Brief history of the Imo-awka celebration.

Awka, capital of Anambra State  wears many cap. Long before it acquired that status, it was known for blacksmithing. But more than that, it is one of the few communities in the state and in fact, Igbo land that seems to have maintained some measures of link with the past in several ways.
One way it has been able to do that is through the Imoka festival. The community virtually came alive again penultimate Saturday for the festival which has been handed over from generation to generation on a yearly basis.
The festival which is older than modern civilisation was indeed an opportunity for sons and daughters of the town to celebrate the community’s mass return.
Against the belief in some quarters that the festival is celebrated to honour a blood thirsty deity, this year’s edition was a great departure from the past as no life was lost.
It had started with the sighting of the moon two weeks to the occasion with the Eze Imoka flagging off the celebration at Umuokpu-Awka which is the eldest of the sons of Awka.
According to Eze Imoka, “the cultural festival of the people of Awka community is the most popular annual cultural festival in Awka. This ceremony is performed at the begining of the planting season to appease God for a bountiful harvest, good health, peace, progress and protection.
“The programme is a seven native weeks activity with three particular days as the climax. This festival is not a festival of death but that of unity. Any town or village that does not have any form of festival or celebration has no roots and I wonder if there is such a people. Even the white man also has his own festival and they choose a special day for that. So, ours is nothing different from other places.
Historically, the festival is said to be linked to the sacred Awka monkeys which according to oral tradition shares reverence with the Awka deity.
According to legends, which was confirmed by the traditional priest, the brown African monkeys played very active role in the survival and safety of Awka people.
“Yes, during those days of tribal and communal wars the monkeys come to inform us of the plot by our enemies to launch an onslaught on our town. They even gave us information of where they were coming from and we took precautions.
“In appreciation to the monkeys we had some sort of a covenant with them that since they had saved our lives no Awka would harm or kill a monkey in the town. If you kill the “enwe Awka( Awka monkey), you would be made to go through the traditional rituals of appeasing the land and the monkey would be given a funeral benefiting of a human being,” he said.
A prominent son of the community, Prof. Austin Nnonyelu, echoed the the traditional essence of the festival, saying, it was as old as the ancient Awka town. “This is a festival that heralds the beginning of the planting season and it is a unifying factor in Awka. It was done by Awka forebears to show love and unity among families and other relations. The monkey which represents Awka deity reminds the people of that relationship with their forebears.
“These were also to them of worship among Awka people in those days. But today Awka people are Christians and not what it used to be in the past. I am from Awka town and as a sociologists I appreciate the importance of culture and tradition. However moves were made to change the name to Ekwu Umuoka festival but with time there would be a departure from the past. And like you know, culture is not static. There would always be a change  due to civilisation and diffusion of cultures.”
On the Imoka Day proper, indications showed that the leaders did a lot of work to avert  the problems associated with the festival in the past. The usual raucousness, rough and riotousness, associated with how some of the indigenes, especially the youths observed the festival, was gone.
The acrobatic display of motorcycle riders and car drivers along the popular Zik Avenue Awka was highly checked by the organising committee put up for the festival.
In fact the long stretch of Zik Avenue dual carriage road was barricaded up to the Imoka shine which became the venue for the cultural carnival.
Earlier before then over 4,000 monkeys had reportedly visited the shrine briefly as representatives of the deity and the spiritual flagging off the festival.
The event was heralded with the sound of the double-aged local ogene (gong).
As they played and sang the cultural folklore, chanting ancient war songs, the deadly looking ababa and akataka masquerade paced and jumped across the dual carriage Zik Avenue dancing in a rare display of valour.
The entire ceremony was accentuated by the flutists, whose dexterity with his musical instrument practically heightened the crescendo of the cultural songs to the delight of spectators and admirers.
Occasionally, some young men brandishing long whips would run to the centre of the road and start lashing each other. According to the young men the exchange of whipping depicts friendship and displays the symbol of manhood and the ability to endure the pains and hash pangs the whips.
This aspect of the traditional observance, was of course not for the lily-livered men or faint-hearted, who scampered to safety while the “real men” stood solidly to take the pains.
Eventuallthe was charged atmosphere was tempered by a long file of elderly men wearing brown sack cloths with a local bowler  hats adorned with eagle feathers. Wit their den guns slung across their shoulders which apparently depicted one of the Awka aged-long profession of hunting, the message they tried to send was unmistakable.
Awka people were known to be great hunters and even till date the hunting business still thrives as visitors to the ancient town still stop to exploit the privilege of buying nchi (grass cutters) mgbada (antelopes) atu (Buffalos) from  hunters displaying their games along Amansea Aguoka-kwata junctions of Onitsha-Awka-Enugu express road.
The long den guns further showcased the popular blacksmithing art of the people who it was gathered produced enough arms used during the Biafra-Nigerian civil war.
The women edition of the festival, was no less apparent in the display of local fabrication activities of the community with metals. Two days earlier, some of them, some quite aged, were seen wearing brass and copper beads, fashioned by their men.
Inside the Imoka shrine, the traditional titled men and clan heads assembled in their numbers, exchanging title greetings over large jars of up wine and breaking of kola nuts.
Close to the main entrance of the shrine was the holy of holies of the shrine painted in white with Eze  Imoka, sitted on a traditional stool decorated with animal skin and a local bowl of white clay (Nzu). Family heads and spiritual heads of several homesteads would kneel before it, present kola nuts to make a supplications and rub their eyelid with the white clay as a representation of peace in the home, unity and love among kinsmen and prosperity in the coming agricultural season.
While the supplications went on, the masquerades which signify the presence of Awka forebearers had taken enough rest and the arena would come alive again with the dancing and exchanging of whips by young men.
The cultural metal gong and the sounding of the solo speaking Ikolo drum made out of Iroko trees electrified the arena.
Speaking at the occasion, the President General of Awka Development Union Nigeria (ADUN) Engr Anthony Anene Okechukwu said: “This is a festivals that started about 800 years ago aimed at knowing the number of Awka people at home and those abroad. It was like a census exercise for Awka people. The sighting of the moon is done through the calculation of Amikwo people and they are the people that give the Luna months.  “The women had their own earlier before the grand finale of the festival and they are women from the age brackets of 60yeras and above. The meal that is served at the occasion is Onugbu soup (bitter leaf) with rich source and eaten with pound yam”.
Senator Ben Obi, a high title chief of the community, told Daily Independent that the festival is unifying factor in town. “Imoka has been a source of protection and guidance of the people at large and todays occasion as you can see is different. A delegation paid a visit to Governor Peter Obi today and he expressed his commitment towards ensuring that the culture of our people are upheld. The next Imoka would be different as we are planning to attract people from far and wide including the international community,” he said.