New Yam, Old Tradition: Inside Edem’s Iri Ji Celebration

The first thing that announced the celebration was not the yam. It was the sound. From different corners of Obu Umu Ugwoke in Isu Village, the rhythmic beats of traditional music competed with the occasional thunderous blasts of dane guns. Masquerades glide and dance before an excited crowd, while men and women dressed in traditional attires moved around in an atmosphere of reunion and celebration.

Then came the unmistakable aroma of roasted yam. On September 25, 2026, Edem Community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State came alive as indigenes, traditional rulers, community leaders, friends and well-wishers from within and outside the community gathered for the annual Iri Ji festival.

But beneath the music, dancing, masquerades and merriment was a tradition carrying a much deeper meaning.

For the people of Edem, Iri Ji was not simply a festival for eating the new yam. It was a celebration of harvest thanksgiving, cultural identity and communal solidarity. It was also a moment to acknowledge Ezechitoke Abiama, the creator of heaven and earth, for the fruits of the year’s labour.

It is a tradition in which food becomes a symbol, the yam becomes a link between generations, and the community temporarily pauses its everyday routines to celebrate what binds its people together.

As the gathering grew, traditional rulers from within and outside the town, community leaders, women and youth groups, cultural organisations and indigenes from home and the Diaspora took their places for the ceremony.

The colourful masquerades soon added another layer to the spectacle.

Ebule Umuchoke, Esato, Ogbanabo, Ngbedike and Atu Isu were among those that featured prominently, displaying the costumes, movements and theatrical traditions that have remained an important part of the community celebrations.

The hunters’ guild was also present, periodically firing dane guns in traditional fashion and adding a dramatic soundtrack to the festivities.

For many who had travelled from distant places, the occasion was also a homecoming.

Among the visitors was a special delegation of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, led by its Chairman, Chief Boniface Ajibo. The delegation, which included Chief Austin Nwagwara, Onwa Chike Nwanze, Madam Ifeoma Chukwu Prisca, Princess Lilian and Prince Maduabuchukwu Ezeoke, arrived with a big ram to pay homage to the Attama Taz Edem.

The gesture reflected one of the enduring features of traditional festivals, the opportunity they provide for people living far from their ancestral communities to reconnect with their roots. In a world where migration and urbanisation increasingly separate people from their places of origin, festivals such as the Iri Ji provided an annual rendezvous with home.

Another Very Important Person (VIP) that added glamour to the celebration was Very Rev. Fr. Thaddeus Ezema, the second ordained Catholic Priest in Edem who hails from Isu Village.

At the heart of the celebration was Edoga Joseph Ezugworie, the Attama Taz Edem, who presided over the symbolic eating of the new yam in keeping with the tradition of the community.

The ceremony itself was simple but deeply symbolic. Presented with tubers of roasted yam, the Attama Taz took a piece and offered thanks to Ezechitoke Abiama for the bountiful harvest. He also prayed for continued peace, unity and progress in Edem Community. Then he dipped the piece of yam into a sauce and ate it.

The moment was greeted with loud cheers and the resounding hooting of the “opu”; the elephant tusk traditionally used to herald significant moments.

With that symbolic act, the new yam season was effectively opened for the community. The roasted yam was thereafter passed to elders, guests, groups and indigenes to eat.

The communal sharing was itself an important part of Iri Ji. It signified that the harvest was no longer restricted to the farmer who cultivated it but has become part of a wider communal celebration. In that sense, the yam became more than food.

It represented the reward for labour, the abundance of the land and the continuity of a tradition that connects the present generation with those who came before it.

With the formalities completed, the celebration moved into a more relaxed phase. Palm wine flowed as music, dancing and performances by different groups took over the venue.

Joy and conversations filled the gathering, while the different generations of Edem residents mingled with visitors and returned indigenes.

At the end of the ceremony, the Attama Taz presented participants with tubers of yam to take home and continue the celebration with their families.

There was, however, another significant dimension to this year’s celebration.

Chief Dr. Ngozi Adaozo Anyanwu, the Orieocheteibe, a community builder and reverred daughter of Attama Tazz, was part of the gathering and added colour to the event.

Her birthday coincided with the festival, but rather than allowing the occasion to revolve solely around her, Dr. Anyanwu turned it into another opportunity for giving.

More than 100 women who attended the celebration received “Abada” wrappers as souvenirs.

The men were also presented with sizeable tubers of yam, reinforcing the symbolism of the festival and ensuring that the spirit of sharing extended beyond the main ceremony.

That spirit of sharing is perhaps one of the most enduring features of Iri Ji.

Traditional festivals are often described in terms of their colour, the costumes, music, food and dances. Yet their deeper value frequently lies in the relationships they renewed.

They brought elders and younger people together. They provided an opportunity for those living in cities to return home. They created spaces where traditional institutions interacted with ordinary members of the community. They also gave younger generations an opportunity to witness customs that might otherwise exist only in stories told by their parents and grandparents.

In Edem, the new yam festival appears to serve precisely that purpose. The masquerades preserve an aspect of cultural expression. The traditional rites preserve communal memory. The sharing of the yam reinforces social bonds. The presence of indigenes from outside the community demonstrates that physical distance has not erased the connection to home.

And the participation of visitors from places such as Lagos showed how cultural identity can travel with people, even when they have established new homes far away from their ancestral communities.

There is also a quiet lesson in the central place given to the yam. Before the era of supermarkets and global food supply chains, the harvest was a major marker of survival and prosperity. The arrival of a new yam crop therefore represented something profound: the reward for months of work and the assurance that the community had food to celebrate.

That meaning may have changed with time, but it has not disappeared. The Iri Ji ceremony keeps that memory alive. For a few hours, the people of Edem were not simply consumers of food. They became custodians of a tradition. They gathered around the same crop their ancestors once celebrated. They repeated rituals handed down through generations. They listened to the sounds of traditional music, watched masquerades perform and shared food and drink with one another.

In doing so, they demonstrated that culture does not survive merely because it is remembered. It survives because people continue to practise it. That was the deeper story behind Edem’s 2026 Iri Ji celebration.

The festival was certainly a carnival of colour, music, food and entertainment. But beneath the spectacle was something more enduring, a community looking back at its roots while bringing its traditions into the present.

As the visitors eventually departed with their tubers of yam, the celebration at Obu Umu Ugwoke came to an end. But the tradition remained.

The yam had been eaten. The harvest had been celebrated. The people had reunited. And another generation had witnessed the old traditions come alive again.

Celestine Amoke is a Communications Strategist, Agribusiness Coach, an author, Book Editor, Teacher and Researcher.

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