Hi Every one,
Remember the cultural festival i told u about in my profile here?? It is called the ikeji Festival. It is a rich cultural festival showcased every April, just about a week after the Easter celebrations.Remember also that i said that i am ready to host anyone who is interested in attending to have a first hand account and experience of the festival.
I found this Article about the festival in the Guardian newspapers here this morning and decided to share it with you all. below is the article,hope u enjoy it!!

Ikeji: Festival of unity across Nigeria
By Uduma Kalu
IT was like confronting terror. Somebody in the crowd described it as a festival of masquerades. But it was fun. And he was right. All over the towns and villages of Arondizuogu, located in Imo State, a horde of exotically dressed masquerades, welding whips and ugly looking masks on their heads, roamed. The masquerades were mostly in silk, woollen and cotton cloths. Some of the cloths were nets. And these masquerades could talk. They whipped people whom they chose to whip. Immediately that person was identified, he stood still for the bunch of canes to descend on him. It was no wonder that the crowd was mostly in jeans trousers and other thick clothes to absorb the pain of the canes.

The people would run asunder, immediately a masquerade appeared, with his half clad and rough looking youthful male companions singing their masculine songs. Others had pots stuffed with fires that smoked. Various types of musical instruments accompanied them: slit wooden gongs, (ekwe), ogele (metal gong), and drums, among others. Along the roads and traders and household people decorated their surroundings and shops with palm leaves to mark the limits the masquerades could trespass. If a person ran into that encircled space, he was safe.

And they were many-the crowd and the masquerades. But the masquerades dictated the course the crowd followed. Perhaps, that was before Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN) came in, with its noise and gifts, dances, songs, music and drama. At this time, the masquerades, perhaps, felt threatened. And they revolted. Perhaps, they too wanted the gifts from the telecom company. They began to break through the palm leaves into the open MTN arena. Some of them succeeded in getting their gifts, though.

The MTN rigs (open platforms) and canopies were, perhaps, a challenge to the masquerades. A new attraction, like spice, had been added to the Ikeji Festival. Some of the town-folks that heard about it returned home from Lagos, Europe and America. News had gone out, through radio and television jingles, newspapers and words of mouth, that MTN was in town to celebrate Ikeji with the Arondizuogu, as the festival's official sponsor. The telecommunication company had actually contacted the town's authorities and got their permission to sponsor it.

So, it was indeed, between the MTN music and dance band, and the masquerades. While the masquerades came with their canes, the MTN crew came with gifts to give out through raffle draw: generators, t-shirts, umbrellas, pens. And people were winning. Soon, the crowd thickened at the Nkwo Achi central square of the town where the company held forte. Somewhere, cannons boomed, round after round.

MTN came for the Ikeji Festival prepared. It stamped its presence by mounting at every strategic position-junctions, royal palaces, even during officials right behind the ezes- MTN posters and yellow and black t shirts. Groups of people in the town or roads were made to wear the shirts. The posters announced various products of the company. They had pictures of certain cultural dances in Igboland. This way, those mounting tolls along the road were branded, as well as the masquerade troupes. Before long the yellow and blue colours of the Telecommunication Company enveloped every part of the town. It was what Crown Prince Dike later described as aggressive marketing, and wished that MTN would always be at the Ikeji.

, The MTN group was represented by Mr Ikechukwu Kalu, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Mr. Oforkansi Oti, in charge its South East and South South divisions, and Kazeem, in charge of its regional representative.

That Friday morning, the music and dance troupe blasted the town with the songs of Pericomo. A deeply rooted and synchronising sound, his song is narrative, interspersed by the narrator who ends it with a chorus. Soon, the whole town was turned into a music hall, with the voice of Ichie Mezuo Nwankwo Okoye (Pericomo) trailing the ridges, hills and plains of Arondizuogu. He popularised the Ikeji festival with his music, which is an Ikeji brand. Youths and oldies danced and greeted visitors. The town-folks wore a happy smile. Some of them were drunk, or were just drinking. Pericomo's music was irresistible to them.

Along the road, some folks struggled with their goats. The goats were for sacrifice to mother earth and the ancestors. Others were carrying dead animals such as antelopes and grass cutters (nchi) bought from hunters.

Whatever negative image cast on the Ikeji festival disappeared at the people's show of happiness and hospitality. Perhaps, that was the reason why the telecommunication company was involved in the first place-to help dispel the false notion held about the over 400 year-old event.

A brochure by First Input Ltd FI-I, an event company, working with MTN at the Ikeji, said the festival is recognised as a formidable cultural event that has become a unifying factor for all Nigerians.

"Ikeji Festival is much more than the parochial definition of narrow minded people." These people, the brochure said, "try to associate the festival with fetishism and other morbid thoughts."

For the group, through its chairman, Mr. Chris Agu, those are the people that are ignorant and suffer from brain wash as a result of foreign cultural hegemony.

Ikeji, he went on, is a tradition passed down to the present generation from their ancestors. It is a combination of thanksgiving, prayers, libation, feasting, indoctrination and the carnival like masquerade extravaganza (all in original grand African style, he pointed out.

"Ikeji is about letting go of all your worries, all your pain, and just be yourself as you join with friends and family to celebrate. Ikeji Festival is a cleansing of the land. It ushers in the new yam season," somebody in the crowd quipped in.

"Today, we pour libation, kill goats and offer prayers" he elaborated.

The event was actually a complete four days of fun, food, party and "and a little bit of temporary insanity," a moment to relax and enjoy the fun of a rural community. The adverts had enabled people to return home this year more than it used to be," he explained.

For the telecommunication company, as part of its drive to dispel some of the negative bad rap about Ikeji, "we are leaving no stone unturned to bring this gift of our ancestors to the realities and relevance of the 21st century bordeless world"

However, MTN's participated in the festival as part of its Direct Community Connect, previously known as Direct Consumer Contact. It started last year. In September, October, November, and December, the company had its pilot projects. The idea was to make contact with its customers. During the process the company realised that it was bringing communities together; it was enabling communities to connect with its customers. It therefore had to change the name to reflect the real essence of the initiative.

The idea is also to use such to get to a community, make everything available to its customers there. They can ask questions, and get them resolved. In a way therefore, it was bringing MTN service centre to the community.

"We have a dedicated line that they can call to our call centre and get any issue that they cannot resolve on ground to be resolved immediately so that the customer does not leave here without getting an answer to whatever he wanted.

"And again, the team consists of people who can speak the local dialect, so that you are able to talk to even the illiterate customer about MTN. So for us, the MTN Community Connect is about bringing MTN to the Grassroots, because we cannot open an office in every local government, or every community. But with MTN's Community Connect we can get to every community and make impact in every community. So for me this is a fantastic programme, and I am not surprised that others are beginning to do similar things. But you see as a leader in this market, we will always continue to spearhead new things, innovative ideas," Ikechukwu Kalu of the MTN said.

The four-day Ikeji activities began on April 23-25. It was the homecoming, which also began the telecommunication's activities. April 26 was the Eke Odu Ikeji Initiation. April 27 was Orie Egbugbu, for thanksgiving and libation feasting.

While the community observed all these, MTN marked the activities with different programmes. On that April 27th, it converged at Nkwo Achi and visited the Crown Prince of Ndi Awa, whose father, Eze Dike, died last year. They later went to see Eze Ndubuisi Kanu of Ndiheme. The next day, they were at the palace of Eze Aro Umuduru-Ikpakwu Autonomous Community. The gifts for Pericomo were handed over to him through his delegate at Ndi Iheme.

At the palace of the late Eze J. A. Dike 111 of Ndi Awa, his son, Prince Dike, who performed the traditional kola nut offering of the Igbo narrated the history of the town, adding that his village is the head of all the Izuogu villages. The feast, he said, is to ask God and their ancestors to continue to guide them in the planting season.

"Ikeji is the interregnum between planting and harvesting. And we ask our fathers to protect us in the season. Today is Orie Egbugbu, the day for sacrifice. We ask our gods for their benevolence towards our children. The most significant aspect is the sacrifice we do. Ikeji is a cultural festival. It is the time of homecoming, a reunion when people return home to see their kiths and kin," he said.

While noting the company's "aggressive marketing", the crown prince said that the company has succeed in becoming the nation's number one mobile telecom company.

At Ndi Iheme and Umuduru Ikpakwu, the chief priests performed the sacrificial nature of the feast. A goat each was sacrificed and libation poured in each of these villages. And everything ended with humour and laughter, as the libation was poured amidst jokes on the ancestors too. And all through the visits, the MTN repeated their pledge to support the ceremony.

Along the road, some folks struggled with their goats. The goats were for sacrifice to mother earth and the ancestors. But the visit on that day was symbolic as it was the Egbu day of the festival.

In their remarks at the palaces, the MTN chiefs told the royal fathers whom they presented with Nokia phones, MTN sim cards and umbrellas that they would build more booster stations in the town to boost coverage. Through Oti, the team said they would always be at the Ikeji. The fathers were happy when told by Kalu of the efforts by the company to bring the festival to world attention.

"We want to move our people from Arondizuogu ahead. We want to move them in their cultural heritage, in their cultural experience, and you know it matters to them. It is about helping them to enjoy those things that matter to them, helping them to celebrate their life, their culture, which is why we are here. We are at Arondizuogu also, and a month ago we were at Ilesabi and we made it great. We came here and we are going to make the Ikeji festival greater than it used to be. And we will see that at the end of this festival, the people of Arondizuogu we say, "Wao!" Kalu said.

He said the value derived from participating in such festivals to company is immeasurable.

"The value goes beyond what you can quantified. And for us it is about that connectivity with your customers; you take them beyond just being your customers to being your advocate. Anyone who gets that kind of fantastic event that we are bringing here is more likely to tell more people about the experience. And that will continue to boost our subscribers' base and the usage of our packaging because you feel we care for you, and you will always want to stay with the brand you feel that cares for you care for that cares for you. And MTN cares for you in so many ways; we care about your culture, the value you get and in facilitating them."

Part of the reasons for the visitation to rulers, Kalu said, was to rub mind with them, "on how we can partner with them in other fronts. So for me it is a continuous thing. We are here to celebrate with them, and that celebration they will get in large measure," he said.