Custom · Revived in May 2018
Image: Generated illustration — Generated with an AI image tool for this site, Generated illustration, not a historical image
In Idah, a royal hunting festival returned after decades away, giving younger Igala people a chance to see an inherited tradition.
Igala tradition tells of an Attah named Idoko who went hunting and lost his way in the forest. His men searched for him. When at last he came home safe, he wanted the day remembered. He ordered a ceremony of thanks, a royal hunt, to be held every year by the kings who came after him.
That hunt is Ocho. Even its story has its arguments. One version says the animal involved was a goat. A chief hunter insists it was a small wild antelope.
At the heart of Ocho, the Attah goes into the forest and shoots with a bow and arrow. Attendants put up a shelter and bring an animal forward as the target. If the king hits it, the hunting season will be good. If he misses, people fear a bad year.
Then Ocho stopped. For decades no Attah went out to shoot. How long, exactly, nobody agrees. One report counted 64 years since the last festival in November 1954. Another said 55 years, with a ban in 1963. Either way, most Igala people alive had never seen it.
On 19 May 2018 it came back. At Ogo-Efa forest outside Idah, chiefs and young people waited while the Attah, Idakwo Michael Ameh Oboni II, was off on his hunt. A singer called Joseph Abu kept the crowd going with stories about the kings of old. The drummers played.
One report says he came back with an antelope he had shot. Then the procession moved into town. Dancers and chiefs lined the road. At the palace the Attah broke kola, prayed for the land and its people, the royal masquerades danced, and the district heads came to pay homage.
For the young people there, it was the first time. Their grandparents had told them about Ocho. Now they had seen it for themselves.
