By Rahma Bukar Abdulaziz
The Penielville School, Abuja celebrates her cultural day during Nigeria’s Independence Day celebration. This year`s cultural day was amazing, and its grand finale was celebrated on the 30th of September 2024.
We had preceding activities where parents came to teach children about their culture, and it was fabulous. Some of us learnt new things about our cultures for the first time.
Cultural days are celebrated to showcase the beautiful culture and traditions of different tribes. Our amazing cultural day celebration started at 11:00 am with the Year 5 pupils singing the Nigerian national anthem.
Thereafter, the parades and presentations started. The Playgroup 2 class presented the Wazobia, which consisted of the three major tribes in Nigeria, (Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa). Next was Akwa Ibom and Cross River. Akwa Ibom is known for the production of crude oil and natural gas, while Cross River is known as Nigeria’s second largest cocoa producer. The next group to present was the Edo and Delta. The Edo group included the people from Esan, Etsako and Benin, while Delta consisted of the Urhobo, Anioma, Isoko, Uvwie and many more.
A major highlight of the event was when the Fulani and Hausa presented a short play on ‘The Legend of Bayajidda.’ The story was about a prince named Bayagida from Baghdad who was looking for water. He found a city called Daura and was told that an evil serpent lived in the well, which prevented the people from fetching water. He went to the well and killed the serpent and in return, the Queen asked him to make a request. He requested to marry the Queen and he became the King. His descendants (Biram, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, Zaria) founded Seven Hausa states in Nigeria. The parents who were present learnt a lot from this play.
Next the Rivers and Bayelsa came out to showcase their beautiful and colourful attires. The people from River state talked about their traditional food, which is Onunu, while Bayelsa`s traditional food is Fiyan and oil soup. Many more tribes like Benue/Kogi and the Yourbas, who sang the current national anthem in Yoruba language.
Finally, the Igbos came to showcase their gorgeous attires, dance and they also read numbers in their language.
The parents were not left out, they were called according to their cultural groups to dance, which was beautiful, fun and exciting.
Finally, parents were asked to go to the food stand, where foods from different cultures were displayed. This was the first time The Penielville School, Abuja was presenting and showcasing cultural food. The food stand was packed full of delicacies from cultures across Nigeria.
In conclusion, this was the best cultural day I have had so far in The Penielville School.
Rahma is of The Penielville School, Abuja
