“In
our Ibusa, somehow, it is biting everyone; somehow only a few bother to make
their complaints public. When death comes knocking, everyone weeps and there’s a
bucket of tears; when it is time to bury the same loved one, the tears dry up
and the society demands heaven from the bereaved”- Emeka Esogbue
In Ibusa, funerals assume such a huge feast that the
bereaved mourns more as a result of expenses than the loss of that loved one. Even
with your status in the society, if you ever conducted burial in Ibusa, you
have a sad story to tell. The rich use the opportunity to flaunt their wealth
while the society feels little concerned about the poor. Generally, for both the
average and below, death in the family auspicates emptiness of the purse. Indeed,
for the people, the sign of death prognosticate days of unending spending sprees.
It is time to spend on the familiar and unfamiliar; invited
and uninvited guests in the name of traditional burial. Usually, in Ibusa, time
for burial is the time to see faces you never knew. Nonetheless, tradition requires
their presence. Burial leaves beneficiaries in the community smiling back home
with the bereaved needing time to recover from unhappy, calamitous and
ill-fated spending. But why does the society compel bereaved persons to spend
so much against their will considering that the time of burial should be
solemn?
Even when the deceased died because he was unable to
raise money to pay his hospital bill, bogus ceremony is still required. It
becomes more saddening that in Ibusa when death occurs, the question of “Onwe
kwe umua aka si ike” (hope the deceased has financially buoyant children)
arises.
Strange
cultures in Ibusa burial
As everyone looked on, strange rites crept in. When did
it become the culture of the Ibusa people to present souvenirs in time of
burial ceremonies, something the community’s progenitors did not know about? Why
is it now necessary for a female mourner to prompt her co-wives with drinks as
a form of invitation? Writing in Uhuru Newspaper of October 2-15, 2017, Amaechi
Omunizua recalled that culturally the mourner was assisted but that no longer
exists in Ibusa.
According to him, “There used to be a time in culture
when people come to sympathize with the mourner with gifts hence the word
“condole” but that has apparently disappeared from the lexicon of the people of
Ibusa”. He went on to observe that “burial has become so bastardized that even
when a man loses his child, younger brother or sister, people come to rejoice
with the bereaved and even dictate what to drink or eat”.
For him, “the changed culture of Ibusa in terms of burial
is comparable to the coffin maker who prays someone to die”.
As he put it, “It is now the prayer of some people that
everyday should be burial. In fact, they think of no other activity than burial
so that they will impose their will and flex their muscle on the mourner like
he feels like dying himself”.
Once in culture, only women who aged gracefully before
passing away were accorded Okanga recognition but with time all that changed. Nearly
every family now considers okanga to bid their mothers farewell even when it is
considered unmeritorious and in doing so the village may require a life cow and
some number of drinks to “honour” the deceased woman with Okanga. So the value
of that culture became devalued and overvalued depending on how it is perceive
by you; money, power and influence could now win it other than specified
cultural requirements.
Historically, the Ibusa culture forbade the burial of
their women outside their fathers’ compound like some neighbouring Anioma
communities still uphold. However, with time the children of deceased women
became culturally permitted to break this law if they agreed to give “Eshi” (cow)
to the parents of the woman in return as a gesture. Thus with time and like
everything else in the community, it became a rite as no one ever buried his
mother in her father’s compound again. “Ikpu Eshi, the now first burial rite of
a woman had evolved. With Eshi, children can now bury their mother in their own
home. The customary observance of Ikpu Eshi is not as simple as that as the
practice is usually complicated in structure and expensive to fulfill.
In burying the dead in Ibusa, you spend more feeding your
invited and uninvited guests especially the elderly with goats and alcoholic
drinks.
Death
more expensive than living
Observers in the community have called for moderation in the
rites that compel people to spend too much money on the dead. As many will
agree, any tradition that compels people to collect loan to bury their loved
ones should be discouraged. The culture of the Ibusa people should be pro-life
and not pro-death so that people do not go broke after burying their dead or
avoid the community after burying their loved ones.
The
stiffening second burial
In Ibusa, the anguishes of the bereaved are compounded by
the practice of first and second burial for the departed men and women. While everyone
finds it befuddling to explain the presence of second burial in a modern world,
the response from advocates of this superfluous and avoidable practice is that
the people’s rich culture must be preserved at all cost. The questions again
are whose culture is it in this modern world that a person dies once but buried
twice? Is this transformative of the deceased to a primordial ancestry? Does it
grant the dead direct passport to heaven? Why is the first and second burial culturally
duplicative?
Who
will bail the cat?
Who will deliver the Ibusa people from the grip of this
culture? Sometimes ago, in the midst of cry to scrap the second burial in the
community, it was announced that the cost of second burial of women had now been
reduced to the sum of N70,000 but it threw up the question of its necessity. Is
second burial still necessary? Why conduct second burial of women in the
absence of the Omu as culturally required? Are Ibusa ancestors happy that there
is no Omu to receive what culturally belongs to her?
Everyone
agrees that burial is expensive in Ibusa
Speaking on this development, Hon Leo Nkeaka, a
well-known politician in the community who spoke to this writer lamented, “I am
completely aware that burial ceremonies in Ibusa are expensive hence, my first
recommendation is that the community scraps wake-keep while other cultural
aspects of the burial ceremonies are allowed to exist. It is very important
that the cost of traditional rites be reviewed such as “Ikpu Nnu”.
He concluded: “I am also of the view that “Ikpu Eshi” be
monetized to about N25,000 (Twenty-Five Thousand Naira)”.
What
really makes burial expensive in Ibusa?
The factors responsible for this are multifaceted. The
first is that hardly have the people of Ibusa come together on a round table to
discuss and agree on reform of their culture where necessary. Therefore, even
the most ancient and irrelevant are still in practice.
The
origin of the unnecessary
On how it all started, Maxwell Ajufo, an entrepreneur and
politician gave his opinion:
“My observation in the burial processes in Ibusa is that at
any given time and place, any unusual practice becomes an aspect of culture
when the people can genuinely make references to a previous place it initially happened.
Example of such is my father’s burial where a fixed price was appended for the
digging of his grave by the Okwulegwe as against the usual provision of food and
drinks. Now one should ask: Inward and outward why this sort of strange practice?”
“My simple answer to that very question is poverty.
Whenever a burial occurs, the people come with the mindset of “they (the
bereaved) have money” and the mindset has degenerated to our present-day costly
and wasteful burials in Ibusa to which everyone now laments”.
The
cause
Mr. Peter Egbuchua from Umuekea Quarter of the community
blamed it on the people. According to him, “Instead of that solemn quiet exit
from earth, Igbuzo people now go to the extent of borrowing or selling their
property to accord their departed what is termed a “befitting burial”. It is
such a show of affluence and wealth that have ushered in the era of wasteful
spending at burials. A situation where burial of a loved one is supposed to be
a moment of sober reflections, but nowadays adverts and invitations card are
the new ways of heralding exit of a dear one, and the society now sees it as
the only opportunity to obtain whatever they can from the family of the
deceased by setting standards which they must strive to meet”.
Egbuchua went on to explain that the bereaved family is
asked to provide special canopies, choice drinks, assorted drinks, souvenirs
and sometimes monetary compensation especially when the deceased is said to
have fine on him prior to his demise. Then the children and family will bear
the brunt. Unless they pay such fines, the burial will have to be deferred
until the conditions are met.
He emphasized that sometimes it could be time for payback
to the family if the deceased is not in the good book of those to bury
him.
Compulsory
funeral for all
Usually, unless burial meets the hurdles usually set by
the people’s culture, it is not to be concluded to have taken place. For
instance, where the deceased is an Alor initiate, Ndichie-in-Council will have
to supervise the burial and in the end pronounce it done. This situation
appears to set a common standard for everyone in the society, a situation less
than average families struggle to meet.
It is somewhat perplexing that modern in Ibusa, everyone
despite personal belief professed in his lifetime is compellingly buried
according to the community’s traditional requirements. Thus, professed
Christians have no choice in death than to be buried in a traditional manner. As
things go this way, the people have started to bury their loved ones outside
the community.
The
remedy
1. Blend
the rites of first and second burial to make room for only one body of burial
2. Remove
unnecessary requirements in burial rites to reduce the cost
3. Some
people should just live less on burial ceremonies to simplify the whole
process.
4. Christian
families should choose to bury their loved ones in a Christian way, if they so
choose. This will remove unnecessary burden from the village heads
5. If
there must be second burial which though is unnecessary, the community should
re-institute Omuship.
6. Okanga
groups where factionalized should be looked into with a view to bringing about
harmony.
Conclusion
As someone has noted reforming burial systems in Ibusa is
a good idea but are the same people who benefit from it expected to reform it? That
is the question to be answered. Whatever the answer to this question is, time
and tide are already re-molding mindsets. And unless the community’s traditional
institution rises to the occasion, burial of important figures outside the
community as already being witnessed will rise beyond prediction.
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