The Custom of Initiation in Okpella Kingdom
The Custom of Initiation in Okpella Kingdom Unlike other cultural festivals in Afamai land, the Idai Echie festival of the Okpella people in Edo State has remarkable peculiarities that are deeply rooted in the people’s history and genealogy. EMAMEH GABRIEL writes down in the far northern part of Edo State, every 20-25 years; one peculiar event always captures the attention of visitors in Okpella. Men, both old and young, troop in from all parts of Nigeria and the world to be initiated. The question of religion does not arise as it has become a major yardstick to separate the wheat from the chaff. In a colorful and spectacular fashion, these men, both old and young, dressed in white regalia, walk in procession, with wooden sticks in their hands, chanting and dancing ancestral songs in celebration of their Okpella identity. The solemn rhythmic chants, the immaculate garb and the procession, all in celebration of their identity and heritage as true descendants of their Okpell
