George Odok|24 August 2017
In Cross River State, there is prevalence of celebrations across the South, Central and Northern parts of the state, but the Boki New Yam celebration is "exceptionally fantastic".
Fertility of the soil has encouraged the Boki people to look towards agriculture. Indeed, they make their livelihoods from the forests as hunters, cocoa and yam farmers.
The 2017 Edition of the Boki New Yam festival which took place on Friday August 18 2017, attracted thousands of Boki sons and daughters worldwide, including tourists and investors.
The New Yam festival is the most important festival in Boki, perhaps ranking ahead of Christmas. It usually heralds the end of hunger and beginning of food harvest. On the New Yam day, the people prepare pounded yam in abundance and are generous in entertainment to all.
The 2017 edition of the celebration was organised by Barr Paul Asu, the Special Adviser, Legal, Cross River Boundary Commission to Governor Ben Ayade. He was assisted by Hon. Fidelis Ekpa Jnr. Special Assistant to Ayade on Consumer Protection Agency.
The event started with a church service at St. Manus Catholic Church in Okundi Community and it was followed by the grand finale of a football competition where Junior Santos defeated their senior counterparts by 2-1 after 90 minutes play.
The colourful and well attended event later moved to Okundi junction where all the political wards in Boki were represented by a traditional contingent of dancers.
Before the dancers came out in their colourful attires and revellers, some selected youths and elderly men had earlier engaged themselves in competitions such as Ntud, Banfuon, Dituobe and Digama; all these were done for the fun of the aesthetic occasion.
The weather was indeed very bright; this further created a platform for the masquerades to display their dancing steps by entertaining thousands of fun lovers at the round-about square.
Traditional dances such as Atam, Enyiatu, Bukwan, Mbifiok, Agud, Akwa Ibom dance group and Tiv dance group thrilled thousands of spectators at the square to their different dancing skills and acrobatic display.
The New Yam was roasted and shared among the elderly in accordance with the culture of the land and in expectation of a bomber harvest.
Boki play hosts to the present Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary and the Canopy walkway which promotes eco-tourism in Cross River State.
Boki occupies the tropical rain forest of the present Cross River State. The forest is rich in the diversity of plants and animals; therefore much of the population is engaged in agriculture, producing both food and cash crops.
These include yam, cocoyam, plantain, banana, cassava, cocoa, pineapple, etc. Of these, it is the yam that is regarded most highly and celebrated. Boki and the rest of the Old Ogoja are the real food baskets of the nation. That is why yams cultivated from Boki are sold as far as Onitsha, Kogi and other places.
Most of the plantain you see in northern Nigeria comes from Boki. Chinua Achebe may have been referring to the Boki New Yam Festival in his novel, Things Fall Apart”, when he said “And the Boki people celebrated new yam”.
The annual event usually brings about reunion. The festival is always much-awaited. It is a cultural celebration meant to unite the people. It is also the celebration of the new yam for a bomber harvest.
The Boki New Yam celebration, otherwise seen as the `Christmas of the Boki People’, cannot be missed, not for any reason.
Boki is a Great Nation, Big, Strong and Reliable.
George Odok
Is a Journalist
