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'For the gods and our pockets': The Beginning and End of 
the OtiteFestival in Awka

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD
Department of History and International Studies, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

Abstract
The advent of Christianity in Awka, like in many African societies, 
produced many social upheavals that battered and bruised the 
primordial forms of existence of the people. Festivals were vital 
aspects of the socio-cultural life of traditional Igbo people. Igbo 
traditional festivals, apart from providing religious functions, also 
provided social, emotional, and aesthetic values for the people. 
Traditional Awka society was known for its numerous social 
exhibitions manifested in group dances, title-taking, and religious 
and cultural festivals, among others. One of these festivals was the 
Otite festival, which was celebrated in the seventh month (Onwa 
Asaa) of the local calendar. The Otite festival provided the 
platform for each family to thank their family gods and personal 
gods for safeguarding the family members and, especially, for 
bountiful blessings in the outgoing year. Besides this, the Otite 
festival economicallyimpacted the town since every Awka person 
abroad compulsorily returned home; these returnees repatriated 
significant resources to the town. The importance of such a festival 
in traditional Awka societycannot be gainsaid. However, the 
advent of Christianity in Awka in 1904 pitched the Otite festival 
against the teachings of the missionaries,who summarily declared 
an all-out war against the festival. This study examines the clash of 
Christianity and the Otite festival in Awka. The study argues that 
the decline of the festival had robbed the community of the 
economic and strategic benefits that accrued from the festival. It 
recommends a revival of the Otite festival.

Keywords: Otite, Christianity, Civilization, Awka and Culture

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

22

Introduction 
One of the greatest debates among Western liberal scholars began 
in 1992 with the publication of Francis Fukuyama's 'The End of 
History and the Last Man.' Not only was the title of the book 
pointy, but its central argument, which was that the end of 
socialism and the free rein of liberal democracies and its Siamese 
twin, free-market capitalism, represented the endpoint of 
humanity's sociocultural evolution presented a vexed contestation 
to the whole of the social thought of the twentieth century. History, 
in Fukuyama's estimation, had gone full cycle and had returned to 
its equilibrium – socialism extinguished and capitalism 
triumphant. As was to be expected, Fukuyama's work sparked 
extensive debate and criticism, notably from various scholars and 
intellectuals who may be seen as his contemporaries, including his 
academic mentor, Samuel P. Huntington. 

A year after Fukuyama published his controversial study, 
Huntington released an article, which was later expanded into a 
book in 1996, and argued that the future conflicts in the world 
would not primarily be ideological or economic, as was the case 
during the Cold War, but rather cultural and civilizational. He 
further contended that the fundamental sources of conflict will 
arise from differences in culture and religion. For instance, he 
suggests that the West will face challenges from Islamic and 
Confucian civilizations, creating tensions based on cultural 
identities. Huntington also emphasized the role of religion as a key 
element in shaping civilizations and fueling conflicts. He posits 
that religious differences are often more pronounced and more 
difficult to resolve than ideological differences.

These differing viewpoints have contributed to rich 
discussions in most of the disciplines in the humanities and social 
sciences, illustrating the complexity of understanding global 
history and conflicts. While both thinkers have made significant 
contributions to political discourse, their divergent views reflect 
deeper philosophical and theoretical divides about the nature of 

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progress and conflict in the modern world. Huntington was, in 
fact, closer to the point. His only misstep was the pegging of the 
primacy of cultural and civilizational matters to the end of the 
Cold War. The fact that cultural and civilizational matters have 
been at the forefront of most historical occurrences: the Atlantic 
slave trade and European colonial imperialism in Africa were 
triggered in the main by cultural factors in Europe, and the quest to 
impose these cultural forms on other peoples of the world have 
been creating conflicts since the sixteenth century. Wherever they 
sought to impose their way of life, inevitable civilizational 
conflicts ensued. This was most noticeable in the religious sphere. 
European Christian missionaries tried to recreate the African 
world. 

The above debate was practicalised in Awka society long 
before both Fukuyama and Huntington set pen to paper. This is 
because, akin to many African societies, traditional Awka society 
socialized a great deal, and they gave expressions to this 
socialization through group dances, title-taking, and religious and 
cultural festivals, among others. In fact, within the twelve-month 
traditional calendar, only one month passed without a festival 

1
celebrated. These festivals afforded the people the opportunity to 
take stock of issues in their respective villages and provided the 

2opportunity for a village's population census exercise. One of 
such festivals was the Otite festival.The Otite festival served as a 
period for reunion and homecoming for all Awka indigenes 
abroad. The festival also provided a platform for each family to 
thank their family gods for safeguarding the family members, 

3
especially for bountiful blessings in the outgoing year. However, 
the advent of Christianity in the community led to the gradual 
decline and eventual demise of the festival. The Otite festival 
could not survive the attacks against it from the Christian fold, and 
thus, the festival not only went into oblivion but virtually 

4disappeared from Awka customs .While several historical works 
have been written about Awka, the Otite festival has hardly 
received any significant attention from historians of Igboland. 
Thus, this study examines the Otite festival, especially its clash 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

24

with Christianity, which was to eventually lead to its decline and 
eventual demise.

The study is organized into five sections. The introduction 
is followed by the second section, which historicizes the Otite 
festival. The third part examines the origin of the festival, while 
the fourth part considers the function and relevance of the Otite 
festival for traditional Awka society. The penultimate chapter 
discusses the clash of Christianity with the Otite festival. The 
study is concluded in the sixth section.

The Otite Festival in Historical Perspective
Festivals were vital aspects of the socio-cultural life of the 

Igbo people. This is because the worldview of the people involved 
not only the living but also the dead, who acted as agents between 
mortals and the ancestors and gods. To celebrate and 
commemorate the assistance of both the immortal ancestors and 
the gods in their everyday lives, the Igbo traditional society 

5
evolved many festivals. The traditional Awka community was no 
exception to the above praxis. Thus, the traditional community 
contrived numerous festivals, one of these festivals was the Otite 
festival.
	 	 The Otite festival was a period mapped out (the 
seventh month of the local calendar) in honor of the patron gods of 
the individual Awka person. On the first day of the feast, the head 
of each family in Awka had to sacrifice to the individual patron 
gods of the members of the family. The sacrifice consisted of a 

6
cock for the male children and a hen for the female children.  If a 
man had twelve children, he had to sacrifice twelve fowls on 
account of each of his twelve children. The essence of the sacrifice 
to the Chi of all his children was to acknowledge the patron god of 
his children for protection and any other blessings in the outgoing 

7year.
	 The above does not imply that the Otite festival was for 
sacrificing to the patron gods of only children. Every able-bodied 

8 
man, it should be noted, had to sacrifice to his Chi. However, a 

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family that witnessed bereavement or any calamity was not 
9

obliged to make any sacrifice.  The logic could be that the family 
gods did notlive up to their end of the bargain and were, therefore, 
not deserving of any sacrifice. However, on most occasions, “even 
families that witnessed bereavement usually attributed such 
calamities to human errors and not necessarily any whimsical evil 
by the gods; and in any case, they still had to propitiate their Chi 

10for any errors on their part.  Only in rare cases did the Awka man 
11 

rebel against his personal Chi”. The belief that the supernatural 
and the natural were intertwined and inseparable was engrained in 
the social worldview of the primordial Awka man. The Otite 
festival, therefore, provided the opportunity for a spiritual/psychic 
fellowship between the living and the dead.

The Awka community comprises two broad sections – Ezi 
and Ifite. This appears to have been so for a very long time. These 
two sections produce the seven quarters that make up the town – 
Amaenyi, Nkwele, Ifite-Awka, Amachala, Amikwo, Ezi-Awka, 

12
and Agulu Awka.  These quarters, in turn, produce the thirty-three 
villages of Awka. The Otite festival was not celebrated by the 
entire Awka at the same time. The festival was celebrated by the 

th
Ifite section of Awka on the 13  day of the seventh month 

st(Izunato), while the Ezi-Awka section celebrated it on the 21  day 
13

of the new moon (Izun'ese).

The Otite festival had a special meal that consisted of 
14roasted yams and ukpaka.  The ukpaka (oil-bean fruit that was 

locally prepared), usually ground with a pestle (odo) in a mortar 
(okwa), would be mixed with palm oil, salt, and pepper. The 
roasted tubers of yam were sliced into sizeable pieces and mixed 

15with the ukpaka sauceand presented for savoring.  However, 
before feasting on the delicacy, the head of the family had to throw 
a morsel of that food to the altar (uluchi) of the Chi of each 
member of the household. After this ritual, the remaining food 
would then be ready for human consumption. Often, the Otite 
meal was accompanied by large kegs of palm wine for merriment 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

26

16by the people.  Additionally, if the head of the house or any other 
person had made a special promise to his Chi, or any other deity 
for that matter, if it was a goat that had been pledged, it was killed 
over the father's altar and shared that same day by the males of the 

17
extended family. Such a goat is called “eghu mmuo”.

Importantly, all the fowls killed on the first day were not 
eaten that first day; these were eaten on the second day. The 
women prepared pounded yam with onugbu soup for the family 
after they had finished the day's sacrifices at the altars of the patron 
gods. The children collected the feathers of the fowls and spread 
them on the roads leading to their family's compounds. This 
indicated that such a family was celebrating the Otite festival. A 
family thatdid not spread these feathers was not usually associated 
with them; They were seen as ingrates who were too stingy to 

18 sacrifice to their spiritual protectors.

In the sharing of the Otite meat, elders were allotted 
19

special parts of the meat. This was referred to as “ivbe nru”.  “In 
Awka,” explains P.H. Dike, “people above a certain age, perhaps 
above eighty years or it could be by being the oldest person present 
in the ceremony, was given special parts of the cooked meat. This 
was a mark of honor for age and longevity….” Dike further 
explains that “for livestock, for example, “run” consisted of the 
animal's neck, a single part of the fleshy covering of the breast 

20
bone and gizzard….”

The Otite festival, especially the sacrifices that it entailed, 
was not done at the individual household levels alone. There is 
evidence to show that what was done in an individual family's 
'obu' was also replicated in the 'obu' of the extended family. The 
head of every family comprising the extended family took a fowl 
to the extended family's 'obu.' After sacrificing the fowl at the altar 
of the common ancestor of the extended family, each family head 
took back the fowl he had brought the previous day, which would 
have been cooked. Afterward, the fowls were shared according to 

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age. Having dispensed with the ritual aspects of the festival, palm 
21 

wine was brought, and the merriment continued into the night.
The Otite festival, it should be noted, did serve some other crucial 
functions aside from the obvious – religious, which proved 
immensely useful to the overall well-being of the traditional 
society. We shall return to this theme shortly. 

Origins of the Otite Festival in Awka
The origin of the Otite festival in Awka is difficult to 

fathom. This is partly because of the absence of written records in 
Awka until the advent of the Western missionaries and also 
because of the antiquity of the festival. This challenge perhaps 
explains why all the historians of Awka history shunned the 
question of the origin of the Otite festival like a vampire shuns the 
cross. Godwin Morah traces the origin of the festival to the 
halcyon days of traditional Awka society. “I cannot actually say 
when the Otite festival began in Awka, and I do not believe that 
any person alive can, what I know is that its origin is as old as the 

22
Awka society itself.”  In any event, the attempt at unraveling the 
origin of the Otite festival in Awka history can, at best, be 
speculative and tentative. Isaiah Chinweuba opines that the origin 
of the Otite festival cannot be fully explained outside of the 

23religious tendencies of the traditional Awka society.  Being a 
society where the supernatural and the physical were all 
interwoven and where every average male adult was supposed to 
propitiate and revere his personal god called Chi, a communal 
period for venerating all the gods - higher and lower, including 
personal gods is not imponderable among such a people. 

Besides the above, it is possible that the Otite festival was 
instituted primarily to ensure community integration and cohesion 
following the growth of the Awka blacksmithing industry. On this 
count, Samuel Chinwuko observes that,

The origin of the Otite festival has much to do with 
the coming of age of the Awka blacksmithing 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

28

industry. The growth of the Awka-smiting industry 
led to a trade-related dispersal of the Awka into 
several areas of Nigeria. Enterprising and quite 
adventurous in plying their trade, the Awka 
blacksmiths traveled to as far as Nembe, Forcados, 
Okitipupa, Idah, and Ejule. Most of these smiths 

24
were also native doctors.

Furthermore, Chinweuba informs us that,

In those days, it was taboo for able-bodied men to 
be found in Awka with the elderly people, children, 
and women – one must go for what we called Uzo – 
ie. In all of this, the Otite festival must have been 
carefully designed by the elders to serve as the only 
mandatory period when all Awka people in Uzo–Ije 

25must return home to their land of ancestry.

There appear to be more reasons to suspect that the Otite 
festival was established in the wake of the growth of the 
blacksmithing industry in Awka. Without such a period of 
homecoming, social cohesion in traditional Awka society would 
have proven very difficult, if not a herculean task. Most Awka 
blacksmiths would have settled down permanently in their places 
of Uzo-ije (sojourn). 

	 From the foregoing, it is clear that the origin of the Otite 
festival in Awka history has remained speculative, at best. The 
origins of most festivals in Igboland are speculative “a matter of 
conjecture as folklorists believe that the earliest festivals arose out 
of the anxieties of the early people's lack of understanding of the 
forces of nature and, therefore, wished to placate them (the 
forces). Arguably, most festivals and feasts were associated with 

26planting and harvesting and/ or honoring the dead”.  Interestingly, 
unlike other festivals that mainly satisfied religious purposes, the 
Otite festival had economic and strategic utilities, apart from 

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religious functions. To these, we now turn attention. 

Functions and Relevance of the Otite Festival 
The Otite festival was not only a celebration, a revelry that 

added not much value to the overall functionality of the Awka 
society; rather, it provided more than religious functions to the 
traditional Awka society. The Otite festival provided the 
opportunity for Awka people who had gone to ply their smiting 
skills in far and near towns to return home to tend, worship, and 
appease their guiding spirits (Chi) in the land of their birth. As 
Godwin Morah puts it, “The worship of one's personal patron god 
(Chi) is better worshipped at the land of one's birth. The tradition 
still subsists that no place is better qualified for reverence or 
propitiation of one's Chi more than in the uluchi in one's ancestral 

27
homeland”.  P.H. Dike drives home the point better when he notes 
that “notwithstanding the daily reverences of these gods in the 
places of their peregrination, the sacrifices at home were more 
fervently observed, perhaps in propitiation of new 'blessings' 

28 
during the next round of peregrination.” The fact that the worship 
of personal gods was of utmost importance in the traditional 
religion cannot be overemphasized. Thus, the Otite festival served 
the function of providing a time for the community to worship the 
personal gods of the members of the community. This did not only 
foster religious harmony alone; it also provided some 
psychological leverage for the Awka people. This explains why 
Isaiah Chinweuba asserts that “any Awka man that is in harmony 
with his Chi did not have to fear any whimsical evil by any 
supernatural force because “onye chi ya adighi n'izu onwu adighi 

29egbu ya”.  (One whose patron god did not sign his death warrant, 
does not die). 

Economically considered, the Otite festival provided a 
basis for the economic growth and development of the Awka 
community. The Otite period was, as noted earlier, a time for the 
mass return of all Awka indigenes on Uzo-ije (sojourn). No adult 
male indigene of Awka could afford not to return to Awka during 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

30

Otite. The penalty for failure to return during this period was 
30

usually a heavy fine.  Such an annual mass return, therefore, 
provided the opportunity for the entire Awka community to 
discuss and proffer solutions to problems that confronted their 
community. On this point, Ikechukwu Nnebe observes:

The Otite festival was a period for homecoming. 
Each village usually fixed its annual general 
meeting during the Otite festival because this was 
the only period one could see all Awka indigenes at 
Awka. Before and afterward, it was almost taboo 
for any able-bodied person to be found in Awka 
without going to Uzo-ije. Economically, the Otite 
festival helped to propel the economy of Awka. A 
lot of Awka indigenes returned home with much 
wealth from plying their smiting skills and trading 

31all over the country.

P.H. Dike contends that “the homecoming sojourners 
repatriated their earnings, which in turn helped to bolster the 
economy of the city-state as well as the economic power of the 
people... just as the occasion was important for organizing 
community self–help projects – the community taking advantage 

32of the influx of returnees”.  Furthermore, the Otite festival 
provided young people the opportunity to search for spouses and 

33negotiate and contract marriages.  No one can deny that such 
marriages would add a fillip to the local economy of the people 
since palm wine had to be sourced, food items had to be bought, 
and livestock, especially goats, among others, had to exchange 
hands. More important in boosting the traditional Awka economy 
was the penchant of the Awka people to erect their houses during 
the mass return that Otite offered. UdegbunamOkoli informed us 
that “most Awka returnees who needed a house would simply give 
the contracts to elderly relatives who had retired permanently to 
the town. Such contractors would then hire young boys who had 
not begun their own Uzo-ije to work on the relative's house… 
through these means, the young lads made money to support their 

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households, and some young men often made enough money to 
34

marry wives for themselves”.

Additionally, the Otite festival served other functions 
other than religious and economic. It also had political and 
strategic functions. For example, the festive period was also a 
period for headcount or census in Awka. Being that everyone was 
obliged to attend the Otite festival, it provided an opportunity to 
conduct a census in the town. Besides, the Otite festival was 
utilized by Awka blacksmiths and traders to assess how they were 
treated by other communities where they sojourned. This 
provided them the rare opportunity to synergize their responses to 
those communities who were not favorably disposed to their 
interests. It was during Otite festivals that traders and blacksmiths 
resolved to increasethe use of the fame of the Agballa oracle of 

35Awka and the 'Ushi' practice to protect their business interests.

Much like the Aro, the Otite festival provided the Awka 
sojourners the opportunity to annually(re)develop an intricate 
web of strategies or 'tricks' on how to relate with their neighbors 
with regard to advancing their commercial interests. These annual 
meetings were to give rise to the development of a language called 
'aba' or, better still, an esoteric code for controlling the trading and 
smiting networks of the Awka people. We are informed that “much 
as the Aba language was regarded as an exclusive language of the 
Awka people. It was, in fact, developed by the generation of the 
blacksmiths of the time, and they used it mostly as a trade 

36
language, popularly, to protect “trade secrets.”  It can, therefore, 
be seen that the Otite festival served the traditional Awka society 
in many ways. Its annihilation as a result of the activities of the 
missionaries who worked in Awka was not only unfortunate but 
robbed the Awka society of some of the utilities derivable from the 
Otite festival such that today in Awka, there is no such thing as a 
mass return, a truly and compulsory mass return of all the Awka 
persons abroad.

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

32

Christianity and the Decline of the Otite Festival, 1904-1970
With the consolidation of Christianity in Awka in 1904, 

there was a sustained attempt by the missionaries to stamp out the 
African traditional religion and all its manifestations. Without a 
doubt, one of the cultures of the Awka people that faced an 

38immediate attack from the missionaries was the Otite festival.

Unlike the Imoka festival, which was lucky to survive the 
attacks from the missionaries and had to adjust to the tide of 
events, the Otite festival was condemned by the early Christians in 
Awka. In this regard, Godwin Morah admits:

The Otite festival, in the eyes of the missionaries, 
was nothing other than a high-level idolatry that 
stood antithetical to the message of the Cross. The 
missionaries failed to appreciate any deeper 
meaning of the traditional religion of the Awka 
man and, thus, did everything in their power to 
stamp out such a seemingly 'offensive' and 
'idolatrous' festival. The case of Imoka, which was 
seen more or less as a barbaric carnival, did not 
evoke the same feeling as the Otite festival… this 
inability to appreciate the deeper essence of the 
traditional religion of the people is what eventually 
jeopardized Christianity in Africa. Most are 

39Christians only in name.

Specifically,  the most  potent  weapon used in 
exterminating the Otite festival out of Awka was Western 
education, and in this regard, the Church Missionary Society 
(CMS) played a crucial role. Having declared an all-out war 
against the Otite festival, the CMS, who were initially the leading 
missionaries in the educational sphere in Igboland, began to refuse 
to admit pupils whose parents were 'pagans.'All observers of the 
Otite festival were readily labeled 'pagans,' and their children were 
not allowed to be enrolled in CMS schools. Considering the 
enormous socio-political and economic dividends that Western 

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education portended in the emerging colonial order, many Awka 
people began to distance themselves from the Otite festival so that 

40 
their children could be enrolled in schools. P.H. Dike reasons 
that: 

Inevitably, and to profess his faith, after 
embracing the 'new religion,' the Awka proselyte 
(laden with mind control) labored to show 
himself as 'liberated.' Thus, he would stop at 
nothing to run down traditional institutions and 
whatever they stood for. Imbued with the new 
zeal, he characteristically condemned the 
customs of the people and publicly ridiculed the 

41
place of deities and shrines in Awka life.

Believing that 'darkness' was responsible for the numerous 
uluchi (altars) that pervaded Awka, the missionaries began to 
double their efforts in the domain of Western education. The 
Revds. G.T. Basden and Smiths played a crucial role in this regard. 
They contended in their preaching that darkness could only be 
expunged with light; they equated the Otite festival with darkness 

42and Christianity with light. Ikechukwu Nnebe observed that 
before a pupil could be allowed to commence school, he or she 
must have been baptized, and at baptism, a candidate is asked, 
“Have you rejected Satan and all his works?” to which the 
candidate must answer in the affirmative. Such a question 
ostensibly meant to discover whether the candidate had rejected 
all aspects of the traditional religion and, notably, the Otite 
festival. Nnebe informs us that the missionaries linked traditional 

43
religion with Satanism.  In this connection, anyone who 
celebrated the Otite festival was seen as a worker of Satan, and 
since darkness and light have no connection, the missionaries 
were often found not hesitant in sending anyone who still clings to 

44
'paganism' from their fold.  What is more, it is suggested the Awka 
society, in its step to transition to the new colonial order, provided 
the source for Chinua Achebe's Things 'Fall Apart.' Recall that 
Chinua Achebe's father was trained at St. Paul's College, Awka, 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

34

45and did work there as a church teacher.
On January 11, 1904, the Niger Mission, through the 

efforts of the Reverend Smith, established the first educational 
institution in Awka St. Paul's College, Awka. This, according to 
IfeanyiAnagbogu, was regarded as “the key to the success 
recorded by the European Missionaries in the period, 1904 – 

46
1920”.  From the 1910s onwards, the CMS began to have an 
exponential increment in the number of trained church teachers 
and ministers. Most of these new church teachers hailed from 
Awka town and environs. The new church agents fell on Awka 
customs and traditions as a vulture does on a decaying carcass, 

47 and, as expected, the most attacked was the Otite festival. Dike 
notes:

No sooner than both schools – Government School 
and St. Faith's Primary School – began to produce 
literate pupils, the route to traditional heritage 
became vivid. Having acquired knowledge and 
imbued with the spirit of the new age, the products 
of the school system began to alienate themselves 
and tended to look down on other members of their 
community (not excluding their parents. Many of 
them began to denigrate the values of their land as 
if they had never been part of it. A lot more became 
bigotry [sic] and seemed to have no limits. A 
general change of attitude was, thereby, painfully 

48
brought on the society.

In the above situation, the Otite festival began to gradually 
lose its meaning to society such that by 1970, the festival had 
ceased to be celebrated on any meaningful scale at Awka. Apart 
from the ready weapon that Western education provided in the 
fight against the Otite festival, another system used to fight the 
festival was the open crusade system. Isaiah Chinweuba thinks 
that the C.M.S and later the Catholics, beginning from the 1930s, 

49resorted to open evangelical crusades.  In these evangelical 
activities, the Christian missionaries openly condemned the 

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traditional religion of the Awka people, which they referred to as 
idolatry, and often were seen challenging the deities to a spiritual 
duel, and usually, the deities were not seen raining instant 
calamities on the 'impostors.' “Most people,” opines Chinweuba, 
“abandoned the traditional religion when they felt that the old 
gods and deities were either intimidated or cowed by the 'god' of 
the missionary or the deities had altogether abandoned the people 

50to their fate”.

	 The provision of healthcare services by the missionaries 
also proved a formidable weapon in the hands of the missionaries 
against the aspects of Awka customs, which they felt were 
'heathen.'Hospitals, clinics, and health centers established by 
these missions were fully deployed in waging war against the 
Otite festival. First, most of the ailments that distressed the 
traditional Awka society and for which a supernatural cause was 
often attributed were easy for the missionaries to cure. It was a big 
wonder to the Awka people how easily the missionaries cured such 
dreaded ailments like otolo (diarrhea) and ibammou (high fever), 

51among others.  The missionaries would have no time for people 
who continued to worship idols in the form of the Otite festival 

52
when they came seeking medical assistance.  Through this 
means, a lot of converts were won to Christianity, and for every 
new convert, the Otite festival lost a celebrant.

	 The above observations should not be misconstrued to 
imply that the missionaries and Christianity did not do any good to 
the Awka society. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as, in 
fact, a lot of studies have been done on the societal transformation 
brought about in Igboland by the missionaries, however, in their 
zeal to plant Christianity in Awka, the missionaries, especially the 
CMS were too quick to dismiss as idolatry and barbarism most of 
the customs of the people. The CMS, most especially, was very 
hostile to the people's traditional system and culture and did not 
seek any avenue to adopt the good aspects of these cultures in 
building a new order. The CMS Niger Diocese even attempted to 

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

36

ban the Ozo title in 1970 and threatened to excommunicate its 
holders from the church. It took several community crises, 
including one at Awka, before the Niger Diocese could rescind its 

53decision.

The  Ca tho l i c s  appea red  t o  have  been  more 
accommodating to the people's culture than the Anglicans. 
However, because the Anglicans had already laid the basis for the 
attack on the Otite festival in Awka before the arrival of the 
Catholics, the Catholics joined the chorus, and concertedly, these 
missionaries continued their war against the festival without a 
thought on how to sieve it of its 'idolatrous' hue and use its other 
social and economic benefits.

Conclusion 
In the “River Between,” the Kenyan writer Ngugiwa 

Thiong'O wrote that “a religion that took no account of people's 
way of, a religion that did not recognize spots of beauty and truth 
in their way of life, was useless. It would not satisfy. It would not 
be a living experience, a source of life and vitality. It would only 

54
maim a man's soul”.  The missionaries were ethnocentric and 
culturally bound, and they saw as repugnant anything in Awka 
society that did not conform to their assumed notions of advancing 
civilization, epitomised in Christianity, which they aimed to plant 
in the land to replace the old traditional order.

In this situation, the Otite festival, which had served the 
Awka society socially, religiously, economically, and 
strategically, faced an imminent extinction by way of the attacks 
from the Christian missionaries, especially the CMS. In any case, 
efforts were not made to sieve the Otite festival of its seemingly 
'idolatrous' aspects to appropriate the social, economic, and 
strategic benefits of the festival. The missionaries, in their cultural 
superiority complex, continued preaching against the Otite 
festival and used several weapons, such as their newly introduced 
Western education and healthcare services, to intimidate and 

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37



cajole the people away from their traditional forms of existence. 

In concluding this study, it is necessary to highlight some 
of the implications of the demise of the Otite festival on Awka 
history. First, the decline in the Awka blacksmithing industry owes 
a lot to the demise of the Otite festival. This is because the Otite 
festival provided all the Awka blacksmiths on uzo-ije used the 
opportunity of the mass return to strategise and strengthen their 
trade networks against competitors. The death of the Otite festival 
robbed the blacksmiths of the veritable opportunity to put heads 
together against competitors and, most importantly, develop their 
Ushi art and the Aba language, which helped to spread the fame of 
the Agbala Oracle. The end of the Otite festival, therefore, implied 
the beginning of the decline of Awka hegemony via its once-
thriving blacksmithing prowess.

Furthermore, the socio-economic benefits derived from 
the Otite festival, which were highlighted in this study, such as the 
annual repatriation of economic resources, among others, were 
lost to the Awka society. Without a doubt, the advent of 
Christianity in Awka came with positive benefits, but its negative 
dimensions are as lucid as the positive. Being that the missionaries 
were impatient to understand the nexus between Christianity and 
the traditional religion of the Awka people, they quickly 
condemned the traditional religion. Today, it is clear that 
Christianity cannot explain all social phenomena in Africa. Being 
helpless in this area, the Awka Christian often finds himself 
involved in different traditional religious practices.  This is why, 
despite the positive impacts of Christianity on the culture and life 
of the Awka person, it has not succeeded in making the people 
more religious than before. Christianity has rather created room 
for syncretism, where many Christians now operate under two 
worlds, that is, the world of Christianity and the world of 
traditional religion.

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

38

Endnotes 
1. Chukwudiegwu Nwangwu, c73 Years, Retired Civil 

Servant, Interviewed at his residence, Umuayom-Awka, 
nd2  March 2016.

2. Chkwuemeka Ekeh, c65 Years, Traditional Bone-Mender, 
Interviewed in his residence, Umuoramma-Awka. 12 
February, 2016.

3. Samuel Orji, c63 Years, Trader, Interviewed at his 
residence at Umubele on 12 March 2016.

4. Nwangwu, Interview, cited.
5. Benson Okafor, c72 Years, Interviewed at his residence in 

thUmuike, Awka. 20  April, 2016.
6. Nwangwu, Interview, cited.
7. Nwangwu, Interview, cited,
8. Orji, Interview, cited.
9. Nwangwu, Interview, cited.

10. Nwangwu, Interview, cited.
11. Orji, Interview, cited.
12. P. Hezekiah Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000, A Survey of the 

History and Traditions of the Ancient City – State, (Awka: 
Chocolate Gate Publishers, 2013), 47.

13. Orji, Interview, cited.
14. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…50.
15. Orji, Interview, cited.
16. Orji, Interview, cited.
17. Nwangwu, Interview, cited,
18. Nwangwu, Interview, cited,
19. Amanke Okafor, The Awka People (Chudan Graphic 

press, 1992), 24.
20. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…55.
21. Okafor, Interview, cited.
22. Godwin Morah, c70 Years, Community Leader, 

stInterviewed at his Residence at Amikwo, Awka, 1  
February 2016.

23. Isaiah Chinweuba, c77 Years, Community Leader, 
th

Interviewed at his Residence at Amikwo, Awka. 5  May, 

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39



2016.
24. Samuel Chinwuko, c. 78 Years, Herbalist. Interviewed at 

th
his residence, Umubele, Awka, on 16  June, 2016.

25.  Chinwuko, Interview cited.
26. C.N., Nwagba, Awka and the Biafran War, (Awka: 

Sellyoak International Press, 2005), 67.
27. Morah, Interview cited.
28. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…75.
29. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
30. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
31. Nnebe, Ikechukwu, c65 Years, Retired Civil Servant, 

stInterviewed at his Residence at Amudo, Awka. 1  
February, 2018. 

32. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…55.
33. Udegbunam Okeke, c67 Years, Trader, Interviewed at his 

thResidence at Awka 6  April 2016.
34. Okeke, Interview cited.
35. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
36. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…75.
37.  C.C. Agbodike, J.E. Madu, N.E. Ojiakor, A.U. Igwe and 

N.J. Obiakor, The History of Obosi from the Earliest Times 
to the Present (Ibadan: Mosuro Publishers, 2015), 67.

38. Onuko, Theresa, c55 Years, Priestess (Eze Nwanyi), 
th

Interviewed at her Residence at Amikwo Awka. 4  April, 
2016.

39. Morah, interview, cited.
40. Morah, interview, cited.
41. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…106.
42. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
43. Nnebe, Interview, cited.
44. Nnebe, Interview, cited.
45. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
46. Ifeanyi Anagbogu, The Origins of Awka, (Enugu: Swell 

Publishers. 1986), 43.
47. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
48. Dike, Awka: 1800 – 2000…110.

Alex Amaechi Ugwuja, PhD  - ‘For the gods and our pockets’: The
Beginning and End of the Ofite Festival in Awka

40

49. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
50. Chinweuba, Interview cited.
51. Ibeka Obunabo, c67 Years, Trader, Interviewed at his 

rdResidence at Umubele, Awka, 3  May 2015.
52. Obunabo, Interview, cited.
53. Obunabo, Interview, cited.
54. Ngugi wa Thiong'O, The River Between (Nairobi: 

Heinemann Books), 3.

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