Festivals, communal rites and annual festivities are integral to the celebrated narratives and cultural lived experiences of Africans. Times and seasons are ushered in and marked with one festival or the other. Parts of the year are set out for harvest but before the harvest comes the planting. This holds a high level of significance, especially for agrarian communities that look upon the land or the sea as the case maybe for sustenance all through the year. In anticipation of bountiful harvest, communities set out to celebrate and perform some fertility rites in dance and evocative songs in appeasement of and intimacy with the gods of the land.
The performances are for communal bonding, peace building and to signal the beginning of another year of planting in a calendric cycle of anticipation of a fruitful harvest year. In some communities and cultural settings, the concept of fertility is extended to entreating the gods of the land to intervene in the travails of women experiencing delays and difficulties in conception and childbirth.
It is in that light that one is utterly dismayed by the reports in the media concerning Alue-Do festival of Ozoro Kingdom in Delta State. Alue-Do also called Albedo is an age long fertility festival which has now been turned into an absurd theatre of a rape festival. It now stands out as a modern day confirmation of the endemic corruption and denigration of the sanctity of African culture and the failure of leadership to transmit the inherent core values in our culture of communality and conviviality.
The result is that the very essence having been lost, gangsters have now hijacked the festival as a traditional license for licentiousness, brazen display of bizarre absurdities and abominable debauchery.
The traditional event celebrated in the Uruamudhu community, one of the five communities constituting the Ozoro Kingdom in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State has been a long-standing cultural festival. It has however in the last one week garnered widespread national attention and open condemnation due to reported cases of rape and other forms of gender based violence inflicted on innocent young female students residing in the community.
The festival is traditionally recognised as a ‘Festival of Fertility’, aimed at invoking blessings of children for married couples experiencing difficulty with childbirth. It is also essentially about the fertility of the land to yield its increase. The Ozoro festival of fertility brings to the fore the need for modification and much needed reformation of our cultural festivals in line with current realities and the basic principles of the rule of law.
Ozoro is currently a university community with significant population of female students. It therefore no longer makes an acceptable sense restricting the movement of these women and girls simply on account of a festival being held.
Reports have shown that visitors or strangers unfamiliar with the restrictive customs of the day often fell victim to harassment and sexual molestation. This turns out to be a brazen display of barbarism. It is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.
Following viral videos of young women being raped as part of the festival, there have been widespread calls to completely abolish or significantly modify the aspects of the tradition that put women at risk. There are also calls to bring perpetrators of the heinous acts to answer for their display of violent violation and sexual assault of innocent women.
While some reports referred to it as a ‘rape festival’, due to the nature of the alleged assaults, community leaders have denied that rape is a formal part of their tradition, stating that the event was hijacked by criminal elements who assaulted women. The community leaders and elders have apparently lost control and so should answer for their negligence and callous aloofness in the ugly circumstances that played out.
Viral videos showed groups of young men tearing the clothes of women, groping them, and chasing them in public spaces. There were allegations that women were expected to stay indoors and that any woman found outside became a target for harassment.
Meanwhile, the Delta State Police Command, as at the weekend, confirmed the arrest of five individuals, including the community head Chief Omorede Sunday.
The Delta State government strongly condemned the acts, calling them ‘barbaric’, ‘disgusting’, and ‘unacceptable’, and stated that no tradition excuses or legitimises sexual violence.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) equally condemned the incident as a ‘national disgrace’.
Responding to the reported incidents of the Ozoro festival, renowned human rights advocate and President of LightRay! Media, Lady Ejiro Umukoro called for immediate and decisive action. Describing the incident as ‘heinous and unacceptable’, she strongly condemned the act and urged all stakeholders to work together to address the growing scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) in the Niger Delta.
In her words, ‘This is a dark moment for our society. The attack on women and girls during a community festival is not just a violation of their rights, but a stain on our collective humanity. Those caught on video committing these horrific crimes must face the full weight of the law. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act is clear: rape is punishable by life imprisonment, and we demand swift justice for the victims’.
Lady Umukoro called on law enforcement agencies to immediately investigate the incident, identify the perpetrators, and prosecute them without delay. She also emphasised the need for systemic reforms to prevent such acts from recurring, including the establishment of Gender-Based Violence Desks in police stations across the Niger Delta to ensure sensitive and timely responses to GBV cases.
She added that any tradition that mistreats women or gives men silent power or overt permission to violate, assault, demean or rape women must be abolished.
She demands that all the boys and men caught in this act shown in the many videos, must be jailed, adding that boys and men must begin to learn accountability and respect for women as women who give birth to nations cannot be treated in this manner.
Lady Ejiro Umukoro insisted that the consequences have to be severe to stop this brazen madness under the cover of culture. Parents must become more accountable in how they’re raising their boys to men.
Imagine what kind of nasty image this has caused to the Delta Brand? She wondered allowed.
She demanded that there has to be consequences. And this festival, hidden under the guise of the tradition of misogynistic behaviour and pervasion must be abolished across all communities with any of these so-called ancient practices.
Key Recommendations from Lady Ejiro Umukoro:
1. Swift Justice: Perpetrators of this heinous act must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law under the VAPP Act, which prescribes life imprisonment for rape.
2. Support for Survivors: Establish safe houses and crisis centres to provide medical care, psychological support, and shelter for victims of GBV.
3. Community Advocacy: Traditional rulers, community leaders, and civil society organisations must work together to abolish harmful cultural practices that enable violence against women.
4. Legislative Action: State governments in the Niger Delta must adopt and enforce the VAPP Act to provide localised protection and justice for women and girls.
5. Education and Awareness: Comprehensive education programs on consent, respect, and the consequences of GBV should be implemented to engage men and boys as allies in the fight against gender-based violence.
Lady Umukoro further highlighted the urgent need to address the root causes of GBV, including cultural norms that perpetuate violence, inadequate education, and weak enforcement of protective laws. ‘We must create a Niger Delta where women and girls can live without fear of violence or discrimination. This is not just a women’s issue—it is a societal issue that requires all of us to act’, she stated.
She also urged the Federal Government to prioritize the enforcement of the Executive Order designating telecommunications and digital infrastructure as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), noting that such measures would help protect critical systems that support education, security, and financial services, which are often disrupted by acts of violence.
A Call to Collective Action
‘This is a wake-up call for all of us’, Lady Umukoro said. ‘We must take a stand against gender-based violence and build a society where women are not just protected but empowered to thrive. Let us work together to ensure that every woman and girl in the Niger Delta can live with dignity, safety, and opportunity’.
Lady Ejiro Umukoro’s call to action is a rallying cry for governments, law enforcement agencies, traditional institutions, civil society, and citizens to come together and address the systemic issues that perpetuate violence against women and girls.
