The WAR Dance Festival —(ILA OSO) In Uzuakoli

Wow, a month has passed since I made my post "Home Sweet Home" and promised to bring you more insight on the rich cultural heritage of Uzuakoli people. Hmmmmmm, maybe I took too long to get back to you, but, here's a brief look at the WAR DANCE FESTIVAL known as ILA OSO FESTIVAL.

A cross section of the different age grades of young people during the December 2011 ILA OSO FESTIVAL

The ILA OSO is a rich cultural festival originating with the Uzuakoli people. It dates back to over two centuries ago and is celebrated in yearly intermittence with the Masquerade Dance called the IZA MBARA AMA festival, this makes it a biennial event.

For the festival, which is usually celebrated during the December period, natives come home from their various places of residence.

On the day of the ILA OSO, both young and old step out in their full traditional regalia —akwa george, traditional beads, nzu, uri, etc. The men are dressed as for war, while the woman dress for dance. They step out carrying primitive weapons of war like the otta, egbe ntu, mma Oge, aku and akpaka as used by their ancestors. The woman carry and dance with the mkpoola.
The women dressed in their akwa george and traditional beads.

The ILA OSO is not the actual war dance as they also do have the IKPIRIKPE which is actual war dance performed by men only, it is a festival which features age long war artifacts and "make-aways" from past victories by the ancestors. Everyone is grouped by their various age grades and they dance round the whole village singing war songs and celebrating past victories.
A man fully dressed with his akwa george and nzu carrying "egbe ntu".

I found this video of the 2017 ILA OSO festival on YouTube and thought to share. 👇

I hope you enjoy it too.
More coming, stay tuned to @gifty-e

Culture is art elevated to a set of believes.
Thomas Wolfe