The Iria festival dates back to the 16th century; an ancient annual festival of womanhood that is held at a market square in Okrika, an ancient town in Rivers State. All the 10 communities of Okrika used to practice it. But for the past 13 years, only two communities, including Ogu, have been practicing it.
Parents counsel their 16 and 17-year-old virgins and enter them into the Iria ceremony.
For the parents, it's a delight to have a daughter who has kept her virginity as well as the family's honor. In times past, if a girl failed to undergo the puberty rite, it was believed she would find it difficult to have a child.
Breasts-baring maidens are seen being initiated by the people into womanhood. Virgins are presented and kept at fattening room, where they are taken care of for the festival. They are also fed with the typical Okrika food of pounded yam and plantain with fresh fish. The meal is to help them become endowed, agile and delightful.
Every morning during the fattening period, the maidens go to the village stream to bathe early in the morning. After the 30 days camping, they troop to the village square bare-chested with their bodies painted in different dyes and patterns.
The indigenes of Okrika believe in the festival and cannot be defiled by a maiden who ended up pregnant before marriage. Old women called 'Gbenerime' were always on the ground to spot out those who are pregnant among the maidens and get them disqualified.
For those who were disqualified, it became a source of embarrassment to the girl and her family who became an object of mockery.
The qualified ladies are, however, given certificates showing they are now adult ladies ready to marry. The day after appearing at the market square, the girls dance around the community wearing 'Mkpala' on their legs as a special marker of their status so desirous men can make a move.
Iria Festival has lost its vibrancy over the years because of Western education and the Christian faith which have conspired to make parents not enter their maidens into the festival. They describe the Iria practice as fetish and the act of dancing half-naked as against their religion.