By Jude Atupulazi
Last Wednesday on my way to work, I paused to talk with the okada man who carried me after I got to my destination. Mind you, my taking to public transport these days are caused by three reasons: the need to save the money I would have spent on buying fuel for my car; the need to interact with the people to glean information and use for my page and the greater need to remain healthy from walking although in this rainy season one can be peppered by sudden rainfall. But that is by the way.
As I was saying, I paused to talk with the okada rider after he had pointed at a vehicle transporting expensive coffins to probably the workshop of their company. He was talking about how expensive such coffins were and wondered why people spent fortunes on coffins that would be eaten by termites. I couldn’t agree more with him.
I then remembered what happened at the funeral of one man popularly known as Ifeoma Mebe. He was a staff member of the Anambra State owned radio, ABS, and ran a popular programme through which he reached out to those who had money to help some poor folks needing help. It was later discovered at his death that while he was helping others he was himself needing help as he was battling with a serious ailment that eventually claimed his life. Nobody helped him but he was getting help for others through his programme on the radio.
It was said that he had always requested not to be buried in a coffin at his death. So when he died, he made history as the first Igbo non-Muslim man not to be buried in a coffin. His remains were wrapped in a cloth like Muslims would do and lowered into the earth.
After I narrated this story to the okada man, he asked me if the man was a Muslim and I told him he wasn’t. He was bewildered but impressed. He told me there was really no need to spend money on coffins since they were useless to a dead person. He pointed out that no coffin cost less than N100, 000. I told him there were even coffins that cost as high as N50 million, even as some people had been buried in their vehicles. He shouted and said it was the height of stupidity. I agreed with him again.
I told him some of these things were as a result of borrowed cultures. And this brings me to the topic I want to talk about in this edition. We have always heard that culture is dynamic, which means that it keeps evolving.
But what is culture? I consulted Meta AI and it says that culture is basically “the way a group of people live and make sense of the world.”
It urges us to think of it as the shared software that a community runs on. It then goes on to say that culture includes:
- Beliefs & Values – What’s considered good, bad, respectful, example: greeting elders first, importance of family.
- Traditions & Practices – Festivals, weddings, naming ceremonies such as Durbar, Argungu Fishing Festival.
- Language – The words, proverbs, and how you greet, example: “Sannu” in Hausa, “Bawo ni” in Yoruba and I add, ”Daalu” in Igbo.
- Food – Jollof, suya, tuwo, fufu, egusi. How you cook and when you eat it.
- Art, Music & Dress – Ankara, fila, danshiki, drumming, storytelling.
- Rules & Norms – How you behave at home, in school, at the mosque/church/market.
It lists two key ideas about culture:
– It’s learned, not born with – You pick it up from family, community, school, media.
– It changes over time (dynamism) – New music, tech, and migration mix with old traditions.
It wraps up by telling us the simple way to remember it:
Culture = What we do + Why we do it + How we explain it to each other.
This means in effect, it says, that Nigerian culture is different from Japanese culture. It notes that even Hausa culture in Kano can have different flavours from Igbo culture in Enugu or Yoruba culture in Ibadan. But all of them are ways people create identity and community.
Enough of the explanations by Meta AI. From all the explanations given, what one can glean from them is basically that culture is a people’s way of life and of doing things and these cover their belief systems too. Thus it covers virtually everything.
Now, every race has their ways of life and they stick to them. However, as some of them move out from their abodes and begin to interact with people from other cultures, they begin to copy aspects of those people’s cultures and over time, they pass them on to their people at home. Some of the aspects of these borrowed cultures can be good or bad. I have chosen to look at a few of the bad and good of these borrowed cultures.
For instance, let’s look at our burial culture. The Igbo have always had their ways of burying people and often this depends on the deceased’s profile or class. For instance, you cannot bury a titled man the same way you bury a non-titled man. Burying a titled man is expensive and takes many stages in traditional society which in modern times the Church has come to mitigate.
Yet, even today, funerals are still as expensive as ever despite the intervention of the Church and even government. What have made funerals expensive are borrowed cultures. Our people have heavily borrowed from the Western part of the country where funerals are lavishly done. It is even said that when one attends a funeral organised by a truck pusher for their departed ones one would think that the funeral is for a king.
Our people have gone ahead to borrow this aspect and that’s why you hear about ashoebi, gele, colour of the day and all such meaningless stuff. We have not even translated ashoebi and gele to the Igbo Language. We still use the Yoruba Language to describe them. Ashoebi means family cloth or any prescribed uniform for mourners. Gele means head gear or ”ichafu” in the Igbo Language. These are alien to Igbo culture, even though in traditional Igbo society widows wore black cloth and it was exclusive to the widow. Later, families started wearing uniforms. Today everybody joins them in wearing such and the worst part is that the family tells them what colour to wear.
It is safe to say that since we started behaving like the Yorubas in funeral and social activities, things have become far more expensive.
In the Muslim North, it is much more different. I have always said that if there is anything the North does so well, it is the simplicity of their lifestyle and it is seen the most in their funerals. No matter the person’s status, they are buried under 24 hours, unless under circumstances beyond their control. Thus, even presidents, governors and other VIPs are buried same day or under 24 hours. Remarkably, they are not buried in coffins but have cloth wrapped around their bodies and lowered in the grave which is not even deep or wide.
At the funeral of the immediate past Nigerian Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, he was buried under 24 hours and without a coffin. The width of his grave was just enough to contain his body and the depth was just four feet. We didn’t see undertakers dancing with his coffin and throwing his body up and down and sideways.
Afterwards, mourners visited his home to pray with the family and condole with them. Cows were not slaughtered, in-laws, friends and well wishers did not flood his home with masquerades, gong and drum-beating musicians. There was no fanfare. There was no feeding of multitudes. Everything was solemn and virtually ended that same day.
But if it was here, roads would be blocked for days and feasting would drag on. People from far and near would come with plenty of cash, cows, goats, chicken and everything. The family would give expensive souvenirs and masters of ceremony would shout themselves hoarse in praise of people they hope to make money from. It doesn’t end there o.
After three days there would be thanksgiving in the church and this would be followed by another round of feasting. Even one year after, there could be a remembrance ceremony and more feasting. In fact, some poor folks look forward to the funeral of rich people. They are always assured of enough free meals and they can even pack food home and return the next day.
No one wants to be seen as different during the funeral of their loved ones as this would be interpreted as a sign of poverty. Hence, many borrow money to conduct funerals and weep afterwards.
This kind of ostentation is also seen at social events like weddings, birthday parties and even naming ceremonies – all cultures borrowed from the Western part of the country. And you ask yourself, what are all these for? Would such ostentatious displays wake the dead or make them go to heaven even if they were armed robbers, kidnappers or ritual killers while alive? This makes one wonder at the stupidity of it all.
Even with the Church and government intervening to attempt to bring down the cost of funerals, with the government imposing fines, many prefer to pay the fines, rather than agree to hold low-key funerals. That’s as bad as things have become. All this exposes our hypocrisy. We do certain things to be seen to ”belong”, even if they carve holes in our pockets afterwards.
We even see young women, especially, soliciting for money in order to celebrate their birthdays. They also want to be seen to belong. Hypocrites everywhere!
Sadly, these meaningless stuff have come to define us as a people and that’s just too bad. This is why the funeral of Ifeoma Mebe struck a new chord. He became the first Igbo Christian to be buried simply without a coffin, according to his wish. Can we learn from this? It’s not about being buried without a coffin but about being simplistic.
Ekwuchaaam!
