Impact of climate change on agricultural festivals in Igboland: the case of I Wa Ji

Abstract

In traditional Igbo society, a bountiful harvest begets an exciting festival which is used to
celebrate nature’s benevolence on the people and the appeasement of the respective gods and goddesses perceived to have aided the fruitfulness of the crops. Hence, agricultural festivals are determined and celebrated based mostly on that season or time of the year when the weather is most clement and the farmers are at rest in preparation for the next planting season. This study uses historical-analytic and direct observation methods to interrogate how climate and weather conditions affect agricultural festivals. It further seeks to understand the reasons why particular festivals are celebrated at specific periods of the year using the I wa Ji festival of the Umudioka people as a paradigm. It finds that agricultural festivals are set and celebrated at seasons when the weather is most accommodating and perhaps productive. It further observes that climatic and weather conditions influence communal wellbeing and that the effect of a clement or adverse weather condition impacts heavily on the verve, and otherwise, of the community. This in turn, affects the nature of the festival and its attendant performances.