LETS TALK ABOUT THE POWERFUL IGBO FEMALE GROUP , KNOWN AS UMU-OKPU

LETS TALK ABOUT THE POWERFUL IGBO FEMALE GROUP, KNOWN AS UMU-OKPU

In Igbo land, females play a vital role on building up the Igbo community, they are always a force to reckon with, they act as a check to some of the excesses that could be seen in the kindred that was born.

Umu Okpu is actually the name given to a group of females from a particular kindred who are married into other families outside the kindred in which they were born, just like we have Umu Nna ( A topic for another day).

READ ALSO: IGBO LEADERS INSIST ON NIGERIA’S RESTRUCTURING

It is a meeting or Family based organisation where these married females that were born in a partiular kindred come together to deliberate on how to checkmate vices that could be deterrent to the peace and unity of that kindred. They also use it to protect their interest in that particular kindred.
Keeping peace and sanity in a kindred is not left to the males only, the Umu Okpu(s) play a vital role too.
The name, Umu-okpu was given by our forefathers (and mothers ), however, the present generation in a bid to make it sound a bit “tush” have replaced the name “umu okpu” with “umu ada”. Some towns still maintain the name “Umu-okpu” rather than use “Umu-Ada”.
The Umu-Okpu as a body acts as a disciplinary body that checkmates the affairs of the women that married into the kindred where they grew up, the women married to their brothers. Umu-nna obeys the voice of the Umu-Okpu.

They have rules and regulations which they tenaciously abide by. To become a part of an Umu-Okpu meeting, the prospect must meet some certain demands, depending on the part of the town she came from. In some Igbo Towns, the intending member must bring a plate of garden egg, kola, one carton of malt, two packets of biscuits, registration money and other items that might be required by that particular kindred.

When any member of the group fails to abide by the rules and regulations of the group, some disciplinary measures will be meted to her.
For Example, when a member disrespects her husband by not cooking for the husband, committing adultery or maltreating the husband in any way, there are laid down punishments for such offences.

However, before the defaulter faces the hammer, she is warned on several occasions to desist from such act. If she persists with her attitude, the members of Umu-Okpu group will pay her a surprise on a morning, armed with brooms. On reaching the home of the defaulting member, she called out by the angry looking members of Umu Okpu who besieged her house and asked to sweep the village square, she will be subsequently taken round the village.
When a man dies in the Kindred and is laid to mother earth, Umu-Okpu is the group that sings while barbing the widow’s hair.