By
Obododimma Oha
Igbo people hardly discuss death and issues related to it
openly. Maybe this is also due to the fear of death itself; that the more you
talk about it, the more you attract it! But that is a mere superstition. It is
not discourse that summons it! In spite of however death has been personified and made
to appear as a major terrorist in many traditions, it is still part of the great
thing about mortal change of state happening. Indeed, it all shows that we are yet
to comprehend it, even though it is what makes it possible for us to go to Heaven or
Hell, according to Christian understanding. Well, death still deserves a major
human reflection for we show that we have not understood it yet. We are not yet
dead and can only speculate about it.
This short essay, on this note, is out to shock us with what we don’t want to
talk about. This time around, one is interested in the arrangement of the
corpse in the Igbo culture before burial. Christian and western modernity have
brought lying-in-state before burial, but we have something different in
traditional Igbo funeral. In Uli – our clan – what we have always had is ila nsuku (sitting-in-state), especially
for elders and titled men. The corpse is made to sit instead, as if it were
alive, and sometimes presented with some essentials as a dignitary, to mimic real-life
experience and to equip the dead person with things he might need in the
difficult journey to the land of the dead.
Some of the things stocked for the dead person may even be
his slaves, wives, or servants. Obviously, that was stupid, but these people
acted in utter ignorance. The dead will never need or be aware of the presence
of these things. The dead does not even know he or she was given a label (a
name) on this galaxy or even a body. A body or flesh belongs to this world. So,
it was pure waste of resources, even criminal when people were kidnapped and
forced to be buried with the dead! If it was a man, the wife “accompanying”
him to the other world in the grave might think it was a privilege, but it was
not. It was simply horrible death. There is no humanity and no family after
death, not to talk of coital experience.
These belong to this world.
Does this not remind you of the nature of burial among
ancient Egyptians? The pharaohs particularly were buried with treasures they
would supposedly need in the other life. The speculation indicates that ancient
burial was a kind of art for people. They came up with all kinds of designs,
complicating their lives and punishing themselves as ignorant people!
One of the things that indicated this idiocy in ila nsuku was
the making of the nsuku in the dead person’s obi or parlour. Not only that
people suffered unnecessarily to make this chamber where the dead would sit,
but the house was disfigured and would need a reconstruction afterwards. Now, let
us get this right away: the chamber was made in the parlour or obi because it was
assumed that the spirit of the dead would still be present on occasions,
guarding his own. In other words, the grave (the chamber) was a kind of spiritual "panopticon" or observatory (Bentham).
Plate One: Uncle Agubueze when he was alive.
Well, one had the chance of witnessing "sitting-in-state" from close quarters at
least recently when a maternal uncle died. Although a chamber was not made for
him in his parlour, he was made to sit (not lie) in his obi. He was the oldest
person in the village (over 120 years) and so deserved the ancient practice of "sitting-in-state." I assure the reader that no person was buried with him, for I
was involved in digging and making his grave, a place the body retired to
finally at about 7:30 PM! I was physically involved in carrying the body of
this uncle who told us memorable stories when we were children! Burying him,
for me, was like burying the source from which the stories flowed! Terrible! I could hear the baritone of the great raconteur still echoing! But the
design to make him sit was because he was the oldest person, somebody who
obviously belonged to a different heroic time, and who deserved to be buried
differently in the ancient way. But, it was art; it was some excitement, an
attraction for the mourners and sympathizers, too.
Sitting-in-state was something like turning grief or an occasion
for grief into an entertainment. Uncle’s body was sitting there, but I knew that
he was not sitting there. It was his body we were using. That body was given a
role to act. It was also costumed (even in lying-in-state, the dead body is
still dressed elegantly as if the dead needs it or that it would last). No; it
would decay along with the body and so is a great waste. Even if you dress the
body with a suit and neck-tie, these would decay. You may have succeeded in
identifying the dead as belonging to a particular group
once upon a time by giving the body a uniform, but that’s nostalgia and
painful memory. Beyond that, you are into afterlife superstition!
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