The Dead, Culture of Expenditure; A Tripartite Discuss

The Dead, Culture of Expenditure; A Tripartite Discuss

 By Samuel Ejike Arum (Ojemba)

Death is a universal term that applies to not only human beings, but also to living organisms, and things. It also includes an idea that has not metamorphosed into its purpose. Hence, people say; an idea is dead on arrival. I can go on and on.

The dead used here is in respect to a human lifeless body. Whichever way, death is inevitable to all mortals.

Stressing further, scholars in social sciences and humanities have come to terms that culture is the people’s way of life, transmitted from generation to generation. Mode of transmission could be oral, written or even both.

Thus, we have material and non-material culture. The clothes we wear, the way we dance, our language, and behaviour, et cetera, form the basis of our culture.

Expenditure here entails how physical cash is generated and put into use. Mainly, when someone kicks the bucket, usually a reasonable amount of money is generated and expended.

 Monies could be sourced through the person’s account, or sell of his property, or by family members, and good-spirited friends or public. Usually, how those monies are used could be far better than its generation.

All over the world, death is not seen as a good omen, even when the person is old, let alone when that person is young. The reason being that memories shared always remained green on the minds of the living, especially the loved ones.

On the part of the old, the loss is the long term acquired knowledge, which the person has not completely shared before leaving, while the loss of the young is an unfulfilled short life he lived on earth.

Among the two categories, the former appears to be done with fond memories of fulfillment, while the latter is done with grief, agony, regret and loud cries. Most at times, traditional rites take huge amount of money. At the end, they go into bankruptcy, thereby borrowing money to start life all over again.

In Africa today, the culture of giving the dead the so called a befitting burial has become a norm; both the rich and the poor are guilty as charged, despite the age variation of the dead. When the person does not have money, they sell off his inheritance, just to give him a befitting burial and traditional rites.

Most often, when the person is old, and has children who have money, they tend to neglect their aged parent. But when he/she dies, they print invitation cards, to share to friends and well-wishers to come and witness the money they intend to spend on their dead parent.

Looking at it critically, when the parent was still alive, not even one-quartre of the money was made available to him or her.

The one that is most devastating is when huge amount of money is generated on the death of a typical low-income Nigeria earner, they inject virtually all of them into the burial expenses of the dead, thereby leaving the wife (most often) and children to wallow into abject poverty.

Which culture or even tradition tells us that when the dead is buried in a grandiose way, leaving his family in penury, that he will be happy wherever he is?

We had a culture in our Igbo traditional society concerning the burial of the dead. Mainly, a corpse does not exceed four market days (Eke, Orie, Afo, Nkwo), before being buried. You dare not make fire, let alone cooking food in the compound of the bereaved, even if the dead is more than a century of age. You can only be permitted to eat little in the neighborhood. Of course, contributions were done from the time immemorial, attracted peculiar blessings, and satisfaction.

 Thereafter, the focus would be on the family he left. The family head (Okpala) would summon essential meeting where every member would air his view, or challenges, and support is given.

If the dead were a good man, he would join his ancestors, who would lead him to his Chi (God). But if he were evil-doer, his ancestors would reject him, and as such his soul would be continually tormented forever.

The veracity of humongous spending on burial is still unknown. Will the expenses lead his soul to his Creator (God)? The answer is ‘no’. Then, what is the essence? The Scriptures made us to understand that after death, judgement follows. I have not come here to preach the gospel. But all I know is that both traditional religion and Christianity have a common ground: and that is; whatever you do in life is a determinant to where your soul would be after life.

Considering all these indices, why we put so much worries on ourselves to give the dead a befitting burial becomes immaterial, knowing full well that he/she will never come to life again.

Rather than doing this, it would be wise we look inwardly, channel our energy and resources towards crafting meaningful way we could uplift the family of the dead, most importantly, by giving them befitting and quality education, rather than giving the dead a befitting burial.

The culture of humongous burial expenses is one that should be treated with caution and wisdom of the wise, regarding the untold hardship in the land. Thence, we lead a happy society.

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