BEING TEXT OF AN ADDRESS PRESENTED BY AMAOPUORUBO HELEN JACK-WILSON PEPPLE, IBANI EREMAPU SIBIDABO (WOMAN LEADER OF BONNY KINGDOM) AT THE NOBLE AWARDS CEREMONY ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2022

BACKGROUND
Iria is a native event of the Ijaw ethnic nationality that introduces young girls to Womanhood. History has it that in the olden days, young people walked almost naked alot, so when teenage girls get into puberty and begin to mature in sensitive parts of their body; their parents acquire wrapper and make the presentation day a ceremony. This is basically how Iria started amongst the Ijaw people. It is usually done according to one’s economic strength and it has no hard and fast rule on the extent to which one should spend.

Iria is as well a mode of inducting women into the Ibani native customs and morality. This includes mode of dressing, compartment, ways of sitting, manner of salutation and so forth. This is particularly for women who are not originally from Bonny but brought in by marriage. It is important that those set of women blends into Bonny.

THREE STAGES OF IRIA
There are three stages of the Iria ceremony which include;

1. Kala-Egerebite – this is for maidens within the age bracket of 12 and 15. They are usually worn one wrapper called suu on their chest with light beads
2. Opu-Egerebite – this is for young ladies from 18 to 21 and slightly above, who are to tie one waist of Ikaki wrapper, popo, damask with matching blouses.
3. Bibite – this is for women above the age of 40. Here the woman will tie intorica george wrapper, lili-inji wrapper. This stage is most respected in Bonny and more attention is usually paid to the processes

However, women that were unable to meet up with the two stages are permitted to combine all and do at once. That’s why we have people tag their Iria as Egerebite/Bibite Ceremony, which is a combination of the three. The woman is to tie all wrappers in one day.

FATTENING ROOM
Fattening room is a lockdown period designed to improve the outward looks of the iria celebrant. It is not a time for her to be skinny. She has to look robust so the wrappers can fit her properly on the D-day. If she is a maiden, the fattening room would as well make her shiny and robust enough to attract potential suitors her way.

The fattening room is as well an induction ground for women to be taught the precepts and principles of Womanhood especially as it concerns Bonny people. She is supposed to be surrounded by older women of experience to impact her positively. Apart from being well fed and taken care of, she is supposed to come out of the room as a full fledged Bonny women.

MYTHS ABOUT IRIA CEREMONY
Some people carry unfounded rumours that Iria ceremony is diabolic. This is not true. I have done my own Iria and there was not fetish about it. I believe in Christ, the son of the living God and that reflected all through the ceremony.

But I must say that everything is prone to abuse. So how your Iria ceremony goes is dependent on who you are.

There is nothing bad about Iria. It is our identity, our heritage and our culture. As we all know, the uniqueness of one’s culture is the foundation for tourism. So we should cherish our culture, protect, don’t abuse it and we all see it impact us for good.

As Bonny Kingdom Women Leader, I, together with my exco will continue to do our part to protects our cherished culture that is embedded in the Iria traditional ceremony. We are already working out modalities to package the ceremony for the enticement of tourists and fun seekers. God helping us, we will finish strong.

I thank the organisers for this opportunity, and thank you all for your attention.