Igede Agba (New Yam Festival)

Culture, Stories 4/09/2024 by Ojotule Angela Omaji

Igede Agba is an annual new yam cultural festival celebrated among the Igede of Benue state, Nigeria.  A cyclic festival comes up every first “Ihigile market day” in September. According to the Igede calendar, September is her seventh moon “Oya”, an extraordinary number.

The Igede Agba is a celebration to God for a good harvest and the beginning of the planting season. This is because the major preoccupation of the Igede people is the cultivation of food crops such as yams, cassava, rice and cereals. The size of an Igede man’s yam farm is a manifestation of his wealth. Yam, the king of all farm produce, is used to mark the occasion of harvest and the new planting season. As such, harvesting of new yams before it is declared free for harvesting is taboo. Every Igede man is expected to celebrate the festival with yams from his farm, not bought from the market. 

During and immediately after Igede Agba, families are expected to eat only pounded yam. The festival is celebrated with all male children gathering at the father’s round hut called Ugara, while all the man’s wives gather together with all female children in the most senior wife’s hut. The father usually washes his hands first, followed by the most senior son and that is how the eating proceeds. Nobody is allowed to jump the queue. Those who disobey may be stopped from further eating. Meat is usually shared after a meal or somewhere close to the end of eating pounded yam. This is also the period various households address all pending cases of misunderstandings and such are amicably resolved.

 Two major important things of the Igebe Agba festival include: 

1. The coming together of families for the celebration brings about unity. The idea of washing hands together in one basin (Bowl) by family members sometimes, including extended families, is an unwritten covenant. This covenant is an agreement to remain united, and not to harbour any bad feelings against each other. After Igede Agba, families unite and farm for the elders in a group, one after the other. All the male children do this happily.
2. It is a time when communal development and projects are usually planned for execution. Planning for the next planting season among others. This period mobilizes the people towards purposeful developments

1. Learn more about Igede People Of Benue State
2. Igede People Marrying Tiv People in Benue State
3. Igede Is Not Idoma, We Are Not Historical, Biological Or Culturally Related

The activities at Igede Agba include eating pounded yam, cultural music, dancing and other forms of cultural displays. During the celebration, awards and honours are bestowed on the farmers who have cultivated the largest farms or have the biggest yams or the most number of yams in their barns. This is a very open, free and fair competition and it helps to stimulate hard work and development.

Igede Agba is considered a time of peace, reconciliation and sharing. No one eats alone on Igede Agba day. You must have a friend to visit or one to visit you. Hence as part of the preparations, you must clear the footpath between you and your neighbor’s house. This is saying “You are welcome to visit or stop over to eat’. The exchange of gifts and food is done with enthusiasm and joy. The Igede man is truly at his best during the Igede Agba period.