CHAPTER FIVE
The Feast of the New Yam was approaching and Umuofia was in a festival mood. It
was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all
fertility. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other diety. She was
the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. And what was more, she was in close
communion with the departed fathers of the clan whose bodies had been committed to
earth.
The Feast of the New Yam was held every year before the harvest began, to
honour the earth goddess and the ancestral spirits of the clan. New yams could not be
eaten until some had first been offered to these powers. Men and women, young and
old, looked forward to the New Yam Festival because it began the season of plenty--the
new year. On the last night before the festival, yams of the old year were all disposed of
by those who still had them. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the
shrivelled and fibrous crop of the previous year. All cooking pots, calabashes and
wooden bowls were thoroughly washed, especially the wooden mortar in which yam
was pounded. Yam foo-foo and vegetable soup was the chief food in the celebration. So
much of it was cooked that, no matter how heavily the family ate or how many friends
and relatives they invited from neighbouring villages, there was always a large quantity
of food left over at the end of the day. The story was always told of a wealthy man who
set before his guests a mound of foo-foo so high that those who sat on one side could
not see what was happening on the other, and it was not until late in the evening that
one of them saw for the first time his in-law who had arrived during the course of the
meal and had fallen to on the opposite side. It was only then that they exchanged
greetings and shook hands over what was left of the food.
The New Yam Festival was thus an occasion for joy throughout Umuofia. And
every man whose arm was strong, as the Ibo people say, was expected to invite large
numbers of guests from far and wide. Okonkwo always asked his wives' relations, and
since he now had three wives his guests would make a fairly big crowd.