What is the significance of yams in Igbo life?
This is why the Igbo people refer to yam as “the king of crops” and August and September are a time for traditional dances, drumming, masquerades and dressing up in village squares.
What do yams represent?
Yams are labor intensive and considered a man’s crop. Only men plant yams, and their ability to support their family with their yam harvest is a sign of wealth and ability.
Why are yams important in Nigeria?
Yam is in the class of roots and tubers that is a staple of the Nigerian and West African diet, which provides some 200 calories of energy per capital daily. In Nigeria, in many yam-producing areas, it is said that “yam is food and food is yam”.
What is the significance of yams in the African culture?
Background. Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a very important common food crop in West Africa. Beyond its food and nutritious values, the ownership and cultivation of yam have many cultural, religious, and social meanings, which may vary between specific ethnic groups and regional areas.
What is the significance of the yam what is the purpose of the new yam festival How is it related to the religion of the community?
The New Yam Festival, in the Ogidi community, is an important way of marking the beginning and end of the farming season. It is a celebration of life, accomplishments in the community, culture and well-being. Ogidi is a town currently located in the Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State.
What was the significance of growing yams for Okonkwo?
The King of Crops Okonkwo has not inherited any wealth from his father Unoka, who was a drunkard and a spendthrift, but he knows that yams are vital to his success in life. Nwakibie recognizes that Okonkwo is an ambitious self-starter, so he agrees to help Okonkwo begin his farming operation.
How are yams described in the novel what do they symbolize?
They are a sign of a man’s wealth, and a family with yams is a family that can prosper in the region. More than that, however, yams represent manliness: “Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed” (33).
What is the role of family in Things Fall Apart?
The father is not only the provider for the family, but defender of its honor and teacher of his sons. The mother’s main duty is to add to the family line by bearing healthy children and also to please her husband. Children are the inheritors of the future and are raised to continue the values of the older generation.
What are the economic importance of yam?
Yam can be exported too other countries to earn foreign currency and improve the economy of Africa. In ancient time down to very recently, the wealth of a man in Igboland is measured by the quantity of yam he harvested. Yam is a symbol of wealth in Igboland – likewise many other places.
What are well known and important Igbo festivals?
Ten most important and celebrated festivals in Igbo land
- New Yam Festival.
- Mmanwu Festival.
- Iwa Akwa Festival.
- Igu Aro Festival.
- Ekpe Festival.
- Inne Festival.
- Odo Festival.
- Igwa Nshi Festival.
How is the new yam festival celebrated in Igbo land?
The festival is done at the community level first. In turn, individuals in their own way and capacity celebrate with members of families and friends, thereby kicking off the eating of new yam in these families that participated in the community ceremony, whether they have money to celebrate with the others or not.
Why do the Igbo celebrate the New Yam Day?
The individual agrarian communities or subsistence agricultural population groups, have their days for this august occasion during which a range of festivities mark the eating of new yam. To the Igbo, therefore, the day is symbolic of enjoyment after the cultivation season.
Why is the Yam so important to the clan?
The yam is incredibly vital to the clan, and more specifically to the traditions of masculinity associated with the tuber.
Why are yams important to Okonkwo’s tribe?
Yams are of such important to Okonkwo’s tribe that there is a festival to celebrate the harvest of yams, The Feast of the New Yam: “The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to honor the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan….
What is the importance of yams in Umuofia?
Yams are the essential crop within Umuofia; the yam is a crucial staple in the Igbo diet. The number of yams a man successfully grows indicates his wealth and rank within the society.