COLUMBIA — In Nigerian culture, no one really has to be invited to feel welcomed. At Igala Day, that tradition lived on.

Community members from all sorts of backgrounds came to Jay Dix Park for a picnic and barbecue to celebrate with the Igala people, an ethnic group within Nigeria, on Monday. Some of the Igala women contributed different dishes for everyone to indulge in, such as obo igogo — a sesame soup — and moi moi, a steamed bean pudding made from black-eyed peas, onions and bell peppers. Chicken with barbecue sauce was served side-by-side with grilled goat.

The reason for celebration with traditional food and music on Memorial Day is to commemorate the first Igala to settle in Columbia.

The Rev. Patrick Adejo arrived in Columbia alone on Memorial Day weekend exactly nine years ago from Waco, Texas, after he was offered a job as a chaplain at the Harry S. Truman Veterans' Hospital. Adejo said that shortly after he moved to Columbia, other families from Nigeria, who won the Diversity Visa Lottery, decided to move to Columbia because they knew him. As the community began to grow with more families arriving in the U.S. and more children being born, he came up with a way they could continue Igala traditions. 

Adejo thought of Igala Day as giving Igala children, who were either born here or brought here, the chance to interact with other children of the community, he said.

"They just need to tell their story," Adejo said, "the story of their heritage and their culture. And tie their personal story to the bigger, beautiful American story."

In keeping with Nigerian tradition, Adejo invited Janice Green, another chaplain from the hospital, to attend the picnic and barbecue. She recently moved to Columbia from Cleveland, and she didn't really know what to expect from the event, she said.

But she tried new foods and experienced a culture different from her own.

"Everybody is friendly," Green said. "Being that I didn't know anyone but Father Pat, I am very impressed."

A primary focus of the festival is the children, Adejo said.

All of the children that have been born in Columbia have never been to Nigeria, he said, and this day was one opportunity to connect them to their roots and cultural identity. But they are American children, and he said he doesn't want them to lose sight of that.

It is beneficial to understand the unique background their parents and family were raised in to help the children build themselves as individuals, he said. 

"Those born here are American. Even those who came as children — (America is) all they know," Adejo said. "But they will grow up also to know there's a bigger picture to their identity. They will remember this event, they will remember the music, they will remember the food, they will remember the conversations."

He said that he hopes they remember how important it is for them to understand they have a "dual heritage:" America and Nigeria.

"That strengthens the identity of the individual," he said. "You are tied to something great, both here in the United States and also in Africa."