MADA PEOPLE'S NETWORK INCOPRATED

A Reflection On A People and Their Culture By Obed Minchakpu The Easter period of every year has now become a significant period for the Mada people of central Nigeria. This is because in the past two years, this ethnic nationality has had to celebrate its age-long cultural festival, the Nzeh Mada Festival, that had for decades been abandoned due to intractable leadership crisis in the land.

Prof. Ayakoroma in his paper said, "The theme of this year's Nzeh Mada Festival, "Festival of Reconciliation and Consolidation," is very apt, considering the wave of ethnic and inter-ethnic clashes in many parts of the country." In other to do justice to the paper, the learned Professor first set out to define terms used in the paper which include: "Ethnicity, ethnic nationality or group, festivals, socio-economic development and branding." Ayakoroma, in summation, defines these terms thus: "Ethnicity is the state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. On the other hand, an ethnic group or ethnic nationality is a section of the population, which by virtue of sharing common cultural characteristics, separate the people from others within that population. People are all acculturated or socialized into the ethnic groups they belong. In other words, it is a group of people having common language and cultural values.

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These common values are enhanced through continuous interaction between the people, who make up the group; and the ethnic groups are created mainly through inter-marriages, inter-mingling or assimilation." These definitions clearly set the stage for a proper appreciation of the paper.