*People defer burials in order to meet high demands

*Families borrow, sell properties to execute burial

*Communities make alarming demands — Imo community leader

By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Chinedu Adonu & Emmanuel Iheaka

THERE is a trend in Igbo land of families delaying the burial of their loved ones for a very long time.

The delay is prompted by the need to meet up with various demands placed before the bereaved families by bodies, including the church; traditional and cultural groups.

These groups impose these demands despite hardship and  rising cost of living and regardless of the financial strength of the bereaved family. This is the main reason burial ceremonies in Igbo communities continue to be expensive.

In particular,  Umu Ada/Umu Okpu and other cultural/traditional social groups, including men and women meeting groups, still find it difficult to reduce the list of items to be presented to them during the burial ceremony of a late member. Sadly, if an item is missing, they could opt out of the ceremony. They don’t even mind the extra pains they inflict on a family that is already going through the pain of losing a loved one.

Move to cut demands in Anambra

In Anambra State for instance, worried by the high cost of burial ceremonies in Igbo land, some stakeholders had sometime in the past stepped in to cut it. The Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, and other church leaders were concerned about the issue that they banned those things that contribute to making burial ceremonies expensive, such as printing of brochures, cooking at burial ceremonies, carrying out ceremony beyond one day, among others. Ezeokafor, particularly took the campaign to the state House of Assembly which eventually passed a law. The immediate past governor of the state, Chief Willie Obiano also signed it into law to give it a legal backing. Despite that, expensive burials have continued to take place in the State and it appears nobody is interested in enforcing the law.

Recently, a junior female civil servant in the state, Mrs. Grace Oguama had a raw deal in the hands of maternal relations when she lost her 90 year-old mother.

Narrating the story, Mrs. Oguama said: “The experience I had with my late mother’s village people was something I should not wish anyone. First of all, my mother was sick for more than two years during which we, her children, were moving from one hospital to the other to save her life. Her relations were all aware of her sickness but none asked how we were coping. The moment she died and they were informed, they started behaving as if my mother committed an offence in her village.

“First, they demanded a goat to inform them officially and when a day was chosen to interact with them as the custom required, they listed items totaling nearly N1 million. On the day of the burial, women from her kindred married outside their village (Umuada/Umuokpu) stayed in our house for three days and were forcing us to give them any type of food they demanded.

“My brothers spent so much as my mother’s people insisted that in addition to the life cow presented as custom demanded, each of her seven surviving children must present a goat and six yards wrappers. It was a terrible experience”.

It is common to observe that in some instances, people borrow money to bury their relations and some even go as far as selling family land to bury dead members.

A community leader in Anambra State, Chief Johnson Ikedigwe however disagrees; he said that nobody forces anybody to embark on expensive burial in his community. According to him, even when people are advised to cut cost during burial, some of them insist on what they call “deserving” burial ceremony for their loved ones.

“It is difficult to stop people from doing what they want to do on this issue of cutting down burial costs. In my community, poor people still bury their loved ones and no one is fined for not doing the burial in a big way”, he said.

I sold my properties to meet the demands presented to me—Nwagere

A community leader in Obingwa LGA of Abia state, Chief Ndubuisi Nwagere bemoaned the high cost of conducting burials in most parts of the state and called on the traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders to do something to check the trend.

Nwagere told  South East Voice  that he had to sell two of his landed properties before he was able to fulfill the burial rites of his mother to her kinsmen,  Umuada, the church, the village women meeting and an unnamed social club which his mother belonged to.

He lamented that the most complicated burial rite was the one performed to his mother’s kinsmen who demanded a cow, 2 goats, 6 crates of beer, 4 crates of malt drink, 3 crates of soft drink, 5 bottles of local hot drinks, 4 kolanuts, 4 alligator pepper, 2 jars of palm wine, one piece of cloth, transport money and fees of about N150,000.

Nwagere explained that his efforts to negotiate for the reduction of the items and cash were rebuffed by the kinsmen despite several pleas by his uncle.

He said: “The cost of a burial in Ngwa land has gone too high and needs to be checked. It is worst when you are burying your mother and have to contend with a huge list of items given to you by your mother’s kinsmen. It is high time our traditional rulers, religious leaders  and other stakeholders did something or even make laws to check the trend. I had to sell off my two landed properties before I was able to fulfill these rites and organize the burial ceremony.

“When your mother dies, her kinsmen must be present before you take her corpse to the morgue. If they can’t be present, you must get their permission.  They will come on a condolence visit where you present food and assorted drinks to them. You must give them substantial amount of money as transport fare. You must do same for the  Umuada  too; we call them  Umuokpu  in our area. The next step is to visit your mother’s family for a list of items to fulfill the burial rites. You will collect the list with the sum of N5,000 and a day is set for the presentation of the items and cash. It is just a repetition of the marriage rites as if you are marrying a wife. You must buy 90% of the items and present cash as most of them aren’t negotiable. The situation is worse when you don’t have a maternal uncle. Some of the kinsmen will even inform you that they will adjourn the meeting to another time if you don’t have the complete items and money. You are to present a cow and goat; and serve them assorted drinks and food at the burial ceremony. If a single item is missing, they will opt out of the burial ceremony and the youths will take advantage of the opportunity to cause crisis. You are in big trouble if they realise that you are wealthy.

“Then, you are also required to perform such rite for the church, family, village women meeting or the social club she belonged to, depending on their requirements. Some of them especially the church and  Umuokpu  demand a goat and a bag of rice each. When you add these to the cost of food items, music band, canopies and chairs, mortuary, printing of brochure, posters and vests, then, you will appreciate why people sell their properties to hold burial ceremony of their relations. This is why people defer the burial of their loved ones to as far as six months or even a year”.

Communities make alarming demands — Imo community leader

The Nze of Obokwe, Obetiti Autonomous Community, Nguru, Aboh Mbaise LGA of Imo State, Collins Amadi, described some demands some communities make as alarming.

Nze Amadi narrated a recent experience which he said marveled him.

He had gone with his kinsmen to another community in Imo to inform the community that their daughter given to them in marriage had died.

To his consternation, Nze Amadi said, the village directly involved in the community insisted they should be given money for flight before they would accept the news of death.

This, according to him, was after they had presented five cartons of beer, four jars of palm wine, kolanuts, cash, chocolate beverages, milk and other items, as demanded by their in-laws after much plea and bargain.

On the essence of the chocolate beverage and milk, Nze Amadi said that their in-laws maintained that they would have to take early morning tea before setting out for the marital home of their daughter.

Upon presentation of all that, he said one of the in-laws stepped outside, while making the sound of a moving vehicle with his mouth, returned after two minutes and claimed he had traditionally made a journey to see the corpse of their daughter.

Nze Amadi noted that his own community was not doing anything at the moment to reduce cost of burial processes.

Underscoring the need for reduction, he added that such aspect of the Igbo tradition appears untouchable but lamented  that some villages have abused the process by making outrageous demands.

“We went to a village in a community in Imo State recently to inform them that the wife of one of us who we married from the place was dead. You can’t believe that they demanded money for flight; that was after demanding 10 cartons of beer, four jars of palm wine, chocolate beverages and milk, and after much plea and bargain.

“My community is not doing anything at the moment to reduce demands; some of these things appear untouchable because of interests. We may be looking into reduction in the nearest future but I must say that many villages have abused the process,” he submitted.

We drastically reduced cost of burial but it’s still costly— Enugu community

The President-General of Igbelle community in Igbo-Eze North LGA of Enugu State, Chief Augustine Ugwu, said they have reduced the cost of traditional burial ceremony in his community. Chief Ugwu said the community is trying to make traditional burial ceremony cheap. He said that they have reduced the quantity of foods, drinks and days of mourning but can’t remove the use of cow because it was established by their forefathers.

“It is not everything that you can cut down during traditional burial in our community because some sacrifices were made by our ancestors and you cannot change it. Use of cow for burial can’t be changed or cut down because there were rites that were done by our forefathers and if you didn’t burry your own father or mother with a cow, you shouldn’t eat the cow meat another person used for burial.

“Everything is costly and we are working together with  Umuada  to see how cost of traditional burial ceremonies will be reduced. We are cutting down the quantity of foods and drinks the deceased family serve to  Umuada  and  Umu Nwoke. We equally reduced the number of days to mourn to reduce expenses for the family,” he explained.