Igwe Bu Ike - LIFE OF COMMUNALISM IN AWA

COMMUNALISM IN AWA

A great lesson we can teach today’s  Cooperative Society

Okey Okoli Emmanuel
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Awa Legends & Heritage Magazine

I find communalism as the most admirable aspect of  Awa socio-economic lifestyle. This is a system where the people come together, and forsaking their individual commitments, attend to the need of a member or the community at no price. By this way, the citizens sacrifice their time and labour for a fellow citizen.

Communalism is practiced in several ways in Awa. A few of  this welfarism lifestyle shown to individuals and the community are discussed below.

Mmekwa-ihe

Mmekwa-ihe is one good example of communalism. Here, an indigene who is to host a public requests some members of his/her kinsmen to come and assist him or her in preparing for the event. The enthusiasm shown while accepting this assignment makes this lifestyle very interesting. In fact, one may feel disappointed in another for failing to invite him or her into this role. It is an opportunity to show love -  one which the citizens look forward to. And such opportunities come often during marriage ceremonies, funeral ceremonies, initiation ceremonies like iba mmonwu, etc.

During mmekwa-ihe, the participants run all forms of errands. The women will join hands to fetch all the required water and firewood, do all the washing and cooking. The young girls also assist in these as well as pounding of foofoo and serving the guests when they arrive. For the men, their roles involve the more tedious tasks such as clearing bushes around the venue, felling and uprooting stumps within the venue, gathering and fabricating the building materials for erecting the make-shift structures such as canopies (mkpukpu) where the event is taking place. These they do cheerfully in such a manner that the uninvited feels jealous.

 Onwo-oru

This is a system where some members of the community come together and agree to form a labour team. The team goes to work for members in turn. The work is usually on the member's farm or any other farm he may choose.

When it is one's turn, he chooses the nature of work to be done for him and the portion of his/her farm they will work on. Women will usually do weeding work or sowing of seeds. For men, it is likely to be clearing of bush, making of mounds, or staking the tendrils of yams. The only thing the host spends on is the cost of feeding the members on the day of labour.

Onwo-oru is quite significant. Beside the spirit of unity and friendship which it breeds, the labour process in onwo-oru results in greater output compared to what it would be when individuals work on their own.

Mmekwa uno  (ikacha uno)

Samanga Building in Awa (back in times) - A case of Study of Communalism in Awa

Thatch houses are often repaired after every two to three years. The labour is quite enormous especially when it means detaching the whole house. This is a challenge too big for an individual to do single handedly. It requires not less than seven hands to undertake.

Communalism has reduced this big task to shear exercise. All that the man of the house has to do is to invite a number of his kinsmen to come and assist him. This invitation is called ikpe oru mmekwa uno. His next challenge is to provide work tools like bamboos, ekwere (tie-tie) and omu nkwu (the terminal leaves of palm tree). Then, of course, he is to prepare assorted food for the labourers. Chief among those foods are tapioca and cocoyam.

With the preparations made, the invitees arrive as early as 6:30 am to do justice to the task. The old thatch is first detached. Then the weak parts of the roof's skeletal structure are repaired. Thereafter, thatching process begins. By evening time, the house is already wearing a new look.

Oru otanyi

Thatching of the house described above requires a large quantity of raffia roofing sheets called otanyi especially if the house is sizable enough as in ogbiti. Otanyi is produced locally from raffia palm. It could take one person about six months to prepare such roofing sheets enough to re-roof a house. But with communalism, the preparation could just be a day's job.

All the individual has to do is to gather large quantities of raffia leaves and the production tools  ulume and mkpaji. Then he invites a good number of men and boys who know the art of producing otanyi. On the appointed day, they gather and in a competitive process, prepare the otanyi sheets for him. The quantity of otanyi prepared by this team is amazingly much. It could be enough to roof a whole house. This is done by all the participants free of charge.

Mkpocha mmiri

All the forms of communalism discussed above are done on behalf of a fellow citizen. Mkpocha mmiri, which is a work process whereby the people of the community go to a stream at an appointed day and clean it up, is a type of communalism on behalf of the community.

On an agreed date, usually communicated through the town crier, the affected group come with their work tools to the chosen stream and selflessly cleans up the stream. The group may be young boys or married women in the community. At the end of the day's assignment, those who fail to participate without cogent reason are usually fined.

 Mbocha ahia

Like mkpocha mmiri, mbocha ahia is another form of communalism done on behalf of the community. The community's market (Afo Awa) is kept clean from weed and dirt by the married women who organize themselves at intervals to weed and clean the market environment.

Oru Uzo

The men in the community are not left out of the community work. Usually the several pathways crisscrossing the village and leading to the farms often get overgrown by weeds. To ensure that they are passable without inconveniences, they are cleared at least once in a year. This community work on the roads is called oru uzo.

A day is usually mapped for this all important work. Usually, some weeks notice is given to ensure that every man participates in the programme as serious fines are meted to anybody that will absent himself without cogent reason.

On the fateful day, each man comes out with his cutlass. The co-ordinators share the job to the participants in portions. By this way, the pathways are kept tidy for easy and convenient passage. In appreciation of job well-done, women cook assorted foods to refresh the workers.

Mpo-oku

Members Awa Development Union, Lagos Branch, practicing MPOKU  tradition in their monthly meetings

When men are involved in communalism, for example when clearing the bush part of the community's pathways, their wives are often requested to feed them en mass at the end of the day's job. Foods supplied in such occasions are called mpo-oku. Mpo-oku simply means a plate of food cooked by a married woman and contributed to the feeding of the men involved in a community labour.

Throughout my life in the community, nothing has amazed and impressed me as the concept of mpo-oku. It is as phenomenal as it is symbolic. It is a way of demonstrating the entire men of the community as a single husband who has all the married women as his wives.  At this time each woman cooks any type of food she wishes. Very creative and virtuous women use this time to cook rare and desired foods. Thus, during mpoku, rare foods like ukwa-aho, achicha, ji-ogwugwo are found.

Mpo-oku affords an opportunity of knowing the best cooks among the wives in the community. It also shows the hospitality levels of the wives in the village as the type and quantity of the food brought by each woman would prove this.

After the men are back from the work, all the foods are brought together. The leader of the wives comes and presents the foods to men after greeting them. Then eating ensues. Each man eats from any plate of his choice. It is common to observe that rare foods and those cooked by known powerful cooks are first scrambled for.

Okey Okoli Emmanuel is a Brands & Marketing Communication Consultant and based in Lagos