With the launching of this dedicated website, Ndigbo in Manchester have achieved another milestone, in their celebration of Igbo cultural traditions outside Igboland. Manchester, a vibrant city in the North-Western region of England, is far away from home. It is well known that Igbos are not deterred by any circumstances from living life to the full. Living life in its fullness here means feeling and being at home, making it a home, and all the while being in our elements. As change is embraced, new opportunities grasped, the yearning for the fatherland and with respect for forebears endures.
We have been celebrating Iriji festival, that pre-eminent Igbo cultural festival, in Manchester. Various Igbo communities or associations have successfully organised the celebrations, and in the process made Igbos, home and abroad, proud. But we do not rest on our oars. Hence, leaders of Igbo associations have over the years thought about doing more with the Iriji festival, in the interest of the peace, progress and prosperity of Ndigbo. Igbos are wont to say, girigiri bu ugwu eze, and also, anyuko amiri onu, ogbaa ufufu: the more, the merrier, in colloquial English. Thus, joint collaborative celebrations by Igbos of various communities, from different associations in Manchester became a worthy goal.
There have already in 2022 and 2023 been joint Iriji festival celebrations by Igbo communities within Greater Manchester, to say nothing of the past festivals successfully organised by individual associations. For the record, the segregating-aggregating units (aka Igbo states) include: Abia Community Manchester (ACM); Anambra Welfare Association (AWA); Ebonyi State Association; Enugu Progressive Union Manchester (EPUM) and Imo Kultural Welfare Union (IKWU), plus Igbo Community Greater Manchester (ICM). All are now mit dabei.
Ula toba uto, ekwobeye ekwobe. Buoyed up by the impressive outing of last year by Ndigbo, the year two thousand two hundred and twenty-four (2024) Iriji Festival, is here to announce itself in a special way. Not a few notches have been raised by the on-going preparations and the planned activities on the 7th of September 2024 in Platt field Park, Manchester. This website is one of such new things, obviously, both as a window and a door - opened to let visitors into the preparations and planned activities - as well as, let them be part of the festival. Old and new vendors can now register and be vetted, to be able to sell goods and services at the festival ground. Festival sponsors/partners can interact with organisers on this site, to discuss their interests or concerns. The former will receive valuable exposures on the site and on our other platforms.
Another novelty to be celebrated in 2024 is the festival and its motto. Ndigbo in Manchester are saying clearly that they have arrived, to tell the city and the world, what Igbos are made of. Unmissable, centred in the middle are strong hands joined together. Igbo red cap signifying honour, dignity and strength is sheltered within the joined hands of solidarity and togetherness. Placed on the two sides of the circle is a ram’s horn, by the sounds of which all and sundry are invited to a dance. Without music and dance no celebration is yet started. Lastly, a sprinkling of a decorative symbol, signalling that everyone, boys and girls, will be turning up in their best.
The motto: Mmeko Umunne, is a secret revealed. It can be translated as ‘acting or being together by brothers and sisters’, or ‘the unity of brothers and sisters’. It evokes the popular Igbo saying that, izu kamma na nneji: Brothers and sisters need no (more) reason, to be loving and helpful, one to the other. The awareness of our sibling bond as Ndigbo should be enough to conscientize us about our rights and duties, first, to ourselves, as our brothers’ keepers within Manchester Igbo communities, and beyond that, the entire Igbo nation and her true friends everywhere. Fanning the embers is the task of all Manchester Igbo leaders, and the inspiration of the festival organisers.
We must therefore doff our caps to them. They are proving themselves to be true leaders and visionaries. May they continue to be; and begin to see even clearer and farther afield; and always to have the courage of their convictions!
And may visitors to this website be inspired by the self-sacrifice, ambition and determination to succeed, which the organisers have brought to bear upon their tasks, and which attributes have yielded the results we here celebrate.