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OZURUIMO FESTIVAL IT was with pomp, class and pageantry that the 2009 edition of the re-branded Ozuruimo Festival held at Owerri, Imo State. The four-day pan Imo State cultural and arts festival began, October 28, 2009, with a colloquium paper delivered by Prof. Aloy Ejiogu, of the University of Lagos. The theme of the thought provoking lecture, which held at the expansive Multi-Purpose Hall, Owerri, was:

â€œThe Resuscitation of Mbari Culture As A Depiction of Igbo Industry.â€Prof. Ejiogu, in his well-researched presentation held the guests, which included traditional rulers students of secondary and tertiary institutions, VIPs and a host of other guests and participants spellbound. According to the erudite scholar, Mbari, is a peoplesâ€™ way of life and a very significant aspect of a peoplesâ€™ culture, especially the Igbos, who inhabit(ed) what is now known as Imo State, in the South East geo political zone of Nigeria.

Mbari, is said to be derived from the Igbo word of creation. Mbari, may, therefore, be understood as a house of creativity (creation). Mbari is life and language. It is all about the daily life of action and thoughts encoded in mud, the symbolic language of rituals, proverbs and myth, encrypted in colour. It is about the promises and hopes of a people, graphically presented in a house erected as a monument to a powerful deity, such as the earth deity, Ala, believed to posses the p ower of fertility over the people,â€ he lectured.â€

Prof. Ejiogu, concluded his lecture by urging Ndigbo, especially the Imo State indigenes, not to allow the Mbari cultural institution to die. He also called for the development of the remnants and glimpses of Mbari, into tourist institutions. â€œThe Imo State government should join hands and put up a central Mbari centre that wo uld showcase and further preserve this culture that is fast fading away,â€ he pleaded.

The Ozuruimo Festival continued the following day with a scintillating and very colourful Boat Regatta, at the famous Oguta Wonder Lake.