Across Igbo land, August meetings, the annual mothers’ congresses held in the month of August usually witness massive home-coming of ‘Igbo women’ to their marital rural hometowns, where they unite with their rural-based colleagues for community development purposes.
The ‘August Meeting’ has a critical mandate in Igbo political affairs and represents the socio-economic and cultural development initiative of women. Indeed, this feast truly has typified the rise of women as a social force and their conscious pursuit of development.
The annual event has been entrenched in the calendar of Igbo women and they always look forward to it. It has become customary for most women who are civil servants to fix their annual leave in August to enable them to interact with their fellow women in the rural areas without having to worry about their offices during the period.
The yearly reunion, which began over 23 years ago, and is currently celebrated by women in all the Igbo states including Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Abia have become a yearly ritual as Igbo women living at home and abroad return home in what is considered a desperate move to complement the efforts of the men in providing essential amenities such as roads, health centres, electricity and churches among others in their communities. During this annual event,,women adorned different uniforms and add colour and panache to their different communities throughout August and first week of September
The ‘August Meeting’ is fast becoming a powerful and purposeful sociopolitical symbol and strategy for the exercise of power and maintenance of identity among the Igbo, affecting all realms of life and ‘restoring’ the once strong political voice of the womenfolk in traditional communities.
In other words, through this annual home-coming congress, Igbo women hold some socio-political influence and have become active actors and agents in the Igbo public sphere.
LEADERSHIP Weekend recalls that though in the pre-colonial era, Igbo women had direct involvement and considerable influence in the public sphere, which was defined through institutional provisions as the socio-political arena, the advent of colonialism, however, introduced some policies which put women and their activities down, and considerably diminished the women’s status and agency in Igboland.
In the last eight years, the Women August Meeting has evolved from an offhand annual gathering into a dynamic platform for the empowerment, reorientation and mobilisation of women for community building and political participation.
In some states for instance, the association has governors’ wives to thank for that. Since most of them took the decision to become host of the Meeting, each edition of the yearly event has identified challenges facing women in their states and taken pains to offer solution.
Take Imo state for instance, in 2011 when it started, the theme was ‘Women: the Home Builders’, in 2012, it was ‘Women: The Vessels for Transformation’, in 2013, it was ‘Managing Stress and Unity of Purpose’, in 2014, the theme was ‘Imo Women: Making a Difference through Involvement and Commitment’ and in 2015, the theme was ‘Women: Dare to Dream’, with an accompanying slogan, ‘it is possible’.
In 2016 there was a visible paradigm shift in the theme and focus of the August Meeting. The title was ‘Looking at the Next Generation of Mothers’ and the accompanying slogan was ‘we cannot afford to fail’. This peculiar edition was a wakeup call on the women to inculcate the right values in their children who are to be the next generation and mothers and fathers.
In 2017 the theme was ‘Women: Building Bridges of Friendship Across the Niger’, it was a clarion call on women to deploy their inherent talents to promote unity, peace, friendship, justice, equity and love not only in the Igbo nation but in Nigeria at large.
Then the 2018 edition had the theme, ‘Sharing our Common Cultural Values’ which was intended to turn the country’s diverse culture into a tool of national integration and society development.
Apart from this, the 2019 edition of the August Meeting was profoundly special because among other things, it was the first edition for the wife of the current governor of Imo state and some first time lawmakers.
This year in Imo State, it appears there was a consensus gathering of women from Owerri zone though some claim it was a gathering of women from the ruling All Progressive Congress because it was initiated by the Owerri Senatorial candidate, Prince Alex Mbata. From all indication,
Frst Lady of Imo State, Barr Chioma Uzodimma , unlike her predecessors did not draw out a plan for the women even though attended the grand finale of the 233 communities in the Owerri zone, organised by the APC candidate for Owerri zone, Alex Mbata.
However, communities held their individual and autonomous community meetings wherein they discussed issues peculiar to them.
There has never been a central theme outside Government quarters as each community guided by her executives chose an apt topic tailored to their own needs. While many focused on survival under high inflation, some discussed how insecurity had affected their lives and businesses.
The organisation, attendance, performances and emotions that are usually showcased at this time, proves beyond doubt that the Imo and the southeast August Meeting has bonded the women, irrespective of status, class, creed, politics and religion.
This annual reunion also gives opportunity for the wives of governors to present gifts to women for their “love and support” in the saddle and mostly for their husbands”.
The crowd at various venues where August Meetings are celebrated are usually beautiful to behold as these places are usually filled to capacity, most of the women from across the local government areas of the state sleep over at the stadium preparing for the D-Day.
As it is done, after circulars announcing the date are sent out to women leaders at the various local government councils, a timetable of various events is then rolled out.
At this point, the host who is mostly the governor’s wife in an uncommon display of charity, which has sustained in the last years through her pet project and non-governmental organisation, gives out, sometimes between two- three bedroom fully furnished bungalows to three indigent widows and mini-buses, a fully stocked fabric shop, as well as thousands of expensive gift items including refrigerators, gas cookers, motorcycles, generators, household items, thousands of bags of rice and other food items, kitchen wares, clothing and cash to deserving winners of various competitioners.
In most cases, all the women that attended the August Meeting go home with a gift item.
There is usually a colorful, rich and intriguing display of culture from across the country including dances, food, agriculture and other attributes that underscore the country’s cultural identity.
Dancing troupes from various states including some from the South south states such as Delta, Cross River, Edo and Oyo perform to the admiration of the surging crowd.
Other various side attractions are the match past by women from various local government areas of the state celebrating, comic competitions like the ‘osu mmiri’, dancing competition by senior citizens, beauty parade and raffle draws. All these adds colour to the event that is aired live in major television stations.
A participant, Mrs Felix Uzoegu told LEADERSHIP Friday that, “Our culture is our way of life, and we should hold tenaciously to it and must not let it go into extinction”.
She noted that “the achievements of the August Meeting in the past years have shown that when mobilised, women can be consistent in piloting and championing developmental projects in communities.
Uzoegu said, “ I have personally realised that the potentials embedded in Imo, my state of origin through August Meeting, especially from the angle of women empowerment, family consolidation and unity, as well as the community development have really revolutionized August Meeting into a historic event, effectively packaged to actualise its potentials”.
She continued that “our leaders, past and present, have introduced events like arts and culture, agricultural products and food exhibition, thereby enhancing the discovery of talents and potentials in women in view of their roles as home builders and agents of positive change, strengthening their collaboration and participation in meaningful societal development”.
Madam Chiamaka Ezemakor had this to say, , “Permit me to mention that some women in the politics of Imo State were discovered during August Meetings as a result of how they participated and carried out their activities”.
Madam Ezemakor who went down memory lane told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the issue of attire almost marred the essence of August meeting as attendance began to drop in many communities. She said: “In those days, some women would package three different attires for the three days the meeting usually lasted, and the topic shifted from discussing community affairs, to the reigning dresses in town.
She said, the issue also began to cause dispute in some families as wives began to mount undue pressure on their husbands to buy expensive dresses for them a development which she said separated different marriages.
Speaking on the family disputes caused by August meeting, Mrs Umheh Chima told LEADERSHIP Weekend that “there was a big relief when a decision was taken that women should appear in a uniform during August meetings to end the competition on quality of dresses to wear during meeting.
According to Mrs. Chima, “Since the era of wearing uniform at the August meetings, attendance has increased tremendously and the friction in many families over dresses to the meeting has ended.
She disclosed that, “Usually, August meeting is broken into three segments. The first is organised at the village level, then at the community level and finally, at the church level during which the women offer thanksgiving in their various churches to formally end the meeting.
Mr Okpo Uzorhuo who dislikes the forum said, August Meetings have broken many homes and ruined marriages and businesses.
A lawyer of Igbo descent, Barrister Ifunnaya Ojukwu opined that most women engage in untoward acts during this period just to go with the bandwagon.” You know how vain some women are. Every woman likes to meet up with others. Nobody wishes to be intimidated by other women. Both the poor and the rich wish to meet up with the fashion of the time. And for them, they must meet up.”
As we are aware, “ Women care about their looks and if their husbands cannot provide for what they want, some will start to look elsewhere just to satisfy themselves, thereby causing problems in the house. Many of them would go to the extent of stealing, prostituting, and doing all sorts of evil, just to meet up with others. Many borrow money, clothes, some other things in their bid to meet up, and thereby disgrace their husbands.
His words, “ during August meetings, women compete with one another to know who will wear the best clothes, handbags, shoes, earrings, necklace and so on. Women don’t joke with this and that is very bad. Are you aware some women have abandoned their homes or threatened to leave their husbands in a bid to force them to part with money to enable them attend the meeting?
LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that in the previous years, August Meeting was a turning point for some homeless indigent widows as they won between packages through rattle draw. A typical example is that of 2018 in Imo state where the former governor’s wife, Mrs Rochas Okorocha built over 200 houses for indigent widows across the state through her pet project, ‘She Needs A Roof Project’ (SNARP).
During the period under review, other lucky persons, Daberechi and Ebo (orphans) from Orlu council area of the state and Chinyere Okafor from Obowo council area who were earlier beneficiaries of the SNARP Project, also got a mini-bus and a fully stocked fabric shop.
Another respondent ,, Mrs. Cecilia Nkanga stated that the August Meeting, an annual gathering of women, has evolved into massive platform for the empowerment and reorientation of the women.
She noted that through the August Meeting and other avenues like pet project, initiated by governors wives , most women in the region have abandoned unproductive attitudes and assumed the roles of home and society building.
She said, “With determination and unity of purpose dangerous routes like laziness, gossip, insubordination, antagonism and rancour have been closed while, with wisdom we widened many parts that lead to development, bearing in mind that success of one Imo woman is the success of all Imo women”.
She continued that, “indeed we have rekindled the light of positivism and togetherness and by so doing have removed the primordial barriers of zonal sentimentalism, creed, social status and others that do no one any good”.
The truth remains that married women among the Igbo, through their annual ‘August Meeting’, are moving into the public sphere, which was hitherto largely considered the exclusive domain of men.
Though the dates and time of the meeting vary from community to community, the important thing is that it falls within the month of August.
LEADERSHIP Weekend also learnt that It is customarily binding on women to attend the August meeting as non-attendance attracts surcharge by the leadership of the women organisation. Fundraising and execution of projects usually form the crux of the meeting and that is why projects funded by women dot many communities,
