AN INVESTIGATION INTO PUBERTY INITIATION OF YOUNG GIRLS INTO WOMANHOOD IN IGARRA AKOKO EDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This project investigated into puberty initiation of young girls into womanhood in Ikpemeri, Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State. The scope of the study was within the Okpemeri people in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area. The findings have shown that there is negative effect on the initiation of young girls into womanhood in Okpemeri. This is because these affect the education of the girls. Some may choose ceremony. The research instrument used included questionnaire, and oral interview. The population of study was for 50 respondents. The study, also prepared some solution to alleviate the identified problems.

The languages of these twenty-two communities are quite similar, hence the term “Okpemeri” was been adapted to represent all that the communities stand for. Among the various ceremony and festivals of the communities the initiation of young girls into womanhood is one of the most important. This ceremony is generally called “Oviliok”. The term ovilivia represent the initiated. This festival takes place once a year in each of the villages mentioned above. Ovilivia is a festival of initiation of young girls of marriageable age into womanhood. It is a revered culture, which upholds the moral purity of the “Okpemeri” communities. That the festival has to do with both morality and religion is only to be expected. According to Idowu in his book the “sociology of education (1978)” said “morality is basically the first of religion and that to begin with, it depend upon it”. The ovilivia festival is not a festival of mass wedding rather, it is a festival which declare young women mature, qualified and old enough to marry. In some areas initiating maidens could be interms of circumcision but the “Okpemeri”, it is not so.

During the ceremony, young girls are decorated with “Elopo” (beads), which is worn round the waist, her neck and hands to identify that they are undergoing the festival. This could also serve as a medium to show that they are eligible for marriage. The parent distributes sugar, Ahu (local beer brewed at home). There is also the shooting of guns to signify that there is a festival going on. (J. O. Odutola, 1963) in terms of customs during the Olivia festivals the maidens usually dressed with Ojah (woven cloth) tied around their waist but decorated with beads and bangles both on their hands and necks. They are led to the market square by the age women in the villages where there are cultural groups dancing to entertain them. However the Ovilivias also partake in the cultural dance as they get to the scene. This was always accompanies by ovation of spectators from almost all the villages in “Okpemeri”. Later the chief of one of then villages in “Okpemeri” comes and perform the necessary rites and from there, dancing and singing continues. During this time suitors come out and seek for their future partakers, when this is done, they make their intention known to the girls parents who reject or accepts the suitors.