24th August, 2017
A front line promoter of Igbo language, Mr Godwin Ezeemo, has condemned the use of English Language in conducting Igbo festivals and events within and outside the country.
Ezeemo made the condemnation on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the 2017 Afia Olu Cultural Festival in Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra, organised by Nzuko Ora Nnewi.
He said that Igbo people should be proud of their language and communicate with it wherever they were with fellow Igbos.
Ezeemo, also a candidate of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) for Nov. 18 governorship election in Anambra, urged Igbo’s to flaunt their language at every given occasion.
“We Igbos should be proud of our language and communicate with it as often as possible,” he said.
Ezeemo said he had been sponsoring various programmes targeted at promoting language and culture of the Igbos in the state since 2013.
One of such events he said, was Otu-subakwa Igbo, championed by Prof. Pita Ejiofor, former Vice- Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka.
The National President of Igboezue International, Chief Pius Uchenna Okoye, who also attended the event said that the call to promote Igbo language and values was apt.
Okoye, who said that every effort must be made to save the Igbo tradition from extinction, described the decline in the way Igbo language was being spoken as worrisome.
He noted with dismay that people now hid under the shadow of modern religions to dishonour Igbo culture and tradition, thereby committing all manners of impunity.
“In the olden days, Igbo had “nso-ani” (taboo) but today, with the invasion of modern religion, people now defy tradition and commit the sacrilegious acts like incest and adultery.
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Titled men now bear false witness at a price,these are the reasons for most of the problems we have in Igboland,’’ he said.
He said that Igboezue was formed to redirect the attention of the Igbo society toward keeping its cultural values and norms, especially the Igbo language.
The Afia Olu is a cultural festival which is celebrated in Nnewi annually in August is aimed at marking the end of the year farming season and as a prayer for a bountiful harvest.
And New yam festival celebration in diasporas also recently concluded Igbo movie festival 2017 edition where “Omenala Igbo movie came first among others
Various Igbo communities hold similar celebrations within the same period but the New yam festival is prominent among them.
Enugwu Ukwu community in Njikoka Local Government Area of the state is expected to its own on Aug. 25
Highlights at the occasion include paper presentations by various Nnewi sons.
Two of such papers were:’’The Sanctity of Nnewi Customs, Culture and traditions and their biblical backup” and “Communion with Ancestors” and various cultural displays.