Communication with the Ancestors in the Igbo New Yam Festival (Iwa-ji Ohu)

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar I

Abstract

One of the most common feasts among the Igbo people of Nigeria is the New Yam Festival. During this festival, sacrifices, offerings and other rituals are performed to thank God and to ask the ancestors for abundance in the next planting season. This paper investigates the myth and ritual between the living and dead through the New Yam Festival and the stability and change of the festival in the contemporary time.

Author

• Uchenna Onuzulike, Ohio University