Lorine Emenike
Culture, they say, is the way of a people. Despite the wide acceptance of the modern day religion which was a taboo to our ancestors because of their old beliefs that Christianity or Islam is the white man’s belief and that these beliefs (either Christianity or Islam) are the white man’s beliefs and should be treated as such.
Today Christianity and Islam is widely accepted in African especially Nigeria, and because of the broad acceptance by Africans of this white man’s religion, most beliefs or cultures that were practiced by our ancestors have gone extinct.
There are still old cultures of our ancestors that cannot be extinct; the new yam wrestling festival which is called Egelege by the Ikwerre tribe in Rivers State is celebrated from June to November yearly.
The people of Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area in Rivers State celebrate this memorable event yearly with four days of fun-packed wrestling activities.
Aluu community in Ikwerre local government area is made up of nine villages. Each village in Aluu community invites friends from far and wide to witness and enjoy this new yam festival/ wrestling contest (this activity was initiated by their ancestors to celebrate another season of new yam harvest ).
Local delicacies are prepared by different families (you don’t want to be told about this, an experience will wow you), hmmm… very yummy.
Delicacies like yam pepper soup with smoked dry fish is cooked and served in the early hours of the morning first. This is usually eaten very early around 7am-8am with local palm wine.
The cooked yam(yam alone without pepper soup) is marinated in a freshly made palm oil with a sprinkle of salt to taste; don’t take my word for it, a trial will wow you. After the yarn pepper soup and palm wine, the native Ikwerre soup is ready. It’s either you dig into the native soup served with pounded yam or sauced goat head served with freshly tapped palm wine.
After you have loaded your belly with this local delicacies, then the women will bath and dress up in their best apparels while the men (both old and young beside the title men like the chiefs) tie a piece of Geoge wrapper around their waist, covering them from the waist to the ankle and a clean white singlet with splashes of white powder on their face, chest and their back.
From 1 pm on the dot, everybody will match out to the wrestling arena to be entertained by talented and strong wrestlers. I tell you the truth, it’s always fun.
And after the wrestling, probably before 6 pm, there is the after party in every single compound in the village. You can walk into any body’s compound whether you know the family or not, but be very assured that you will be entertained with food and drinks beyond your satisfaction.
Every other tribe in rivers state during this period also have their culture displayed. I will share with you in time.
IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.
Voila…Around the first and second weeks of December, different tribes in Rivers State come together at the state capital, Port Harcourt, to display their various cultural troops/groups.
This event is usually hosted by the sitting governor of the state. This event where diverse cultural groups of different tribes in Rivers State come together to display and celebrate is called CarniRiv or Rivers carnival.
Rivers indigenes in diaspora and friends all travel down to Port Harcourt just to enjoy this unique cultural display…CarniRiv or Rivers carnival.
Usually, during the preparation for this unique event that takes about two to three months, the major roads are flooded with beautiful street lights and adorable decorations.
At the end of the carnival, folks that are rich, retire to lovely hotels where they are treated with Rivers state native delicacies like the Rivers state native soup(prepared with fresh fish and assorted seafood ) which you can eat with swallow like some, pounded yam, garri, fufu or any other delicacy from another part of Nigeria.
