By Emeka Esogbue
The Ibusa community in Oshimili North LGA, Delta State , yesterday flagged off the Iwu Festival in the community with prominent personalities gracing the first day of the event.
Cultural observers were pleasantly surprised that amid raging conflict, Umuodafe, one of the two quarters that celebrate the festival, rose in unity to observe the annual festival as handed to them by their ancestors.
Iwu is a major annual festival, celebrated by Umuodafe and Ogbeowele Quarters and it has hardly been broken in the history of the people except in civil war time. Although the festival is widely celebrated in Anioma, Iwu as celebrated by Ibusa centers on some characteristic aspects of the culture and religion of the people and is marked by noiseless observances in the days leading to the celebration of the festival. The attendants of the Iwu Festival are often marked by a desire for escapism and socialization.
The Iwu Festival of Umuodafe often attracts large spectators because it is celebrated around Christmas time when people show an inclination to travel down to the community to watch the event.
Veteran Anioma traditional musician, Onyeoma Diyoyo Okafor, in a phone conversation told PEN MASTER that the spectators who were in high spirits were thrilled by the Enem, Eze Iwu, Ohene, and other major characters of the festival.
This year’s Iwu Festival is marked by a large audience in attendance and they include the Diokpa of Umuodafe, Onowu Joseph Adinlofu, Ikwele of Ibusa, His Eminence Engr Celestine Okafor, Uwolo of Ibusa, Onowu Amaechi Nwaenie and Omu of Ibusa, Obi Josephine Nwannabuogwu. Others include the APM flag bearer in the 2023 Delta State House of Assembly election and Omelora of Ibusa, Sir Dr. Chuks Okonji, former President-General of the Ibusa Community Development Union, Dr. Austin Izagbo and Chief Fred Ajudua, the Onwanetili Oha of Ibusa.
The Umuodafe Iwu is a tourism of the Ibusa people which attracts indigenes from far and wide especially youngsters who hunger to witness the culture of the land of their birth.
