewer people taking to yam farming.
Yam sold 75 million metric tons at the global market in 2020, and 67 per cent of the output from Nigeria. The gross income from yam production and sales in the period was about $15 billion with a global consumption of 89 million tonnes in 2024. This is expected to grow to 95 million tons in 2035, with revenue worth of $56.1 billion.
Against the perception of many, the economic importance of yam is rather on the rise than waning. As the original owners of yam, we can also tap into more yam production as Edda’s economic base. This will encourage us to task our relevantexperts to intervene and modernise our approach since yam has become celebrated in Edda in a more dignified manner.
