Anambra Government’s battle against lavish burial rites

Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO

vikeano@yahoo.co.uk 08033077519

It was reported recently that the Anambra state Government in South-east region of Nigeria is enacting a new burial law to further curtail increasing lavishness associated with such events. However, the government refuted this, stating that it has not tinkered with the subsisting burial law in the state. It added that it had set up a monitoring committee to enforce that law. Also, the Anambra State House of Assembly declared that it had not received any proposed amendments to the existing law or any new bill on the matter. Recall that immediate past governor of Anambra state, Chief Willie Obiano in 2020 signed into law a bill passed by the then State House of Assembly regulating burial ceremonies in the state. It stipulates that a corpse shall not be kept in a mortuary beyond two months, burial ceremony shall last for one day only and that no relative of the deceased shall be subjected to a mourning period beyond one week from the interment date. In addition, destruction of property, firing of gunshots, blocking of roads are prohibited for a burial.  The major reason for the law was to curb ostentatious burial obsequies that are becoming the order of the day, notwithstanding the financial capacity of the bereaved family.

 The church had rolled out some curbs of its own. It outlawed sumptuous entertainment for its officiating officials at burial ceremonies, including the choir group, stating that they should only be given drinks (non alcoholic). It also banned all-night vigil and curtailed time frame for wake-keep to three hours, viz, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Also dishing out food to those that attend the wake-keep is now voluntary, not mandatory, just as the church aligned with the requirement that funeral ceremony of its deceased members should be undertaken within two months of death. It had, similarly, abolished printing of brochures for the occasion. The church aspects of the new requirements for burial ceremonies are being followed to the laterp. Ditto the 2020 Burial law in some respects. For instance, roads are no longer blocked/closed for such events, rather they are held in confines of the deceased’s compound, adjoining compounds or a field where the expected crowd is much; gunshots do not boom out so frequently anymore but they still do and compound/house of the deceased is in the least renovated. According to the law, posters should only be for directional purpose, but big and small posters of the deceased displaying his/her picture, how many years he/she lived on earth, the date and venue for the various events associated with the funeral are still being displayed at junctions as well as numerous other places. In some cases giant billboards are erected. According to the bereaved families such posters give useful information to both indigenes and visitors and also serve as reminder about the funeral programmes.

 Nevertheless, much water has passed under the bridge in the last six years since that law was enacted and the cost of a burial ceremony in the eastern part of our country has quadrupuled due to inflationary trends.

Whereas the cost of feeding those coming for the ceremony was an average of N500, 000 some six years ago, now it averages two million to four million naira. The price of a cow in the east was about N400, 000 at that time now it is approaching two million naira. Then add the cost of assorted drinks and other accompanying expenses like renting of canopies, chairs/tables decoration of the compound, including the room where the body would lie in state in a casket prior to being committed to mother earth.  You have to buy (anko; aso-ebi; akwa uju) to be given to your kindred, (umu nna), family members, cousins, nephews, nieces, uncles, aunts, in-laws, maternal grandparents side or their descendants, if they are dead.  There are also expenses involved in getting a live band and special masquerades to entertain the crowd.

 And if the deceased is a female (say your mother or wife) the expenses are even more because there are some traditional rites that are required of you by the family into which your mother or wife was born, that is, her maiden family. First you have to give them a cow on the morning of her burial. Then you perform other peripheral rites that require a sheep and some money. Then, after the burial you invite her own maiden kindred to a feast at your father’s/her husband’s house. Altogether one would have to budget some N10 million to give the deceased a “befitting burial”. Is it any wonder that it is said that in the South-east, more money is expended on the dead than on the living? Many families are forced to sell their family lands or borrow money to be able to give their departed ones this ‘befitting burial’. And so it is that funerals have become not a solemn occasion but a fiesta of sorts. In fact bereaved families often assert that they are not mourning but “celebrating” the life of the departed one.

 Let us run processes involved in a typical funeral ceremony. First the deceased’s body is deposited in a mortuary, pending when the family is ready for it, that is, when they are able to gather enough money to cover the expenses needed. Before the Burial Law which now stipulates a maximum of two months, the body could be in the morgue for as long as one year and the relatives have to pay for every single day the corpse spends in the cold room. You may well imagine how much this amounts to in these times, quite apart from the normal mortuary fees. Private mortuaries thrive in the east.  For the poor who cannot afford mortuary costs, the remains of their departed one is ‘put underneath the earth’. As the phrase indicates, this is not recognised as a burial by the community. In fact the literary translation of this is that the deceased’s body is in the “underground refrigerator”. The deceased person is regarded as having been formally buried when all funeral rites are completed. Until then, the wife of the departed one is forbidden from going to the market (buying and selling) and attending meetings, associating with the community more or less.

 Preparations for the funeral ceremonies proper begin when enough money has been gathered which more often than not involves borrowing or selling off some assets because of the huge amount to be expended. Among the things required to be done are renovating the house/compound of the departed to give it a new look or building a house where there is no ‘befitting’ one; buying uniform cloth (anko, aso ebi) for direct and extended family members, including in-laws; killing of a cow, cows ‘in honour of the dead’; hiring a live band to entertain guests, including traditional dancers; and of course food, drinks for all and sundry, not just jollof rice but also traditional swallow food and other delicacies.

 The burial ceremonies last for at least four days, beginning from a Thursday. Thursday is for wake-keep, Friday official requiem mass and dust to dust ceremony by the church; after which the community folks commence their own ‘burial rites’ comprising of women’s groups, age-grade groups and other community societies/associations. Saturday is for friends, associates, in-laws and other extended family members. The ceremony may last for as long as a month as the family of the departed one continue to receive sympathisers of all kinds every other day, namely, various groups, associations and personalities. These sympathisers have to indicate in advance when they would come calling so the family can prepare adequately for them. As a mark of a ‘befitting’ burial or better said, to show off, the bereaved family usually kills cows for the many groups that come to commiserate with them. A portion of the cow meat is given to each group/association as a memento. Also at the thanksgiving mass, the family often   presents numerous food gifts and a cow to the church during offertory in order to be highly regarded. The more the number of cows slaughtered for the burial obsequies, the more esteemed the bereaved family is in the eyes of the community.

 The question is what is the benefit of these festivities to the departed? We are told that they are meant to bid the departed spirit bye-bye. Fact of the matter is that these celebrations are of little or no value to the one that has passed on. Those of us left behind on earth are simply having fun and enjoying ourselves with these celebrations. What he/she needs is heartfelt, genuine prayer by those of us who had crossed his/her path while he/she was on earth for the Grace of the Almighty to abide with him/her so he/she may be ultimately guided step by step to lighter regions, the realm of bliss, the kingdom of God.