Elaborate Nature Of Funerals In Igboland

Matthias Nwogu, Mike Ubani, OBINNA OGBONNAYA, Okechukwu Obeta

— Dec 20, 2014 | 1 Comment

Elaborate burial rites often follow the demise of relatives and loved ones. However, how much could be said to be enough for such ceremonies? MIKE UBANI, Enugu; OKECHUKWU OBETA, Awka; MATTHIAS NWOGU, UMUAHIA and OBINNA OGBONNAYA, Abakaliki, write

Pa Uche Nwankwo, a native of the ancient town of Arochukwu in Abia State, died on June 24, 2013, at the age of 76. He had six children; four males and two females. The four male children of the deceased are successful businessmen while each of the two daughters got married several years ago to equally successful businessmen.

Ironically, when Pa Nwankwo was down with pneumonia, the eldest son recommended that he be given traditional medicine which proved ineffective at every attempt. Though the remaining children sent money home for Pa Nwankwo to buy conventional medicine, but in totality, the money was awfully inadequate to buy the requisite drugs.

Expectedly, Pa Nwankwo’s health went from bad to worse. And the man died. His corpse was deposited in the mortuary of a private hospital in Umuahia, the Abia state capital.

And following Pa Nwankwo’s death, his six children came back home to arrange for his burial. Significantly, there was a consensus that Pa Nwankwo would not be buried until a magnificent as well as expansive house that would be a cynosure of all eyes was built in the village. The cost of erecting the building was conservatively put at N20 million.

The children also agreed to raise another N20 million to take care of other burial expenses, including the purchase of a state-of-the-art casket, sewing of uniforms, buying of assorted food items, drinks, souvenirs, hiring of the best musician in town etc.

This is not an isolated case. In almost all parts of Igboland, the living spend lavishly to bury their dead ones. Even if the deceased was a pauper, all the traditional burial rites – which are extremely, elaborate, expensive and complex must be observed to the letter.

It is very expensive to bury loved ones, especially parents in Igbo land. In order to accord a father or mother a befitting burial some people even go to the extent of obtaining loans from bank or from friends and or sell their family land to raise enough money for the funeral.

http://leadership.ng/features/396437/elaborate-nature-funerals-igboland

Too lengthy to post.

please notice the reporters are all Ibo, not Yoruba....so do not derail the thread.

What an irony... My igbo brothers u need to change ur ways..

Will GEJ's funeral be done the same way??

Pls dont b deceived, igbo is dsame as every tribe, wen we want 2spend money, we do it well but we also can do small scale. Its a matter of cuttin ur coat to ur size backed up with choice but neva compulsory!

Since Yoruba's party is Owanbe.

What do we call these folks' type of party-ing as stated in the post.

9jacrip:
Since Yoruba's party is Owanbe.

What do we call these folks' type of party-ing as stated in the post.

Igbos are not party freaks. Know that from today.

I am struggling to see the sense in this post.

Giving departed loved ones especially parents a befitting obsequies is principally an African culture. I am wondering when it became restricted to the Igbos.

BTW what does it say about you when amidst millions of cultural values replete in Igbo society, the only one you could see was trying to discredit an Igbo wealthy family giving their 78-year old deceased father an elaborate funeral?

This situation happens everywhere and can't be attributed only to the igbos...and these things don't happen every other day so it can't be generalised.
However I have strong reason to doubt this story as any igbo that that can raise #10 million (assuming they are four in the family) for a funeral WILL CERTAINLY HAVE BUILT A HOUSE ALREADY IN THE VILLAGE.
...there could be some truth in this story though exaggerated, but generally it's false.
If there's anything igbos pride themselves on, it's having a good house in their village.

Ngwakwe, oam4j, etal there is nothing political about this fiction, kindly do justice to d thread now.

berem:
Igbos are not party freaks. Know that from today.

The thread says otherwise.

MayorofLagos:
Too lengthy to post.

please notice the reporters are all Ibo, not Yoruba....so do not derail the thread.

How much did u donate when pa Adekunle was begging Nigerians for alms?
It's only in Yoruba land I see people selling their fathers property to do burial ceremony. Come and deny it let thunder fire u

Yorubas are too poor.

Yorubas are damn too poor

No fewer than 1,000 corpses of Igbo people are awaiting clearance in various mortuaries in Lagos State, the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the state, Chief Fabian Onwughalu, has said.

He blamed the development on the Federal Government’s ban on inter-state movement of corpses in the country.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Khairu Al-Hassan, announced the Federal Government‘s decision at a meeting held at African House, Government House, Kano recently.

He said it was part of the means the government is exploiting  to curtail the spread of the disease in the country.

Bemoaning the plight of the deceased and their relations, Chief Onwughalu said:  ”As I am talking to you now, there are over 1000 dead bodies of Igbo people waiting at various morgues only here in Lagos State for movement to their homeland.

”The ugly development has serious effect on the families of the deceased because in Igbo land, we believe that the moment a late family member is buried, the pains of losing him will gradually fade away. But in a situation where you keep the body of a deceased family member unnecessarily, the pains will be increasing.

“The Federal Government should rescind the decision or decentralise the authority.”

Asked what the body was doing to address the problem, he said: “At the highest level, we believe there are consultations going on. But we are worried that it is taking too long to yield fruits.”

He added that the sole authority vested in the minister to give clearance to bereaved families before they can take their dead relations home is fraught with bottlenecks that cause untold hardship for the people. He described the process as a violation of the Igbo culture.

To enable bereaved families take the corpses of their  members home for burial, he advised that “the Federal Government should authorise other government health officers and doctors to issue certificates to bereaved families to enable them carry the remains of their deceased ones home for burial.

“If the authority to issue certificate is decentralised such that federal health centres and teaching hospitals would be able to attend to bereaved families and give them certificates within a short time, it will enable our people to convey the remains of their beloved ones to their ancestral homes in line with the traditions of their people.”


http://thenationonlineng.net/new/1000-igbo-corpses-await-clearance-in-lagos-mortuaries-ohanaeze/

Op your foolishness is turning to a new dimension

The Burial Rites in Igbo Land: A Case Study of Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State

Throughout history and in every human society, the disposal of the dead has been given special significance. The practice was originally motivated not by hygienic considerations but by ideas entertained by primitive peoples concerning human nature and density. This conclusion is clearly evident from the fact that the disposal of the dead from earliest times was of a ritual kind...

http://www.scharticles.com/the-burial-rites-in-igbo-land/