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Introduction
The Igbo ethnic group of Nigeria is found majorly in the South-
Eastern part of the country comprised of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, 
Enugu, and Imo States. However, some of them are also found in 
other states like Delta, Cross-River, Rivers, Edo, and Benue. They 
are among Nigeria's three major ethnic groups with highly 
specialized and distinct cultural values. The two other major 
ethnic groups are Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba with different cultures. 
Igbo culture is inherently dynamic and flexible, rather than static 
(Amadi and Agena 2015). The fluency and flexibility of the Igbo 
culture ensure easy adaptation to minor changes which create 
room for the influence of cultural materialistic intrusions. 
However, there are inalienable cultures that are sacrosanct by 
which the people are identified and recognized. The New Yam 
festival (henceforth Iri Ji Ohu, in some translations Iri Ji Ohuru) is 
one such culture. Yam in the Igbo language is called Ji. To eat 
means Iri. new means Ohu. Put together, the three words 
constitute a linguistic triad that connotes Igbo identity whenever 
and wherever they are used together. Iri Ji Ohu has become 
symbolic as part of the Igbo traditional and cultural evolution 
which confers importance, recognition, and an enduring sense of 
belonging on the people. While many Igbo identity emblems have 
been eroded by Western civilization, especially the Christian 
religion, Iri Ji Ohu still maintains its cultural flavour even though 
aspects of it have been compromised to accommodate Western 
ideas and the steady incursion of cultural materialism in the 
modern era. In Igboland, Ji is regarded as the king of all crops and 
granted more respect than all other crops like cassava, cocoyam, 
and maize. Chinua Achebe captures the majestic identity of the 
New Yam festival in Igboland in his novel Things Fall Apart in the 
following words:

Men and women, young and old, looked 
forward to the New Yam festival because it 
began the season of plenty – the new year. 
On the last night before the festival, yams of 
the old were all disposed of by those who 

Igbo Identity: New Yam Festival as Cultural Drama
                                                         

Promise Adiele PhD
Department of English

Mountain Top University
 Ibafo, Ogun State.
poadiele@mtu.edu.ng

Abstract
The Igbo ethnic group is mostly found in the South-Eastern part of 
Nigeria. Their major identity indices are language, fashion, and 
various celebratory cultures. One of the major celebratory cultures 
of the Igbo people is the New Yam festival translated as (Iri Iji 
Ohu) marked annually at the beginning of the new harvest season 
between July and August. Beyond its recognition as a celebratory 
festival that reflects the Igbo identity, it has not attracted global 
interpretation as a cultural practice that expands the frontiers of 
drama as a genre of literature. Through cultural materialism, this 
study argues that the Iri Ji Ohufestival is a cultural drama rooted in 
imitation, ritual, sacrifice, and role-playing, all characteristics of 
the Greek Dionysian festival and therefore should be interpreted 
and appreciated as cultural drama. The Iri Ji Ohufestival is a 
symbolic dramatic genre that showcases the identity of the people 
as a primal consideration by which they are recognized. It 
deserves the same academic attention as the Greek Dionysian 
festival and other cultural festivals worldwide used to explain a 
people's history, identity, spiritual, and cultural provenance. That 
way, the Igbo identity can be better understood and appreciated.  
Keywords:culture, Igbo, cultural materialism, identity, new yam 
festival, drama 

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2025
Promise Adiele PhD  - Igbo Identity: New Yam Festival as Cultural 
Drama

http://poadiele@mtu.edu.ng


paper is concerned has espoused the festival as a cultural dramatic 
genre which deserves recognition and appreciation as the Greek 
Dionysian spectacle. Using cultural materialism as a critical 
instrument of analysis, the Iri Ji Ohu festival in Igboland will be 
analysed and explained as a cultural drama with all the attributes 
of drama as a genre of literature. The festival also witnesses the 
slaughtering of goats and the sprinkling of blood, dramatic, 
cleansing rituals associated with Greek classical tragedy. In a way, 
we can argue that the Igbo is a symbolic ethnic group in Nigeria 
like Greece in Europe because there is no historical, 
archaeological, or anthropological evidence to prove that they 
migrated from anywhere like the other major ethnic groups in 
Nigeria.  Therefore, we can describe them as original sons of the 
soil. And whereas every other ethnic or linguistic group or tribe 
that inhabits Nigeria today can trace their source of migration or 
origin, the Igbo arguably are the only group that was there before 
others (Nwafor-Ejelinma 2012). Indeed, Iri Ji Ohu festival as a 
symbolic identity of the Igbo and as a cultural drama merits a 
critical study as cultural drama. The identity of the Igbo person is 
portrayed in the general philosophy of the Igbo and illustrated in 
the cultural heritage of the people (Nnebedum 2018). 

Cultural Materialism 
The linguistic and vocabulary complexities associated with 
explaining cultural materialism have, to a large extent, mystified 
the easy understanding of the theory. Such terms as globalization, 
infrastructure, superstructure, sophistication, and human 
behaviour have all been used by researchers to bewilder the 
research community concerning cultural materialism. Cultural 
materialism is associated with Raymond Williams who posits that 
cultural materialism is a theory of the specificities of material, 
cultural, and literary production within historical materialism. 
(1977). Williams argues that cultural materialism is the totality of 
cultural influences in the historical evolution of literature and 
other artistic productions. However, Marvin Harris offers a 
somewhat penetrating explanation of cultural materialism. 

still had them. The new yam must begin with 
tasty, fresh yams and not the shrivelled and 
fibrous crop of the previous year. (Achebe 
1958)

          Achebe's narration of the importance of the New Yam 
festival in Igboland is symbolic of the iconic recognition of yam 
and its festival among the people. The festival constitutes an 
aspect of the people's existential reality from where they also drew 
inspiration, motivation, and spiritual revival for continuities. The 
cultivation of yams was governed by strict rules. As a highly 
ritualised process, yam production often involved elaborate 
ceremonial rituals during the planting and harvest seasons (Korieh 
2007). The Iri Ji Ohu festival is observed annually at the 
beginning of the new planting season between July and August. 
The festival is marked by fanfare, celebrations among the people, 
joy, and merriment. It is accompanied by rituals and sacrifices to 
cleanse the land of evil and to offer propitiations to the gods for 
long life, good health, and a rich harvest in the new planting 
season. However, this study seeks to establish the Iri Ji Ohu 
festival as a cultural dramatic enactment with all the 
characteristics of the Greek Dionysian Festival. Therefore, it 
deserves to be interpreted and appreciated as cultural drama. 

          The Iri JiOhu festival in Igboland is on the same echelon as 
the Dionysian festival in classical Greece. All the trappings of the 
Dionysian spectacle such as ritual, role-playing, sacrifice, 
costume, song, and dance are contained in the Iri Ji Ohu festival as 
a form of drama. However, while the Dionysian festival is studied 
both as the origin of drama which offers insight into tragedy as an 
element of drama, the Igbo Iri Ji Ohu festival, although mentioned 
and researched by some scholars, has not received the kind of 
attention the Dionysian festival has received within the global 
academic community. Indeed, some scholars have critiqued the Iri 
Ji Ohu festival and explained its constituents and processes of 
continuities simply as a cultural festival, no study, as far as this 

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Promise Adiele PhD  - Igbo Identity: New Yam Festival as Cultural 
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belief systems and values (Barriere and Finkel 2022).Many 
willing natives and adherents of different cultural expressions are 
unable to observe some cultural processions and festivities due to 
their meagre or lean economic, and material conditions. Material 
objects needed for sacrifices and rituals form part of different 
cultural celebrations. These rituals and sacrifices are carried out as 
propitiations to appease chthonic essences and grease the channel 
of human access to their esoteric realms. There are instances when 
the gods reject objects of sacrifice like goats and rams because 
they are not fat and plump enough. The Bible, the Christian 
religion's moral compass in the book of Genesis records how God 
rejected Cain's sacrifice because it was not juicy enough. The 
relationship between gods and humanity upheld periodically on 
the altar of sacrifices and materialism has suffered neglect due to 
the anaemic material conditions of many people, especially the 
natives who adhere to traditional religion. To a great extent, 
therefore, material conditions determine the expression of culture 
in all parts of the world. Besides the items of sacrifice for renewal 
and regeneration during some cultural practices, other aspects of a 
people's culture require colourful ceremonies, expensive fashion, 
many guests, food and drink, music and dance, and many more. In 
Igboland, the majority of the cultural processions and their 
continuities require appreciable material ostentation. 

          Cultural materialism determines how technological and 
scientific factors influence cultural beliefs, inclinations, values 
and practices. In many parts of the world, the armoury of 
modernism such as electricity, iron, language, religion, painting, 
and sculpture are infused into cultural practices as inexorable 
ingredients. In Yorubaland South-West of Nigeria, the image of 
Sango, the god of thunder and lightning adorns the front of the 
National Electricity Corporation. Sango, a sixteenth-century ruler 
of Oyo, is an anthropomorphic deity who was in his lifetime 
reputed to have had the ability to “call down” lightning to destroy 
his enemies and burn their houses and homesteads (Garuba 2003). 

According to him, the aim of cultural materialism in particular is 
to account for the origin, maintenance, and change of the global 
inventory of sociocultural differences and similarities (2001). 
Although the preceding observation by Harris provides a 
relationship between the source of the worldwide catalogue of 
sociocultural peculiarities and inherent departures as the basic 
commitment of cultural materialism, it does not clearly explain or 
give an explicit meaning of cultural materialism. Williams 
introduced this theory with his focus on historical context but with 
impacts onthe economy, culture, society, politics, etc. with a 
broader perspective in literature (Singh 2021). To understand 
cultural materialism and its operational apparatuses, one must 
explain the two words separately. By doing so, we will set aside all 
the apprehension accompanying the theory. Generally, we can say 
that culture is the entire spectrum of people's attitudes, 
approaches, responses, and reactions towards various aspects of 
their existence. It also refers to customs, beliefs, practices, 
heritages, and habits associated with a society in a specified 
geographical location. Materialism on the other hand denotes the 
belief that matter or physical possession is the whole essence of 
human existence or the most important denominator of human 
life. Simply put, we can therefore say that cultural materialism 
establishes and continually lubricates the interface between the 
culture of a people in terms of beliefs and traditions, and how it is 
shaped or influenced by their material conditions. It is the interface 
between culture and materialism and how they dialectically 
influence each other. In all of its characteristics of grandeur, 
materialism or material conditions, expressed through the 
identifiable matrix of opulence and the attendant social euphoria, 
shape and impact the culture of a people. 

          This study is committed to analysing how material 
conditions have historically and contemporarily affected the Iri Ji 
Ohu festival as a dramatic cultural expression. During festivals, 
especially cultural festivals, the role of objects is integral to the 
creation of community lore and often demonstrates community 

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Promise Adiele PhD  - Igbo Identity: New Yam Festival as Cultural 
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communicates both as a form of entertainment and as a ritual, an 
irreducible process, especially festivals, through which man 
accesses the esoteric realm of chthonic gods. Although drama has 
always been intrinsically intertextual with other literary forms, its 
primary relationship is, of course, with the actualities of theatre 
and performance, and thus with the material culture and 
ideological practices of societies (Greenhalgh 2004). The 
foregoing emphasizes the transmutation of drama from a textual 
literary formation to performance enabled by material culture. In 
this case, drama can be understood in two ways. First, as a medium 
of enacting or mirroring life's multiple realities including the 
socio-economic, gender, and class dialectics depicted in a literary 
text. Second, as a creative process that offers communal binding 
which provides an avenue for cultural renewal through rituals 
where the channel between humanity and the supernatural is 
constantly lubricated. The Iri Ji Ohu falls under the matrix of the 
second designation of drama as a cultural practice. Derek Wright 
posits that drama is the most primal of artistic expression mediated 
by no pigment, print, or lens, it communicates directly through the 
raw material of the pulsating human body, its rhythmic movement, 
sounds, and presence. (1993). Wright exalts the human body, its 
movement and sound as major components of the dramatic mode. 
In this case, festivals primarily thrive on the human body, 
movements, music, and dance all encapsulated within the spatial 
depiction of reality. 

          The Iri Ji Ohu also serves a symbolic purpose as a form of 
tourism that attracts many people from different parts of the world. 
In that sense, it is portrayed as a rich cultural identity that reflects 
the origin and sometimes spiritual inclination of the people. 
Festival celebration is connected to the growth of tourism in recent 
times. This is probably because the increasing wave of 
globalization gave rise to the need to reinstate identity (Okoye 
2020). Okoye argues that globalization is a factor that necessitates 
the annual celebration of certain festivals as a form of identity 
renewal. The New Yam festival is a general cultural phenomenon 

The foregoing is symbolic of the god's control of electricity in the 
modern era even if there is no direct proof of this belief. Thus, the 
traditional elite have appropriated an aspect of modernity into the 
resources of their cultural beliefs. Motor mechanics and other 
vocations that require the use of iron also appropriate Ogun, the 
god of iron as their primal guardian. Local languages are today 
transmitted through sophisticated modern channels such as radio, 
TV, phones and sundry gadgets. Painting and sculpture are 
captured and advertised through diverse modern instruments such 
as cameras, TV and radio. The intersections of these modern 
cultures and traditional cultures are determined by material 
conditions. The material conditions of many people determine 
their interest in a particular culture and are not necessarily due to 
cultural convictions or the expediency of such cultural practices. 

Literature Review
Many critics have examined drama as a genre of literature from 
different perspectives. Dramatic literature is the record of the 
attempts of playwrights to express and communicate their ideas 
about man's hopes, dreams, ideals, feelings, thoughts and 
experiences, and his relationship to society (Betti 2015). Betti ties 
his interpretation and meaning of drama to a playwright's 
conception of society, social realities, and all the animating 
tensions that determine social evolution. Dramatic practices such 
as hot seating, role-play, tableaux, and writing-in-role are some of 
an always-expanding repertoire of performative, embodied and 
pedagogical tools that provide opportunities for students to 
become critical observers and effective problem solvers as they 
actively and playfully negotiate meaning within and around texts 
(Medina et al. 2021). 'Hot seating', 'role-playing, 'tableaux' and 
'writing-in-role' are aspects of dramatic performance that create 
opportunities for students to appreciate their environment as 
critical solution providers. But among all the three categories 
mentioned, role-playing is composed of more immediacy in 
festivals and rituals as forms of cultural drama. The divergences in 
opinion point to the multiple hierarchies in which drama 

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how deeply buried such a consciousness has latterly become – 
fearfully exists (Soyinka 1976). The ritual drama creates a charged 
cosmic environment where man and gods commingle. The blood 
of animals killed in such sacrifices does not symbolize death but 
indicates renewal, rebirth, and regeneration. It also revives the 
Igbo cosmological inclinations towards birth and dying and the 
cyclic observable procedure of continuity. According to 
Ukachukwu Manus:

Like yam, the Igbo recognize 
humankind's trajectory in life to be 
born, to grow, to reach maturity and 
old age, to die and to regenerate 
among one's own as a necessary fact. 
For the Igbo, there is a strong belief in 
life-after-life. The phenomenon 
directs attention to the Igbo belief in 
the cyclic return to new life (2007). 

The ritual process, as a dramatic cultural expression during the Iri 
Ji Ohu, points to an underlying awareness of the local people 
between them and their environment, which their ancestors 
control in the supernatural realm. Therefore, the festival allows 
them to recognize chthonic existence and uphold their protective 
powers through libation and propitiation. Thus, earth and cosmos, 
humanity and spirits continually co-mingle in a mutual 
relationship. 

Dramatic Elements in Iri Ji Ohu 
The Iri Ji Ohu festival accommodates characteristics of drama 
both as a genre of literature and cultural practice. The festivals 
which combine dances, songs, music, chants, speech/dialogue, 
spectacle, and so on, are examples of traditional drama. While 
some performance forms such as religious rituals, comedies, and 
storytelling enactment, as suggested above, may or may not have 
all these elements, each possesses the central feature of drama 
known as mimesis (Eziechine 2021). The most outstanding and 

across Africa and Nigeria especially but in Igboland, it has 
morphed into a more significant exhibition associated with the 
identity of the people across the world. Lawrence-Hart shares the 
same view that festivals serve as a form of tourism that enables 
people to travel and share the culture of other people peacefully. 
According to him, festivals provide visitors the opportunity to see 
how the local communities celebrate their culture thereby creating 
room for intercultural communication and help people to enjoy 
and meet their leisure needs (2014). Sometimes, foreigners who 
visit parts of Igboland for the Iri Ji Ohu obtain permission to 
capture the proceedings through video recordings and use them as 
documentaries overseas. By so doing the identity and culture of 
the people are transmitted abroad and global recognition is 
accorded to the ethnic group. Some Igbo people living in different 
parts of the world also celebrate the Iri Ji Ohu festival in their 
foreign places of sojourn. That kind of cultural migration 
generates revenue for the people but unfortunately, it is still seen 
as a celebratory festival and not a cultural drama. 

          The dramatic import of the Iri Ji Ohu in Igboland also 
encapsulates the people's fundamental spiritual proclivities. 
Besides the celebration and fanfare, the festival serves as a means 
of relating with the ancestors and seeking their blessings in the 
new planting season. The traditional chief priests in different Igbo 
communities usually stand in-between the deities, the ancestors, 
and the people. They offer sacrifices, pouring libation and prayers 
to the deities for the new yam and other blessings, which the 
adherents respond to by shouting solemnly Iseeee (So, shall it be) 
(Unya 2021). In most parts of Igboland, the procedure of that 
spiritual connection with the ancestors is not just verbalized but 
involves different kinds of rituals which many times involve the 
killing of goats and fowls and the sprinkling of their blood on a 
designated patch of the earth. We can refer to this as ritual theatre. 
Ritual theatre, let it be recalled, establishes the spatial medium not 
merely as a physical area for simulated events but as a manageable 
contraction of the cosmic envelop within which man – no matter 

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Dionysian festival traced as the origin of drama and the Igbo Iri Ji 
Ohu festival. Both festivals are dedicated to fertility gods. While 
in Greece, Dionysus is the recipient of that ritualistic offerings, the 
Igbo god of the earth Ala, is its counterpart. While there is a man, 
Thespis who led the goat to be slaughtered in the Greek account of 
the origin of drama, the lack of uniformity in celebrating the Iri Ji 
Ohu in Igboland denies us the opportunity of identifying a 
particular character as a Thespis counterpart. However, the goat 
slaughtered during the Iri Ji Ohu is led by a man with divine or 
spiritual responsibilities. 

          Improvisation is another important element of drama found 
during the Iri Ji Ohu festival. Improvisation means to react 
creatively and spontaneously in a given situation that provides a 
substitute seamlessly aligning with prevailing events in a dramatic 
situation. The basic elements of improvisation are spontaneity and 
creativity. The heart of the creative process is a journey to the 
unknown or, in other words, improvisation. There is no creative 
process if there are only known procedures (Shem-Tov 
2015).During the Iri Ji Ohu festival, there are procedures and 
processes to take that are recognized by the people as appropriate. 
These procedures in terms of enchantment, movements, and order 
of offering prayers are determined by the expertise of the elders 
who are involved in the cultural festival. Sometimes, the rhythm 
of the procedures may be broken and in such situations, it behoves 
the participants to improvise and carry on with the performance 
without the knowledge of observers and the public. Besides the 
broken sequence of procedures in the festival, there is also another 
kind of improvisation which is a reaction to a sudden development 
during the ritual process. For example, a goat meant for sacrifice 
may run away or vehemently resist its handler leading it to be 
slaughtered. If the goat meant to be used for sacrifice runs away, it 
is a bad omen and the participants must improvise immediately 
without the knowledge of the public or spectators present. 
Improvisation as an element of drama and theatre is a veritable 
aspect of the Iri Ji Ohu festival which embodies an aspect of local 

significant aspect of the festival is the ritual dimension. Ritual in 
drama or ritual theatre is a form of dramatic enactment that formed 
part of the Dionysian spectacle in classical Greek drama. 
Although some critics argue that ritual does not qualify to be 
drama because it does not have a plot, the presence of other 
dramatic elements in rituals qualifies them as drama. It is one thing 
to say that drama performs a ritual function, includes rituals, or 
adopts ritual forms and quite another to prove that drama has a 
ritual origin. Sceptics are quick to say that the historical link 
between drama and ritual has never been proven (Csapo and 
Miller 2007). If the Dionysian festival, a ritual drama, could be 
referred to as drama and provide a historical origin of drama, other 
ritualistic festivals also qualify as drama. The ritual aspect of Iri Ji 
Ohu celebrations involves the slaughtering of animals like goats, 
fowls and in some cases rams according to the social and 
economic status of the celebrant or community. The ritual process 
initiates a channel of interaction between the living and the dead, 
between the people and their ancestors. It is symbolic as an 
enabling regenerative process of continuity that ensures peace and 
harmony between the physical realm and the supernatural realm. 

          The ritual process during the Iri Ji Ohu festival serves two 
main purposes for the people – it cleanses the land of all defilement 
and desecrations and it urges the gods to guide, protect and 
preserve the people, granting them rich harvest, long life and 
prosperity. In many parts of Igboland, the goat is the symbolic 
animal slaughtered during the festival. In the Greek classical 
period, the goat was regarded as the symbol of tragedy because it 
was slaughtered during the Dionysian festival. Its appearance 
shows a proud, frontal, sometimes arrogant visage while the rear is 
dirty. It signifies hubris that trails a man without his knowledge but 
which leads to his ultimate tragedy or downfall. While the goat in 
Igboland is not seen or viewed from this perspective, its role as a 
symbol of propitiation and sacrifice is tied to the people's 
understanding of the cyclical nature of human existence. 
Therefore, there is a perpetuating parallel between the Greek 

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photographs of very big yams harvested in the season. From the 
Ezeji to the elders who perform the ritual, to the women dancers 
and youth processions, costuming plays an important role in the 
entire dramatic enactment of the Iri Ji Ohu festival in Igboland. 

          Chorus and chants, music and dance are also dramatic 
elements associated with the festival. During the ritual process, 
the eldest man in the family or village chants various forms of 
existential assertions which draw a chorus of answers from 
observers. For example

ELDER: It shall be well with us in the new year
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeee (so shall it be)
ELDER: We will prosper and have a good yam harvest 
in the new year
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeeeee
ELDER: We will have enough rainfall for our crops
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeeee
ELDER: Our wives will have children successfully
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeeee
ELDER: When we get sick we will recover
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeeee 
ELDER: We will all be alive to celebrate the next iri ji 
ohu
CHORUS: Iseeeeeeeee

The chorus during the festival is different from the chorus of the 
classical Greek drama. In Greek drama, the chorus provides 
background information about plot development in the play. But 
in the Iri Ji Ohu dramatic enactment, the chorus only serves as an 
affirmation group that agrees with the pronouncements of the 
eldest man in the family or village who performs the ritual. Chants 
and incantations are part of any ritual in almost all the cases of 
ritual engagements. So, when animals are slaughtered as sacrifices 
to the gods, certain forms of arcane chants are rehashed to quicken 
the spirits of the ancestors and invite their benevolent presence. 
Music and dance as components of drama accompany every Iri Ji 

creativity within a cultural arena. Improvisation can also take the 
form of entertainment. A vocalist may suddenly emerge, 
overwhelmed with emotions and spurred on by the spectacle of the 
moment, he can break loose and start chanting panegyric, 
eulogizing some gods or a revered hero of the past to the 
admiration of the public. It adds to the marvel and thrill of the 
occasion even though it may not have been in the original plan of 
the festival. 

          Costume is an inexorable aspect of drama and theatre found 
in the Iri Ji Ohu festival. No successful theatrical production can 
take place without a consummate costume structure. The success 
of many theatrical productions, movies, and dramas at any level 
depends on effective costumes. Costume constitutes one of the 
most formidable and versatile cultural agents for the transmission 
of knowledge and values across ethnic, national and international 
boundaries… culturally and through dress and grooming, rare 
clothes which may not be seen on ordinary days are displayed 
(Kwakye-Opong and Adinku 2013).  It reflects the image of 
representation, character transition, role-playing and diverse 
forms of duplicate and semblance manipulation. Besides the ritual 
aspect of the Iri Ji Ohu, costume is the next most important aspect 
of the festival. Because the occasion is celebratory, the celebrants 
adorn their best clothes to create an atmosphere of joy and 
happiness which reflects the general ambiance associated with the 
festival. During the festival, dance groups, women, youths, and 
sundry categories of people adorn colourful dresses sometimes in 
diverse degrees of uniformity to add to the aesthetics of the 
environment. In addition, some men masquerade as spirits by 
transforming their appearance with weird costumes, altering their 
voices through specialized theatrical sound devices to produce 
esoteric sounds reminiscent of a spirit. Many times, one assumes 
that these masquerades are spirits from the netherworld but the 
transformation is achieved through costuming. In the case of 
community celebration of the festival, the designated venue is 
decorated to create a beautiful atmosphere sometimes with 

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festival as an inexorable part of the people's identity. When one 
recognizes the importance of Ji in Igboland, then the Iri Ji Ohu as a 
primordial festival of substance will be appreciated. The New 
Yam Festival holds significant cultural and historical importance 
in many communities, particularly in regions where yam 
cultivation is a vital part of agriculture (Onwuatuegwu 2024). 
There are multiple categories of yam and all the ceremonies that 
surround it in Igboland. However, it is beyond the scope of this 
study to examine all the categories of yam as an identity crop of 
Igbo people. This study is concerned with portraying the New 
Yam festival in Igboland as a cultural drama. Therefore, it 
examines the process of the festival, its dramatic characteristics, 
the cultural elements and how they conform to our understanding 
of drama.

             The Iri Ji Ohu festival is an annual event and the period of 
celebration is fixed between July and August. New yams are 
harvested from May to July. The celebration, led by male family 
heads is a way of identifying with the rest of the ethnic group and 
showing appreciation to the gods for life, rich harvest, and 
supplication for better harvest in the new planting season. There is 
no common day set aside for the festival. Every family can decide 
when to celebrate it although it must fall within the stipulated 
period. Sometimes, a whole village or clan can collectively 
celebrate the festival and at such times, it is always like a carnival 
with masquerade dance, women's dance, and other forms of 
fanfare. The Iri Ji Ohu whether celebrated within the family unit or 
at the community level is accompanied by rituals, sacrifices, 
prayers and supplications to the gods. During the festival, the yam 
seed is made into various edible varieties. It can be roasted or 
boiled and eaten with any sauce like palm oil and vegetables. It can 
also be cooked and eaten with the local pepper soup and served 
with palm wine. Before the yam is eaten, the eldest man in a family 
or the community would, first of all, bless the kola nut and offer 
fervent prayers for more increase in the new planting season. With 

Ohu festival in almost every situation. The music could be 
produced in two ways - through local musical instruments like 
ogene, udu,osha and flutes or through amplified modern musical 
instruments like a compact disc, turn-table, and loudspeakers. The 
music could last for a whole day. Dance could be provided by 
women groups, youth groups, age-grades or other associations in 
the community. Overall, the Iri Ji Ohu festival is a dramatic 
exhibition which should rank alongside the Dionysian festival in 
drama and theatre. 

The Significance of Ji and the Iri Ji Ohu Festival in Igboland
Yam (Ji) in Igboland is significant in many ways. It is the people's 
major staple food. Men who have demonstrated comparable 
success by planting and harvesting large quantities of yam and 
have a large yam barn for storing yams always take the title of 
Ezeji which means King of Yams. While the Iri Ji Ohu festival is 
not mandatory for ordinary folks across Igboland, an Ezeji must 
celebrate it to demonstrate his wealth of yam seed. It was expected 
that an aspirant should have at least one hundred stakes of the 
approved yam type to take the first title.  Because the titles were in 
hierarchical order, the successful farmer who could boast of up to 
400 stakes was qualified to take the highest yam title (a stake could 
take as many as 200 yams depending on the length of the stick and 
preference of the farmer) (Iwuagwu 2010). If a man fails to have a 
good harvest during the planting season, it is interpreted to mean 
that the gods are angry with the man and therefore, propitiation 
would be required to appease them. 

          The significance of Ji as an aspect of the Igbo identity is 
demonstrated during marriage ceremonies. It is one of the most 
important items that must be presented by the bridegroom to the 
bride's family as bride price. To steal Ji in Igboland is an atrocious 
abomination with severe spiritual consequences and the thief, if 
caught, must carry out certain rituals as prescribed by the 
unwritten laws of the land to appease the gods. It is this symbolic 
patch occupied by Ji in Igboland that necessitates its special 

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festival for men. During the festival, most of the activities like the 
ritual process, the prayers to the ancestors, and the breaking of 
kola nuts are all performed by men. The yam title is also an 
exclusive preserve for men. Women do not take the Ezeji title in 
Igboland no matter how industrious they may have proved in 
cultivating yams during the planting season. In some parts of 
Igboland, women are not allowed to partake in some of the Iri Ji 
Ohu rites. The abiding argument here is that the Iri Ji Ohu festival 
is intricately attached to the Igbo identity and as a cultural drama, 
deserves crucial recognition at the same level as the Greek 
Dionysian festival.

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the kola nut, the elder calls upon the ancestors and different gods 
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Conclusion
As a cultural festival, Iri Ji Ohu accommodates various aspects of 
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