Abuja Igbo Youths Use New Yam Festival to Keep Culture Alive

ABUJA, Nigeria — The Igbo community in Abuja has held a New Yam Festival featuring traditional music, drumming, dancing, cultural performances and thanksgiving rituals.

Igbo men, women and youths attended the gathering, alongside people from other tribes across Nigeria. Participants wore traditional attire as the celebration highlighted cultural practices associated with the annual festival. The aroma of roasted yam filled the air during the event.

Youths lead Abuja celebration

Kalu Omechia, patron of the Igbo Youth Association in Garki, Abuja, said Igbo youths in the capital organised the gathering to continue a tradition normally observed in Igbo communities.

“We are here today to celebrate our New Yam Festival. The Igbo youths in Abuja organized this event for us, the Igbo youths in Abuja, to do what we normally do,” Omechia said.

Sunday Igwe, vice president of the association, described the event as an opportunity for younger people to learn about Igbo customs and understand that the culture remains relevant.

Igwe said he had lived outside his state for more than 20 years without experiencing a New Yam Festival, which contributed to the decision to organise the celebration in Abuja.

“So that some of our youths can learn from it and know that our culture is still relevant and our youths are ready to keep up with it,” he said.

Tradition and thanksgiving

The New Yam Festival is traditionally associated with the beginning of the yam harvest and is described as a cultural homecoming for Igbo people. Ceremonies include presenting the first yams, offering prayers and using kola nuts and palm wine in rituals of thanksgiving and fellowship.

In traditional Igbo society, yam is associated with hard work, strength, prosperity and the rewards of a successful farming season. New yams are traditionally not eaten before the appropriate ceremonies, with eating them beforehand described as a grave disrespect.

The festival therefore serves both a cultural and spiritual purpose, providing an occasion to give thanks to God and honour ancestors for a fruitful season.

Keeping Igbo identity visible

Participants said staging the event outside Igbo land helped reinforce the continued presence of Igbo culture in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria.

Chisom Ejimba welcomed the role played by younger participants, saying the festival’s coordination by members of Generation Z demonstrated their interest in preserving the culture. Ejimba said Igbo traditions would not fade soon because young people were growing up to emulate them.

Chiyere Odawolo said bringing the celebration to Abuja reminded people that Igbo culture continues to exist beyond the ancestral homeland.

“Recognising the culture outside Igbo land, like we are in Abuja and bringing the culture to Abuja, that is a reminder that Igbo still exist,” Odawolo said.

Youth participant Nwamazi Chibuike also expressed confidence in the continuity of Igbo traditions. Chibuike said the culture would not die if the New Yam Festival and other Igbo festivals continued, adding that the celebration was also held in other states in Nigeria.

The Abuja gathering combined ceremonial thanksgiving with music, performance and community participation, giving younger Igbo residents an opportunity to engage with customs connected to their heritage.