Ugie ewere

Ugie ewere

The Igue festival has for many centuries been the spiritual cleansing end of year event of the Benin kingdom. Unlike in most other places where specific dates or periods are set for their festivals, e.g. Christmas, the igue festival can only commence after the argue festivals during which the ancestors after accepting the sacrifice of the oba now permits the igue festival to start.

All activities of the festival take place within the precincts of the palace except the ewere day. The night before the ewere day, all Benin people have a kind of Passover ceremony by breaking kola nuts, coconuts and marking their heads with the blood of a guinea fowl, the ceremony lasts till dawn and the youths go to the forest to pluck the ewere leave. Ewere was the daughter of a chief that had a very pleasant behavior and thus all good things became associated with her name. These leaves are now brought into the various house holds and placed on the foreheads to herald the Benin year. This is the climax of the igue festival and is been threatened today because since there are no incentives, youths are no more keen to go into the forests which have in turn receded due to development and land speculation.

There is an urgent need to support the ewere day by doing the following

1. Encourage about 140 youths to converge at a venue the night preceding the ewere day.
2. Provide resources for their Passover ceremony with cultural music.
3. The following morning provide transportation for their movement to where ewere leaves can be plucked and they break up into various groups of five. Each group parades the wards of the 7 Benin speaking local governments.

The sponsor will brand the venue of the Passover, the cultural troupes, the vehicles to transport the ewere groups.

Budget

150 boys X 3000 450,000
15 vehicles at 20,000 300,000
Resources for Passover 300,000
Venue 150,000
Canopies and light 150,000
Cultural troupe (5) 500,000
Total 1,850,000
Misc 185,000
Total 2,045,000



Eno Louis Enobakhare