Mɨchi Əbeŋ Organising Committee Sets the Ball Rolling for the Second Edition

Organising Committee Members During the 1st Edition of the Festival 

Organising Committee Members of Mɨchi Əbeŋ have  set the ball rolling in the build up to the second edition of the festival to take place in March 2024. With barely about half a year to go, discussions have been engaged on how to make the second edition better than the first.

Meeting in the Guneku Palace on Sunday 10 September 2023, the committee members discussed at length beginning with a flash back into the past pioneer edition and projection of the forthcoming one. On the former, they looked through the videos of the various Mukonge dances that were performed during the first edition and made a selection of some distinct dancers, singers, drummers and xylophonists from each of the groups. 

From inception, at the end of the Mukonge Dance Competition that took place in the palace of Guneku on Saturday 15 April 2023, two master dance group were to be formed comprising of selected members from each of the competing groups that stood out distinct in the performance of their roles, one for the elderly and the other for youths only.

Having done the selection, the next phase now will be to bring these members together to begin practicing so that each time a Mukonge Dance Group is needed anywhere in and out of the country for animation, they will be the ones to represent the entire Meta clan since they'll be like an embodiment of the entire clan. Furthermore, discussions during the meeting later drifted to projecting into the next edition who's main focus will be a Kwem Dance Competition. 

It was resolved that the competition will be open to all interested Kwem Dance Groups nationwide upon payment of a registration fee of 5.000F. A deadline for registration will be communicated and only those that complied with the registration modalities will be eligible to compete. According to plans, the 2024 edition of the festival will be staged for 3 days; Thursday for the singing of childbirth songs (Ngwa) otherwise known as "Mbolo", Friday for carvings, weavings and other craftworks, then Saturday for the dance competition. 

The initiator and promoter of Mɨchi Əbeŋ, H.R.H Dr. Fomuki Ticha of Guneku has instructed the organising committee members to leave no stone unturned in making sure the festival this year establishes new records and breaks old ones. Apart from the festival, the main objective is to see Meta people go back to their originality in speaking their mother tongue, cooking and eating their local delicacies, dressing traditionally, singing and dancing their traditional songs not just occasionally but as a daily routine.