The World culture: My country culture by @Bright-obias

Hello steemians, welcome to my blog. I am very happy to be a participant of this contest by @oppongk talking about our culture. It is a good contest and also an educating one. After researching and making some enquiries about my home town culture, I've come up with some information about my culture. It was really an interesting view after seeking some answers from my parents about the culture of my home town. Below I will write about the culture of Elele town, Ikwerri LGA of Rivers state all in Nigeria. Enjoy the reading.

Firstly, I would like everyone us to understand that Culture is all about values, customs and beliefs that is used to identify a given society. It can be language, food, mode of dressing greeting patterns and so on. As a Nigerian, I will be telling us about the culture of a given society in Nigerian, respectively, my own society. Nigeria is a country situated in the Western part of Africa. Its state comprises of 36 states. Currently, the capital of this country is Abuja.

Nigeria is known as an English speaking country, although it has other languages like Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Efik, Gokana, Nigerian pidgin, Ikwerre language and lots more. As an ikwerrian I will be writing about the ikwerre culture. Actually, ikwerre is a subgroup of the Igbo people, it is under Rivers state. Ikwerre has many influencing culture on the different units. On this article I will talk about:

Our Greeting:

In Ikwerre Land, we value Everybody, it doesn't matter your position. Although it is said that the young people should respect the young people. We value and honour respect so it is the culture to strictly Show respect. Below are some major greeting language we use and their translation.

Since we are subgroup of the Igbo's. Our language at times are derived from the Igbo's. As it is in other groups like the Yoruba's that do portrait and kneel down to greet. We don't that pattern of greetings.

Our Mode of Dressing:

The dressing mode of the Ikwerrians are similar to that of the Igbo's, because they are related to the Igbo's. Below are some attires of the Ikwerre people.

• Isiagu :: This kind of attire is commonly seen In the Igbo's. But we the ikwerrians also dress like this I could say it is a borrowed attire from the Igbo's. It is a nice looking shirt with vivid patterns. It is often worn at special occasion like marriage ceremony and large festivals. It have different size of sleeves. The styles are gold buttons and chains. Entitled men always wear red cap with feather.

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Isiagu dressing attire

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• Senator Attire:: This kind of dressing is almost worn by all the traditions in Nigeria. The Ikwerre people value this kind of dressing because it makes them look manly. It consists of long sleeve shirt and trousers.

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Senator attire

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One of the most interesting fact about the Ikwerre people dressing pattern is that they add decorated walking sticks. In our dressing if there's no walking stick, it makes the dress code meaningless. This walking stick represent wealth and strength.

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The Food We Eat:

The Ikwerrians are regarded as the Igbo's but they are not, in terms of food they share some similarities. Look below to see the listed food for the Ikwerre people.

• Pepper Soup Yam:: This kind of food is popular within the Ikwerre people. It is not considered as our breakfast because of the too much pepper that is always applied on it. To make a delicious one for yourself, you have to get Yam, tomatoes, onion oil and seasoning.

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image of Pepper soup yam

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• Fufu and Uha Soup :: This is also a delicious meal prepared by the Ikwerre people. It is a kind of food that can be served as our dinner. This soup is originally from the Igbo's, due to the bound between the Ikwerre and the Igbo's that is why this kind of food is our list of food today.

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Image of fufu and uha soup

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Bitter Leaf Soup:: Better Leaf soup is also a kind of food that we the ikwerrians eat. We call it "mininri olugbu" this is because it is prepared with better leaf and it is usually better. Although it is a delicious soup but I must say the truth here, I don't like it. To prepare this soup for yourself you need to take any meat of your choice with bitter leaf, cocoyam, salt, pepper, palm oil, stock fish and crayfish.

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Our Marriage System:

Our marriage system is highly admired like every other ethnic groups in Nigeria. In our marriage system the man will go for introduction, this is called "okuaka nu roor" which is translated as the man going to ask the woman's hand in marriage. It is usually done with the man taking few elders with him to the girl's family. Its not done empty handed they usually go with palm wine and dry gin as introduction gift.

After the door knocking what follows is the traditional marriage between the man and the woman. During this time the man will put on loosened wrapper on top of a shirt sometimes with hat to match it, He also take his walking stick with him. While the woman will put on some traditional top and wrapper, with her beads worn around her head and neck wrist.

The Ikwerre people always have an annual festival. It is the greatest feast of the the Ikwerre people. It is called "The New Yam Festival" as the name implies, what they celebrate is the new yam. During this ceremony, wrestling is one of the activities that makes it more lucrative. During this wrestling different types of drum are been used, drums like the Ekwenkalu, Ngele Mbamba and many more. The wrestling competition is about who will throw each others back on the ground and who ever does this becomes the winner.

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Image of the wrestlers on the wrestling ground

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Other interesting features of the Ikwerre new yam festival are the Eregbu cultural dance, Ekpo and Ekpe masquerades.

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Image of the ekpo masquerade

How My culture has influenced me.

You know, Culture is an ancient activities that was initiated by our forefathers. Our forefathers has been practicing it and even till now, it is there. It has influenced me in many aspects. Culture has helped me to know histories of my fathers. The way they lived their lives and lots more, it has also helped me to acquire some properties such as Land.

On the other side, culture although cannot be rooted out but has created many negative impacts as result of violating some rules that governs it. You know, in this our current world today, there are other religious that have come to suppress the culture of every land and that's christianity to be precise. As a christian you're not permitted to partake in cultural activities such as the new yam festival where many rituals is been carried out.

In all I would say culture is a way of life and it is an ancient activity that has been going on. Let it remain to entertain its lovers.

Thanks for reading

Kinds Regard

@Bright-obias