REFLECTIONS ON THE WAYS OF ND’ EHUGBO (AFIKPO)
(By G A Agwo)
NKWA - NWITE EHUGBO
Originally published in AFIKPO TODAY magazine: Vol. 1 No. 9 (Jan – Dec, 1998)
In Ehugbo (Afikpo) Nkwa Nwite is an age long mother’s ceremony to mark the final farewell (send-off) to a deserving daughter leaving for her matrimonial home. It used to be a purely women’s affair. However, within the past few decades men have been ‘hooked’ into bearing some of the financial burden. But it still remains a sort of feminine title taking for the bride’s mother or mother substitute.
Nkwa Nwite is a ceremony every sane mother (rich or poor) dreams of and looks up to as the zenith of her achievement and show of love to a betrothed daughter. It is usually planned over several years or at least several months to ensure success. It is cost-intensive but dependent on what the family can afford.
A mother undertaking the Nkwa Nwite ceremony usually invites women of her village, close female relatives, friends and well-wishers within and outside her home to see the household property (aria) she has assembled for her daughter to take to her matrimonial home (as dowry). The women invited would have the opportunity to advise the bride on the dos and don’ts of a good house wife. That advice they normally give through the medium of moonlight songs and folklores of old.
It was a taboo not long ago (save in Christian circles) for an Ehugbo female to play the traditional drum, Nkwa. So the women used the pot (ite) as their own product in place of the drum to produce music, hence Nkwa nwite. In other words, the small pot (nwa ite) in relation to a storage water pot is used as a musical instrument to produce the sound an ordinary drum (nkwa) could have produced.
Of course, the music produced with the aid of combination of Indian bamboo stalks (ekpele) struck rhythmically on stone, the stylish slide hitting of the mouth of the pot to produce sound and punctuated slight striking of an empty bottle with a spoon or light metal accompanied by the songs of wisdom and counsel give Nkwa Nwite its name.
At this point, I will like to take readers’ minds back to the fact that every wise counsel in Ehugbo, meant to be handed down to coming generations, is more effectively done through their rendition in the now dying away (or dead) moonlight, festival and farming songs, egwu onwa, egwu iko, egwu mgba and erebe. Nkwa Nwite recalls all these and modifies them to suit the modern trends. The popular Oyiri Akwari Ngwongwo, Oko Ugo, and Achoru Udo are typical Nkwa Nwite songs. Thanks to Chief (madam) Omezue Nwanyi, Udu Ubeyi, the founding mother, and late Osi Otuu, the golden voice and lead singer of Nkwa Nwite.
Unfortunately, Nkwa Nwite as a send-off ceremony is now a misnomer. It is now anything but what it was meant to be. No one would normally mind changing with the times. Like the omume title, Nkwa Nwite has been bastardized. Afikpo Today calls on her readers and culture-conscious Ehugbo indigenes to reflect on the meaning and significance of Nkwa Nwite. Above all, Afikpo Today regrets the complete disappearance of the unique chant of: ke-ke-ke-kewo, ebulu mue which summarised the nature of a bride’s movement to her matrimonial home – like the adult ram (ebulu) being dragged along in a journey.
Maybe the ceremony needs a new name to reflect its present status. The writer suggests “ndule nwada Ehugbo” or “odudu nwada Ehugbo” in place of Nkwa Nwite which has lost its meaning save for record purposes. Please, reflect on this.
