AfricaFora is proud to present the latest of its series of Black and African celebrations: IkengaDay – A European Igbo Festival, on October 2nd 2022 in the Parisian region. The event, in the true AfricaFora spirit, will host a series of panels, cultural and commercial exhibitions and invites you to come celebrate with us the Igbo culture, traditions and celebrations.
About the event
Through Ikenga Day, we will create a platform for Ndigbo, lgbo descendants and their friends to meet annually to promote the preservation of its culture, and traditions in joy and celebrations of that which bind Igbos together. The event will also foster a retrospective look, necessary in order to define and design ways to promote community development projects. Ikenga Day will also highlight Ndigbo dynamism and fierce entrepreneurial spirit.
Activities will include: conferences on a variety of topics, a prose reading, masquerades (traditional performance with masks), Ima mbem and Igbu Oja, a fashion parade display and more.
About Igbo history and culture
Ikenga is an Igbo noun, whose literal meaning is strength of movement. It is a horned Alusi and deity found among the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria and one of the most powerful symbols of the Igbo people and the most common cultural artifact. Ikenga day is strongly inspired by the values associated to the symbol and a rallying cry to showcase the reach of Igbo culture.
Igbo refers to the territory, people (about 45 million), and language of the Igbo people. Its traditionally republican culture dates back centuries and ancient communities can be found in Nigeria, across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States, as well as in some parts of Delta and Rivers States. The Igbos are well known for their entrepreneurial dynamism, their creativity, and intellectual talents which enabled them to rebuild their homeland, 3 years only after the Biafran civil war. Other local Igbo communities abound in Equatorial Guinea, Barbados, Haiti, Jamaica, the United States and the Caribbean*, among others. The Igbo diaspora counts millions and Ikenga day will showcase the best of Igbo culture and knowledge.
* the word beke designating the whites of the French West Indies is an Igbo word, which translate to white, proof of the predominance of slave migrations in the Caribbean region.
Programme
Sunday, October 2nd: 10.30 – 17.00
10.30 Welcome and registration of participants
11.00 Opening Session Introduction of Ikenga 2022, traditional dance performance The role of our traditional rulers by Chikezie Agubuzu Igbo spirituality and society by Ezenmuo Iheanyichukwu Anyanwu Understanding Igbo philosophy by Enyinnaya Uwazie Q&A
12.15 Cultural break
13.00 Session II Culture with regard to gender equality/women’s rights by Emmanuel Umeonyirioha Reforming our educational system and the Igba Boi – Igbo apprenticeship by Uzoma Nnganyadi How can Igbo culture modernise? by Kathryn Nkechinyelu Nwajiaku-Dahou Q&A
14.00 Prose reading by Emmanuel Umeonyirioha & cultural break
14.30 Session III 10 Igbo pioneers of the arts and their significance in the present by Ezennia Ed Keazor How our stories are an untapped source of economic empowerment by Ndukwe Onuoha How to regain Ndigbo environmentally friendly practices of old? by Lady Chinwendu Okoroigwe Q&A
15.30 Igbu oja – Igbo traditonal flute Closing word by Uloaku Gaillard
16.00 Igbo film projection 17.30 End of Ikenga 2022
You can download the programme here and read more about our speakers here. Cultural breaks will include masquerades and fashion shows, etc.; more on exposants will be released shortly. Follow us on social media to stay tuned.
