Today we are here to reclaim, possess and preserve our cultural heritage. We are all familiar with the story of the prodigal son in the Bible. May we not squander what we inherited from our fore- fathers, Amen!
Igue festival is a permanent traditional festival of the Benin people of Nigeria. God created life and humans. But he did not stop there; rather he equipped the human race with life survival essentials, including instinct.
Paramount to the shaping of life is traditional culture, including environment. In recognition of this fact of life, the United Nations (UN) among other fundamental human Rights proclaimed Traditional Culture as one of the leading human Rights which must not be broken nor separated from a people.
Just as you cannot remove fish from water and expect it to live a normal life for a long time without dying, so we humans cannot enjoy a full normal and typical life if separated from our tradition and culture for a long time. Hence the imperativeness of Igue festival as a Benin tradition and culture cannot be overstated.
WHEN AND HOW IGUE STARTED:
Igue is an Edo festival, started long time ago. It is no shame that the people of Edo Nation like many other parts of Africa were not quick to acquire the Western knowledge of documenting events or incidents, using letters or numbers.
This setback explains why one cannot authoritatively state the exact time Igue festival started, even though oral tradition ascribes the period of its origin to the time of Oba Ewuare NO GIDI GAN, meaning Igue festival started more than five hundred to one thousand years ago.
Igue is an embedded festival encapsulating significant monuments of past historical facts integral to the emergence of Benin Empire as a pristine kingdom historically referred to as the cradle of civilization in Africa.
More than a reflection, Igue is a re-enactment of Benin history as well as a celebration to honor the accomplishment of our past Kings and ancestors whose unique attributes of bravery, war strategy and esthetic characteristics were not only the envy of the western world but also a source of pride and territorial expansion.
The fourteen-day festival which starts with indoor celebration known as Ugierhoba in the King’s place during which time notable Chiefs pay visit to the Oba(Otue Iguoba) to reaffirm their loyalty, is also the period to offer thanks to God for sparing one’s life; and to ask for blessings for the coming year.
Igue period is a time for an all-out merriment and prayers to bind and chase principalities out of the land. Like the Esther Sunday, when palm leaves are given out to worshippers, brooms from palm fronts and burning fire woods are equally used by celebrants to cast away evil activities from the land.
To perform this aspect of Igue, the celebrants dance along the streets, sweeping and singing: Lubi-rie, lubi-rie. Ovbanbabe –lubi-rie – Evil people and activities go away with the flames! Evil people and activities go away with the flames! Evil people and activities go away with the flames!
Igue, as indicated is a combo festival parked with everyday festivity in the Oba’s Palace and the street of Benin and homes. One of the most paramount events during Igue is the bringing of blessings to every home and to the Oba at his palace.
To accomplish this, every person found on the streets and homes are pelted with the lily-like leaves, called “Ewere leaves,” as celebrants chants a Benin Holy and Blessing song – Irhiewere –Giomovbughe-Ewere -Noyoyo –o.
The history behind this theatrical art and the attendant song is captured in a lovely event that happened during the reign of Oba Ewuare, when the younger sisters to one of the his wives, named Ewere, accented to the request of her older sister and Queen, named Ubi, to marry the king with her.
As funny, immoral, and abominable this may sound now in our culture, similar marriage examples can be drawn from the Holy Bible.
Jacob for example married Leah and her sister, Rachel and later married their maids Zibah and Bilhad, all daughters of Laban. Strange things happen for some strange things or convenient reason.
Though there are some explanation that Jacob was obeying the commandment of God in order to have the 12 sons who would later become the 12 tribes of Israel, Oba’s marriage to the two sisters may well be an act of divinity because Ewere later became the pride of the royal house, while Ubi becoming a defiant and a personification of everything evil.
This is why, the Benin man or woman today equate everything safety, fortune or good luck with Ewere leaves and Ubi evil.
To bid one safe journey or farewell, the Benin person says Okhien Ewere. By and large, Igue is a festival of festivals, and it takes pre-eminence among festivals in Edo land.
Igue is a worldwide Edo people end-of-year traditional Thanksgiving and get together event.
But recently, the festival has been under attack by some unscrupulous tricksters; and cash and carry religious preachers who mask themselves as men and women of God.
We cannot allow this cultural vandalism against our heritage to continue without resistance. Brothers and sisters don’t sit on the fence.
Where ever you live, join other Edo people to celebrate our cultural heritage as done by the West Indians and the Chinese people and the Americans with the Thanksgiving and Halloween every year.
Igue is not an anti-Christ or pagan celebration as it is being fawned in some familiar quarters today. The onslaught against our culture is not only diabolic, malicious and ignorant but ideologically and fanatically induced for obvious unsuspecting soul-winning for monetary replenishment.
It is no calculus but common arithmetic that as student enrollment grows in a profit-oriented school, so shall the revenue and profit margin increase.
Brothers and sisters, wherever you find yourself, do not accent or allow the blackmail, denunciation and denigration of our cultural heritage continue without challenge and enlightenment of the perpetuators’ fallacies.
It is a responsibility incumbent upon us to educate those who are naively and vaguely connected to the Benin history. “A story that must be told never forgives silence.”
The cook and bull story about our rich and enviable culture must be condemned by all loyal and well-meaning Benin people.
Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, the Christians celebrate Christmas, the Muslims celebrate the Ramadan, the Jews Hanukkah, African –Americans Kwanzaa, the Ibos New Yam, the Yorubas Ake, and in the end, the Benin people of Nigeria celebrate every year with Igue to mark various events including the one that led to 1897 Benin massacre.
To not celebrate Igue is to forget that Edo was a nation before the British invasion. Our rich cultural heritage worth millions of dollars looted during the invasion is scattered all over notable Western Museums today, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Igue celebration remains a way to bring light to this injustice.
In conclusion, Igue represents the unbroken immortalization of a generational transfer of record of our cultural heritage and accomplishments.
Igue is spiritual to the bona-fide Benin person. The Christians start prayers with the touch of the head and Igue prayers start with the touch of the head with offerings to God.
In the Bible, there is no place where it is written that your head is an idol worshipping just as there is no place that celebration of remembrance is evil or paganism, after all human existence is about good remembrance.
So Igue is about the remembrance and celebration of the event that shaped Benin people and history.
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