Amaekpu Ohafia, a Village You Should Visit||10% Payout to Steem-Travelers

Hello great people,
My name is Mercy Orji and username is @meymeyshops, a Steemian since December 2020. I bring to you all here my warmest greetings as I've come to present to you my hometown called Amaekpu located within the Local Government Area refered to as Ohafia of Abia State in the Eastern Region of Nigeria.

On the 26th day of December 2021, I traveled down to my village to spend the holiday there. This travel is the best experience I've enjoyed in the recent past months. I'll tell you why. In fact, I am writing this post from the village.

Amaekpu Ohafia is a big village though not rich financially but the people have a high regard for each other and are very hospitable. They cherish unity of purpose and morale as well as hardwork and abhor bad morales like robbery, abuse and other vices.

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Back in those days when I was growing up, if a person is caught stealing, he/she will be stripped naked then paraded round the whole village along with a song fabricated using the person's name and the vice committed. This serves as a deterrent to others but sadly, the punishment didn't stop robbery.

Crimes such as witchcraft and murder attract being stoned to death in the village square having established the facts or outright banishment. There, every indigene will converge at the village square and the suspected criminal be called to stand on a podium in the center of the square. The village elders will then judge the offender after which he/she will receive the due punishment.

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In the recent years, as civilization takes place, there have been a whole lot of changes in almost everything. Usually, each compound do have one ancient hall in front of it where the compound heads/elders hold their meetings but now those old buildings have either been renovated or demolished and rebuilt to a fine blocks.

My compound name is Ndi Uche meaning 'belonging to Uche, their ancestor. The said compound hall called OBU, have been rebuilt to a fine one Story building with two halls. The rebuilding was spearheaded by one big man, a politician and with the donations of every youth.

The gesture done to my compound motivated other compounds to persuade their sons to change their compounds' structure. One compound called Ndi Umuozio (Umuzio's descendants) now wear a new look.

There's one notable tradition which Amaekpu people held tenaciously for decades. They call it Age Grade System of Development. The tradition is that everyone youth male or female must belong to his/her age grade which they see as tool for development. At the end of every four years, the age grade at the helm of affairs will complete one project for the village. It could be some class room blocks, road or market square. One of such structures is rebuilding the village square to make it accommodate more sittings.

The Atamata village square built through an Age Grade System

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###Cultural festivity
They have plenty of cultural celebrations and dances. One cultural dance for the age grade system, another for winning conflicts with neighbors, others for the youth.

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Cultural festival of the age grade system

As soon as my siblings, nieces and nephew arrived, we celebrated ourselves with a bottle of Red Wine. The kids were so excited to be home. Though my parents are late, I did my best to make everyone feel at home without complaints. We have enough food to see us throughout this holiday. Visitors haven't stopped coming and are being entertained. We went out visiting relatives and friends. This makes me feel so happy coming home.

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I'm so grateful to #steem-travelers for providing the opportunity to express my travel experience. I'll be moving back to the city of Aba in few days time, when I do, I'll bring back my reports here. Before then I'll be telling you guys traditional marriage rights procedures of my community Amaekpu.

Thank you all for checking out on me.

Special mentions:

@willeusz
@ponpase
@papi.mati