Modeling Ritual and Performance for Political Change: An Examination of Igu-Aro Ndi-Umueri in Anambra State

Abstract

This research studied the performance of the Igu-Aro ritual of the Umueri people of Anambra state to investigate its processes in terms of its viability as a model of active and positive social change. Igu-Aro is the Igbo annual communal festival of the prognostication of the year’s events. The performance of the IguAro of the Umueri people was perceived as an essential mechanism for transmitting the people’s cultural identity and a route to collective participation in the structuring of fair leadership and a progressive economy. Victor Turner’s ideologies on rituals, liminality, and social change were adopted for the research. The researcher believes that the understanding and integration of the insights gained from the transitory and collective nature of the performance of Igu-Aro Ndi-Umueri will be beneficial to the understanding of how the Nigerian political system could be bettered. This is because in recent times there seems to be an increasing clamour for the restructuring of the Nigerian political system with a major emphasis on the devolution of powers, duties, and responsibilities to component states. This study has provided insight into the Umueri people and their historical links with others within their common communities.