To the glory of God I bring you greetings, congratulate and felicitate with you on this auspicious occasion of our 2023 traditional Ibo-uzo (Mbomuzo). It is only by God’s grace that we remain hale and hearty to witness this season, another joyous moment of uniting with our kith and kin, physically and spiritually in thanksgiving to God and the gods of our land for helping us to sustain our oneness and keep faith alive for posterity in true allegiance to the ancestral mandate bequeathed to us by our forebears.
May I also use this opportunity to harp on the significance of this unique Mbomuzo tradition as a time of showing gratitude to the Almighty God (Obasi bi n’elu) for his loving kindness, mercies and faithfulness, offering librations to the gods of the land as their own share of the fruits of their labour past, and also ask for their continued blessings and protection.
Appreciation, they say and rightly too, is application for more, and to partake in this spiritual and ancestral blessings, all hands must be on deck, no bitterness against one another, forgiving all those who have wronged you and showing love to relations, friends, well-wishers and enemies alike, etc.
Ofcourse, all this can only make sense in a clean environment. Cleanliness is Godliness, hence, the need and call for all to come out en masse to partake in the ‘roads clearing’, both the major road (Okporo-ama Nkwumeato) and our personal ‘nkoro’ roads.
Partaking in this little but meaningfully deep exercise is to say the least, necessary. It goes with tremendous and unimaginable rewards including but not limited to good-health, long life, progress in your endeavours and liberation from all manner of entanglement and hiccups on your path.
Simply put, it activates (ukwu-nka, ahu-isike, omumu, aku-na-uba, udo na-ezi, n’ulo, mgbochi ihe ojoo di iche-iche, etc). I therefore urge you to come out en masse to claim your own blessing. If you cannot be there, make sure you are represented so that your blessings will not pass you by. There will be light refreshments in addition, though this is secondary.
On this note, I thank in a very special way our brothers at home and in diaspora who have in one way or the other, contributed in motivating and inspiring us both in cash and kind to ensure that our tradition, our culture, our mandate remain uninterruptedly alive. Let me also reassure you that your hard earned resources any time obliged, will not go down the drains as suspiciously used to be the case in the past.
May the good Lord continue to bless and keep us all in Jesus name, Amen.
Once again, happy Mbomuzo 2023.
Long live Umunmee (Ndi nwe m).
Long live Nkwumeato Autonomous Community
Signed:
Christian Konkwo, FCAI
Chairman, Umunmee Larger Family
