Summarize the role of the women during the New Yam Festival.

The women are to prepare a feast for the whole village. It begins with the cleaning of all the pots and bowls that will be used for preparing the yams. The yam foo-foo and vegetable soup they prepare are the main courses of the festival. The women always cook so much food that there is plenty of food left at the end of the festival. The women also use red earth to scrub the walls and the huts, and then draw patterns on the walls. They paint themselves with black patterns on their backs and stomachs. The women also decorate their children's hair by shaving it into patterns.