15/08/2026
OTITE ANAM AND A NEW GENERATION
You heard in primary school that 24 hours make a day, and that 365 days make a year. I want to talk about this last one.
But first, every 24 hours, as you know, the Earth — our Ifite Anam, our Anambra State — rotates like a football back to where it was the previous day. And so, it is morning again at 6 a.m. in Iyiora, Obosi, or Awka.
While this is going on, a longer journey is taking place. While the Earth is turning on its axis (rotating itself) once a day, it is also on a journey around the Sun. This journey takes approximately 365.25 days to complete (revolution), and it follows a steady route, known as its orbital path.
It is because of this particular journey of the Earth that we have different seasons—such as the rainy and dry seasons—just as we have day and night when the Earth turns on its axis.
The Earth is the land, the seas, and all the waters, including Ayoko, Ide, the River Niger, Iyi Okwulu, Iwo, and the rest of our fish ponds.
The lands — Ani Anam — and the waters give us our livelihood.
Ani Anam (think of the actual Anam land) sits within a unique geographical setting in the Omambala Basin. It produces an overwhelming proportion of the food marketed in Onitsha markets and many other parts of Anambra State, and consumed all over Nigeria.
For years, you heard of Anam but could not actually go there. Now, due to the knowledgeable leadership of Governors Peter Obi and Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Anam is much more accessible. You can actually go there personally to buy your foodstuffs at incredibly low prices. This is also due to the yearly harvest resulting from the synchrony of the Earth and the Sun as a result of this journey (revolution).
This unique land, given by God, tended and cared for by the Anam people themselves, and made more accessible by recent governments, is what we celebrate this weekend. It is Oote Anam, or Otite Anam in a more generalised form.
Anam people celebrate Oote every last Sunday of August that falls on an Eke market day.
This is our celebration of our land, our waters, and our forefathers. It is our celebration of our history and heritage. It is a tradition we have, which we celebrate in a certain way — our customary way.
In our culture, Oote is one of our biggest festivals. It brings Otu Onitsha to a standstill while it lasts. It is indeed telling that our appreciation (Thanksgiving) is valued and celebrated above our supplication (Ikpa Unwu). It shows that we are grateful to God and to our people for what we receive.
Many other parts of Igboland celebrating New Yam festivals in the coming weeks and months will be doing so with yams produced in Anam. This is our proud gift to Igboland. Nwanne cheta nwanne.
While Oote is about the king of crops — the yam — Anam does not do Iwa Ji. We do Alommuo, or Ilo Mmuo, which is the only aspect that takes a slight religious tone. But this is only for the council of elders and elderly people who so wish to show ancestral appreciation in a particular way .
Oote comes in all colours, and everyone celebrates in whichever way they choose.
Thanksgiving has no particular religion. It is as secular as it is religious; as historical as it is anthropological; as Christian as it is traditional. Any attempt to give it a singular religious connotation can only come from ignorance —not just of Oote, but of one’s particular religion as well.
We say thank you to God and to our people.
We appreciate the land that is tilled and eventually yields bountifully.
We honour the saints in our fathers.
And we do so together by sharing with our neighbours and our society.
And we hope for a bigger bounty in the coming year.
And we cannot make this celebration complete without sharing with the aged and the weak among us. This is so because they can no longer till the land — not as much as they used to.
This is why every Anam daughter and son makes it a point of duty to honour their parents by making special gifts to them every Oote.
So when we celebrate Oote, we do not just celebrate yam festival, we celebrate all crops.
We celebrate our land and water and our forefathers.
We celebrate our history and geography and anthropology.
We celebrate our moon as well as our sun which holds our earth in balance.
We celebrate our day and night and the seasons in their beauties.
And above all, we honour, celebrate, as well as worship the supreme being who knows the unknowable.
Jisie nu Ike.
Anam Makaa nu!!!
Igwe S. U. Ozoemena
Igwe Oranyelu I of Ifite Anam Kingdom
