Abiriba agog as community marks Igwa Mang celebration
Abiriba community in Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State was agog with celebration on Thursday December 19 following an event to mark the return of her warriors known as Igwa Mang ceremony.
During the ceremony many warriors and Amazons of the ancient community who were gorgeously dressed danced from their various homes with their families and friends to community square to the admiration of guest.
It was gathered Igwa Mang
ceremony which is celebrated every four years is usually organized to honor members of the community who had finish community service as warriors in line with the age long age grade system paraticed in the community.
The warriors and Amazons from the seventeen villages in the Abiriba led by members of Ekpe Society danced round the village from square to ukwu achi were the community has children recreation center.
An illustrious son of the community chief Jackson Agbai, told members of Abia Tour crew that Igwa Mang
ceremony can be situated in the 13 age grade stratification of the Abia community.
He said, “We must situate Igwa Mang within the context of pre-colonia Africa, Igbo and Abiriba age grade system. The Age grades determined how the community was governed and they have different roles that are assigned to them.
“There is a middle age grade that at anytime and their own responsibility will be to police the whole community. They are called the (Uke Igwa Mang). Their duties is to enforce the decisions of the apex age grade (Uke Jiagbala) as the police or the army of community.
“They also have the right to lock the place of any Eze ogo and even the Enachioken if he not doing well.
“During the over four hundred years of slave trade in colonial Africa. Slave merchants went to villages to attack people, capture some of them to be sold as slaves. Within that period for the survival of the community, what the Abiriba people did was to use the (Uke Igwa Mang) as police or Army to protect the boundaries of the Abiriba community. They were sent out to stay in the bushes, sometimes some of them died because of the attack of wild beast and attacks of intruders too. So it was a perilous and dangerous adventure.
“At that time the warriors will not marry until they have gone for service and came back successful from the duty for a period of four years. At the end of the four years those who survived had a place through which they come back, so their families and their wives to be will all be in a line if you see if their own person came back alive.
“Those whose sons came back alive will use white chalk to celebrate and the wife to be will tie the dry skin of a ram on shoulder of the man as sign of valor.Those who didn’t see their own person will use charcoal to rob on their body as a sign of mourning.That’s the history of Uke Igwa Mang.
“However post colonial and slave trade era, even though the Uke Igwa Mang still perform their Police function, the emphasis now is on development.
“All the schools in Abiriba, hospitals, roads, post office and many other social amenities that we now have, it’s the age grade that handles it.
“But within the four years the Uke Igwamie will be serving with the Uke jiagbala, in any place that Abiriba people are residents weather in America, London, Cameroon Austria, china Korea Spain Lagos, we are still who we are, we form ourselves into age grades. If a child is born the Uke jiagbala will mobile the Uke Igwamie to identify with the family. If someone dies they will be mobilized and return the body home.
“If there is any dispute amongst Abiriba people anywhere in the world the Uke jiagbala will preside over the resolution of the dispute while the police will be the Uke Igwamie. Issuing of summons is done by the Uke Igwa Mang and they also fixed a date with the Uke jiagbala in that town for resolution of the dispute. On the date set for resolution every Abiriba male person in that town will gather to listen to the parties involved in the dispute, pass a judgement which the Uke Igwamie will enforce.
That’s the function of the Uke jiagbala and Uke Igwa Mang”.