The Igbo Women’s August Meeting

As August arrives, let me show my admiration to the special people who continue to build a Nation. Yes, every August, married Igbo Women return home, hold meetings and architect roadmaps for their matrimonial communities:

“August meeting is an annual congress held by the Igbo women in August, it is a massive homecoming whereby Igbo women in the diaspora and the cities travel back to their matrimonial villages to meet with their local counterparts to discuss matters about the community development, conflict Management, human development, and other socio-economic and cultural initiatives. The meeting is a three days ritual and it is divided into three parts, the first is held at the village level, the second within the community, and the third is held in churches where thanksgivings are held to mark the end of the meeting”.

This meeting happens in every Igbo community in Southeast Nigeria and beyond. They examine  everything, from fixing schools to empowering women in rural areas. Yet, despite what they do, these women rarely ask for accolades. Their husbands stay in the cities while they are doing the strategic works to fix Igbo communities. Why do Igbo Women do all they do without blowing the trumpet? Follow me…

I posit that Igbo Women generally want their husbands to be stars. In other words, Igbo Women derive so much joy when their husbands are successful or as seen as successful. Because of that, they mask their huge impacts, promoting their husbands.

That reverence becomes evident when you see a young lady of the same age as the husband calling the man “Nna-anyi” [our lord]. When a mother tells the daughter “Di bu ugwu nwanyi” [husband is the dignity of a woman], what she is saying is clear: above all, adore and respect that man.

Men respond by anointing wives as “odozi aku” [one who keeps and preserves wealth] and “ori aku’ [one who enjoys wealth]. A man may not have a watch but will thrive to buy a gold-plated watch for the wife! Yes, they acknowledge that until the women have determined to preserve the wealth, building it is all vanity.

But remember: the person who keeps wealth is the one who knows about the wealth. Yes, when the stakes become high, women take over. In 1929, Aba Women made it clear to the British that some of those new unjust taxes would not be accepted, even though men had agreed. It was then the British knew the real accountant generals of every Igbo family.

Mothers of the Nation, as you travel for the August Meeting, I wish all safe travels. 

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Inaugural President,  Uke-Udo Ugwunta Ovim 

(Peace Age Grade, Ugwunta Ovim, Abia State)

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