By REUBEN ABATI
The sociology of death and funerals is an
important aspect of the African cosmogony. Parents pray that their children
should outlive them in order to give them a befitting burial. They liken this
to the same manner when fire dies out in the hearth, it is replaced by ashes,
and when a banana tree withers, a sapling sprouts in its place. When Africans
die, it is believed that they have merely travelled to another realm, and
become ancestors, and hence, a funeral ceremony is a send-forth event. The
death of a young person however, is considered a tragedy. This is why such
obituaries are prefaced with the solemn declaration that “The wicked have done
their worst”, “We love you but the Lord loves you more” or “A Painful Exit.”
The tone of the elegy at a funeral is thus a function of the circumstances of
the death, or the religious inclination of the family as in “With Total
Submission to the Will of God…”, “Inna Lillahi wa inna Ilayhi Raji’un”. Age is
indeed a factor. If the dead lived up to an old, ripe age, you are likely to
see such announcements as “A Glorious Exit”, “With Gratitude for a Life Well
Spent” or “Ä Celebration of Life”.
Among the Yoruba of the South West, the
death of an old man or woman is described as “oku eba”, that is – a transition
that is worth celebrating, with generous dollops of cassava paste. Other groups
in the country also have varying patterns of burying their dead. Among Muslims
generally, the burial of the dead is carried out swiftly in line with Islamic
injunctions. The simplicity of Muslim burials, the solemnity and dignity of it,
is incomparable to anything else I have seen, even if Muslims in the South West
of Nigeria, still find an excuse to throw lavish parties that have more to do
with the culture of the people, rather than the religion. One dictionary
describes the Yoruba as the “fun-loving people of the South West Nigeria.” But
in general, the manner of burials, the scope of the rites, the scale and tone,
is a reflection of cultural norms and dominant values, at both community and
individual levels across Nigeria. What is noteworthy is how the loss of a
beloved family member could suddenly end up as a celebration, and the
explanation for that is as complicated and diverse as the Nigerian society
itself.
In this regard, something happened last
week, in Oba, Anambra State, Nigeria: the funeral of the mother of a man
popularly known as Obi Cubana, which would seem to be a metaphor for the
collapse of values in Nigeria generally, the effect of poverty – spiritual,
mental and physical – and how that pushes the people to desperate ends. The
burial of Cubana’s mum may be seen as a form of celebration, she died at 75,
but it was a lavish send-forth that was terribly obscene. The town of Oba has
certainly never witnessed anything like that. Not even in the entire Anambra
state has anyone organised anything so loud and extravagant. This was not a
celebration of life. It was a celebration of Money. Obi Cubana’s mother died in
November 2020. It took him more than seven months to plan the burial and when
he decided that it was time for the dead to be sent forth, his obvious
intention was to organise the mother of all burials, such that even the living
would envy the dead and wish to die. The only problem is that not many
Nigerians would rather die knowing that it is not every one that would ever get
that kind of burial. Oba is ordinarily a quiet town of nine villages, located
between the commercial town of Onitsha and the industrial town of Nnewi. During
the civil war, it was the last frontier of the Biafran Army. But that community
will now be remembered for a long time, for the burial of the mother of a
certain Obi Cubana. The role played by the social media, and by Cubana’s
friends is remarkable: how a country lost its moral centre and has produced a
generation of new Nigerians who worship money, ego, kudi. The excitement
generated among young Nigerians who could not make it to Oba but who followed
the event on social media and became excited, is a measure of the extent of the
crisis that Nigeria faces.
