Aju Ugbo: Ancient Festival with Tourism Appeals

Tourism

Aju Ugbo festival harbours vast tourism potentials, writes Uche Anichukwu, a culture and tourism enthusiast, as he traces the origin, imports, and benefits of the triennial event, reliving the 2021 edition of the festival

As you approach the Amoli/Ugbo junction, you are like a man at the foot of a mountain. Ugbo, a town of three autonomous communities in Enugu State, looks so imposing, but alluring. It is like Zion, a city built on a hill.

The green ambience is typical of an African village, but as you snake up the hilly road into the town, Ugbo begins to announce itself as a modern rural community. Tarred road, National Power Holding Company service station, tall-standing solar street lights, rural electricity, a state-of-the-art civic centre, among others, which are dividends of democracy attracted by their Senator, Ike Ekweremadu, and Hon. Toby Okechukwu, warm your heart.

But in the midst of this modernity, Ugbo is steeped in the cultures and traditions of their fathers. On this special occasion, different masquerades and dance troupes give you feelings of festivity as you throttle up the hilly road. You are captivated by various youth groups draped in red, white, and yellow T-shirts and colourful wrappers as they move in a single file, fluting and chanting “Ho! Ho! Ho!” as they thrash the ground with their youthful might to announce to their ancestors that they have come of age. These ancestors must be relishing the thuds, reminding them of the yore when they also passed through the same rite, which marks the initiation into adulthood. Welcome to Aju/Iwa Akwa festival, one of the most important rites in Ugbo, Awgu LGA of Enugu State.

Inside the Aju Ugbo

According to Chief Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, National Publicity Secretary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide and Chairman of Ugbo Committee on Culture and Tourism, Aju festival is a rite of passage, performed every three years to mark the transition from adolescents to manhood for males between the ages of 19 and 23. It is one of the major cultural landmarks in Ugbo traditional calendar and a significant process in, not just Ugbo, but also in many Igbo societies.

He provides further insights: “Aju festival dates back to Ugbo history. Our ancestors conceived it as a classificatory process of grouping males into specific age-grades for smooth and effective communal administration. On the other hand, both seniority and age grade are seriously emphasized such that in Ugbo, old age goes with honour, dignity and gerontocracy rights.

“Iwa Akwa involves various social processes aimed at initiating the adolescents into manhood as well as bonding the members of the age-grade across the entire hamlets of Ugbo. Three days are usually set aside for the major processes:

“On the first day (Orie market day), all the celebrants from the kindred would converge with pomp and pageantries at their hamlet square before they proceed to the village square specifically for the purpose of Iwa Akwa. The major hallmark of this day is that almost all the daughters (Umuada) of Ugbo, both far and near are obligated to appreciate the celebrants from their own kindred with various kinds of gift.

“On the next day, Afor, all the celebrants are inducted into the Ugbo cosmology through the Mgbaheishi. By this orientation, all the celebrants are compelled to trek through the ancestral foot paths, round the major hamlets in Ugbo; ascending and descending the Ugbo hills, crossing the rivers and streams, etc. Most importantly, they are expected to lavishly display vigour, enthusiasm and agility in about 15 hamlet squares in Ugbo. Their flutes and songs would always indicate their location at any particular time. This is strictly arranged such that the celebrants of Ugbo Okpala do not meet and clash with those of Ugbonabo, nor would Ugbonabo encounter the Ngene- Ugbo celebrants. The parents and relatives would wait anxiously until their sons return from Mgbaheishi.

“The grand finale, called Ozuzugboligbo comes up on the next Orie market day. It officially and publicly unites all the celebrants of the three components of Ugbo at Ugbonabo, the ancestral centre of Ugbo activities.

“The initiates are in the process, fully incorporated and enculturated into the core Ugbo spiritual essence and cultural heritage. Apart from impacting the Ugbo consciousness in the initiated, the Iwa Akwa confers on the celebrant all the privileges, rights, dignity and profound sense of belonging in the Ugbo society”.

Any male, who is yet to perform the Iwa Akwa ceremony, is considered a minor in the Ugbo worldview and culture, hence may only not be allowed to marry, but will also not be entrusted with serious responsibilities. Therefore, every Ugbo father and mother passionately looks forward to a day his or her son will perform the Iwa Akwa ceremony. Even those who reside overseas endeavour to bring their sons home to join in the initiation rites so they can transform from boys to men.

Benefits of Aju Festival

The Aju or Iwa Akwa festival comes with so many benefits to the Ugbo community, according to Chief Ogbonnia.

“It helps in the re-invocation of Ugbo spirit. This is the only ceremony that gravitates all the Ugbo sons and daughters from far and near. It enables the members of the age grade to know themselves. It is noted that the bonds created among the initiates last for life. All members by obligation refer to themselves as jianyi (used to address an age mate). It is a classificatory process by which the conflicts in age are resolved. This is because dispute on seniority is resolved through the process of Iwa Akwa.

“It helps to assign values and functions to the age groups in the community development projects. Age grade system serves as an agent of social change in Igbo land. In various communities, community development projects are carried out by the age grades, the Azubuike Age Grade of Ugbo for instance, built the bus-stop at the Ugbo/Owelli Junction.

“It is also an enculturation and socialisation process. The initiates are fully incorporated and enculturated into the core Ugbo essence. It helps in peer group review mechanism among the age mates. By monitoring the process attained by one’s age mates, self-evaluation becomes very imperative. Aju reconciles the initiate with the innermost foundation of his being. It re-enacts one with his roots thereby reinvigorating the innermost soul of his personality.

“The Mgbahe ishi component of the Aju is an orientation task for the mastery of the vital tracks that connect the Ugbo villages. The major hamlet squares (obodo) in Ugbo are covered in this exercise. We are reminded that our forefathers passed through the same tracks. This will enable the initiates to pass through Ugbo and also for Ugbo to pass through them.

“Age grade system in general is a platform for leadership training. Leaders such as Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Onwa na Ugbo, was the chairman of his age grade at Mpu.

“Aju festival is equally used as an authentic Ugbo calendar. Most events are recollected using Aju as a reference point.

“The virtues of Igbo stoicism are embodied in Aju festival. In the past, the celebrants were taken to a river, Oji, where they swallow stone pebbles thereby reminding them the salient manly virtues of courage, perseverance, stoicism and industry. Iwa-eze, the tooth gapping ceremony reminds the celebrant that ‘whatever comes out of the mouth must be truth, you are now an adult’.

“Again, the Aju Ugbo also helps us to know among the daughters (Umuada), those that still keep faith with their roots. Every Ada, both far and near, is expected to answer ‘the Aju roll call’”, he explained.

Because there is essentially nothing fetish about Aju Ugbo, it has endured through the ages, and not even the advent of Christianity in Ugboland since 1919 has diminished it.

Colours and rhythms of Aju 2021

It is therefore not surprising that the 2021 edition of Aju festival did not disappoint. It draws corporate sponsors, top government functionaries and friends of the community. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, a regular guest to the event, was represented in this year’s edition by Barr. Steve Oruruo, while former Deputy President of the Senate, who represents Enugu West, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; Hon. Dennis Amadi, who represents Udi/Ezeagu Federal Constituency; and of course, an Ugbo son and one of the pillars of the Aju festival for many years now, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, who is the Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, among others, added colouor to the event.

But it did not only draw the dignitaries and tourists, it also drew the hosts and blessings of heaven, as signified by the downpour that greeted this during the event. The young initiates, apparently energised and inspired by it, danced, spattering the water with joy.

Welcoming the guests and participants, Chairman of the Occasion, Mr Ogechukwu Udeagha, commended the initiates, also known as Umu-Ekwa, urging them to maintain the virtues of peace, excellence, and brotherliness for which Ugbo people were known.

On their part, Ekweremadu and Ugwuanyi, equally commended the people of Ugbo for entrenching the Aju festival and transforming it into a tourist attraction. Ekweremadu emphasised that Ugbo had also used the event to achieve milestones in development of their community.

“Every three years for the past 18 years, I have celebrated the Aju festival with Ugbo people and I participate in every ceremony of the Ugbo people. So, I am Ugbo in my own right and we thank God for the land of Ugbo today. Ugbo was not like twenty years ago, Today, Ugbo has electricity, good roads, water, good schools, and other socio-economic amenities, some of which are ongoing.

“Despite the modernisation in Ugbo today, I am so happy that in Ugbo, we still remember our culture and tradition. I pray for God’s guidance upon these children, who have become men today, so they will become influential in the society. I urge you, the young men, to hold firm your strength, courage, zeal, and tradition”, Ekweremadu stated.

Also speaking, Hon. Okechukwu, reminded the inductees that they had entered a stage in their lives where they were not only expected to contribute more to the development of Ugbo and Nigeria, but when they would also be held responsible for their actions.

“You are the ones to now protect the people from any form of attack. This is the reason on the first day, you are initiated and the second day, you are taken round the village to interrogate the geopolitical entity called Ugbo”, he added.

Okechukwu called on the Federal Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and the private sector of the Nigerian tourism industry to key into the enormous tourism potentials of not just the Aju festival, but also the Ugbo geography.

Towing the path of African and ancestral rites

Meanwhile, the rite of adulthood in Ugbo, is just one of the many rites in Ugbo and other African communities. Writing on “The Five African Major Initiation Rites”, Prof. Manu Ampim, an American-based historian and primary researcher specialising in African and African American history and culture, draws a list of initiation rites considered quite fundamental to the growth and development of any African society. They are: the rite of birth, which is the first of the major African initiation rites and involves initiating the infant into the world through a ritual and naming ceremony to help find a child’s preordained mission on earth and commission the child to start the journey of fulfilling that mission or destiny; rite of adulthood, which is the second major rite that inducts the boy child into the world of men; rite of marriage, which marks not only the joining of a male and female(s) for the purposes of procreation in order to perpetuate the linages and life on earth, but also the joining of life’s missions of the husband and wife/wives such that both become supportive to the other in fulfilling such missions; rite of eldership, which age alone does not necessarily confer on one because of the type of life the person has lived, but is reserved for people, who have lived a life of purpose centered in the best tradition of the community, and people, who undergone the rites of birth, adulthood, and marriage and come out as a model worthy of emulation; and of course rite of ancestorship, which has to do with transition into the world of the spirit/great beyond.

This final initiation, according to Ampin, is an extension of the elder/older distinction because the status that a person has in life is the same status that they bring with them when they pass on. It is instructive that there is hardly any African society that believes that a person’s death severs all ties and communication with the living. Instead, they believe that the spirit of the dead continues to be the living community. For this reason, an Igbo man, for instance, is likely to invoke the spirit of his fathers/ancestors in the face of danger, just as a typical Catholic is likely to invoke the various saints.