The New Yam Festival And The Traditional Tradition In West Africa

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Traditions are made either for cultural or political purposes. According to the Oxford living dictionary, Tradition is a long established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another. There are two major traditional practices that are still very much alive in my country but are no longer practiced in my family. They are the new yam festival and the traditional marriage. The new yam festival comes after the yam harvest, and is practiced mainly in Nigeria and some other West African countries. Yam cannot be harvested until after the new yam festival, because the new yam festival is dedicated as a prayer of thanksgiving for a good harvest. In my community, the new yam festival is called “Iwaji,” and is held at the end of the rainy season in early August. Oduah states that “The first person to eat the newly harvested yam is the Asagba of Asaba, followed by the red cap chiefs and this has been the custom for years.” The Iwaji is observed on a certain day of the year, after the yam is harvested thanksgiving follows. According to the Pointer, The new yam festival starts off with the eze Igbo (Title holder), who goes to pay …show more content…

The new yam cannot be eaten until it has been dedicated to the goddess; both young and old people look forward to the new yam festival celebration. Only new yams are used for the feast, old and shriveled yams from the previous year are prohibited. On the day of the feast after the chief priest dedicates the yam, it is then given to the Eze (king) who after eating, then gives some of the yam to his cabinet members after they have gotten the best parts of the harvested ones, some of it is then made in to different delicacies like pounded yam, porridge yam, yam and stew etc. Any yam left is taken home by the farmer and stored in a barn to be consumed later as yam is the most common food eaten in the Igbo

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