Okoko Item Celebrates Age-long New Yam Festival

Boniface Okoro in Umuahia

On Sunday, August 24, 2026, the LA School field in Okoko Item, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, turned into a living canvas of colour, rhythm and purpose. Sons and daughters of Okoko Item, home and abroad, converged for the 2026 New Yam Festival — a gathering that blended thanksgiving, identity and community strategy in true Igbo fashion.

Okoko Item is one of the principal towns in Item Clan, the largest clan in Bende LGA and a community with deep cultural roots. For centuries, Item people have built their life around farming, self-help and strong town unions. Okoko Item carries that same DNA: a farming people, proud of heritage, and committed to “home first.”

The festival opened with age grades taking centre stage. Over 10 age grades, resplendent in uniform, marched in turns. There were cultural beats, medley, from many of the age grades: ogene, and ekwe, masquerades, and the symbolic cutting of new yam – the ancient rite that signals God and the ancestors have blessed the harvest.  

Only after the traditional rulers and the elders cut and blessed the yam did the feasting begin. For Okoko people, it was not just food. It is a covenant: “There will be food in every home this year.”

More than a festival, New Yam is Okoko’s annual homecoming. From Aba, Umuahia, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and beyond, the indigenes returned. The field was divided by age grades, but united by one identity.  

The Okoko Item Development Association used the platform to preach peace, review projects, and raise funds. 

As President General, Chief Ogechi Kamkam, noted in his welcome speech, the day was about unity and peace. For a diaspora community, it is the one day the scattered family becomes one again.

This year, the cutting of yam doubled as a development drive. Each age grade made financial contributions toward community projects. 

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr. Kelechi Anosike, was honoured as ‘Ezinwa Okoko Item’, illustrious grandson who has done the community proud led the charge. He donated N2.5 million during the yam cutting and N500,000 toward setting up and equipping the community vigilante. 

Anosike’s mother is from Okoko and he  attended primary and secondary school there. 

As a special guest of honour, Anosike said “I am excited to return as a special guest to cut the new yam,” he said, adding, “My formative years started from here, Okoko Item. The new yam festival promotes not only our culture, it also promotes our identity and entrepreneurship spirit of every Igboman. 

“Okoko people are great farmers. Over the years, they produce the food we eat in Abia State and beyond.

“As a government, we will promote our rich cultural heritage. Tourism will have a place in our government,” Anosike declared.

Anosike framed his governorship ambition around food and welfare. “If I become governor, my administration will promote agriculture and farming. There will be enough food, no Abia person will be hungry,” he declared. 

He promised a “new cooperative economy”  using well-structured cooperatives to give farmers, traders, artisans, women and youths access to affordable financing, SME loans, training and mentoring. 

“Our objective is not simply to feed Abia. We want Abia to produce enough food to feed our people and generate surplus for trade,” he said. 

He also noted that PDP has been repositioned ahead of 2027, describing it as a “new party, New mindset, new direction.”

He appealed to the people to see his ambition as their project, promising unprecedented development projects in Item. 

Chairman of the occasion, HRM Eze Dr. David Kingston Okey-Dede, Eze Ndigbo 1 of Maitama, Abuja, added a political charge: “Okoko Item should present a single candidate in future elections through a political forum.” For him, Anosike is their son and therefore their own.”

All hands must be on deck to deliver Anosike 100 per cent in the nine villages of Item for governor. 

This gave Anosike a massive boost and endorsement because Item has the largest voting bloc in Bende LGA with three big political wards. 

Anosike further three light to guide the people that all those who gave PDP bad name in Abia State have left to join other parties. “This is a new PDP that their son leads in Abia State.”

Beyond politics, the festival sold Okoko Item to the world. The display of culture, the hospitality, the food — roasted yam, is a draw for visitors and a reminder of Item’s place in Igbo heritage. For tourists and indigenes alike, it is proof that culture can drive both pride and economy.

As dusk fell, the message was clear. The Okoko Item New Yam Festival 2026 was thanksgiving to God, a celebration of culture, a strategy meeting for development, a reunion for family, and a political rallying point — all in one.

In the words of the community: the yam is new, the unity is renewed, and the future is being planted today.