Akwamozu, the traditional funeral rite performed in Igbo land

The Igbos strongly believe in life after physical death. Akwamozu is one of the ways we express that strong belief. Akwamozu can be said to be the Igbo traditional funeral rite performed when an Igbo adult person dies in order to facilitate a smooth transition of the departed soul into the ethereal world or the world beyond our physical senses – the other side of life.

While Ili ozu (burial proper) is marked by sorrows and mourning, akwamozu is usually a feast to bid a departed soul “Safe trip” into the beyond.

Traditionally, Igbos do not perform akwamozu rites for every deceased Igbo person. For instance, we don’t perform akwamozu rites when a child dies, because we believe the soul of that child has not yet unfolded on earth like that of an adult. This means, in Igbo cultural belief system, the soul of a child is predominantly still anchored in the beyond from where it came. The soul is unfolded and anchored within our physical world only when the child reaches full maturity on earth as either a man or a woman. Unless a soul attains that unfolding and anchorage can that soul be held responsibility for his or her deeds while on earth. Only on that condition can akwamozu rites become a necessity when an Igbo person is deceased.

Other examples of categories of people we don’t honour with akwamozu when they die are; those who drowned in deep waters, those who died through suicide, and those marked as unrepentant evil persons while there were alive on earth. The corpse of those who die by any of those means are not buried but thrown into an evil forest.

Like other aspects of Igbo culture, we do not perform the akwamozu rite the same way in all Igbo communities. Also, the akwamozu rite for a rich and great man is not the same for a pauper. However, today, let’s highlight those basic aspects of akwamozu that must be performed irrespective of the socio-economic status of the deceased person or, the community he/she hails from:

Planning:
Akwamozu is an expensive affair in Igbo land. For that reason, careful plan is designed by the deceased’s relative in order to gather items needed for the akwamozu.

Announcement of Date:
This involves sending out messages to inform friends, in-laws, associates and well-wishers of the deceased that a date slated for the performance of akwamozu rites has been chosen and fixed. Obituary posters are produced and distributed as direct invitations to friends and well-wisher and the general public, but the use of obituary posters alone are not to be seen as sufficient for inviting people for akwamozu. Word-of-mouth invitation especially among neighbours or close friends is very important.

Wake Keep:
The night preceding the date fixed for formal condolence visit to the deceased’s family is the wake keep night. A little feast is usually organized at the deceased person’s family compound. Several dance groups and masquerades are also invited to perform their acts and arts all through that night which heralds formal condolence visit.

Formal Condolence visitation by In-laws, Friends, and Well-wishers:
On the day following the night of wake keep, as from around 10 am, visitor’s, in-laws, friends, well-wishers etc are all expected to come to the deceased’s family home with all manner of condolence gifts; cow, goat, local wrapper, drinks etc depending on the socio-economic status of the deceased.

Akwamozu Proper:
Akwamozu proper is the chief traditional rite in Igbo funerals. It is a very significant rite, because it entails the making of a formal separation between the departed soul and people still leaving on earth. It is usually a small and private activity but a very spiritual and culturally important one. It is carried out on the 12th day or, 3 exact weeks (according to Igbo calendar) after the day of formal condolence visitation by friends, in-laws, and well-wishers.

Culled from odindigbo page.

The cost of burial ceremonies in Igboland

Sitting with both hands neatly tucked in between his laps, a foot tapping to what his mind thought, and a teary-eye staring into space as though seeking the last traces of hope, Ibe Iheanacho let out with a voice obviously couched with anguish, "God, please don't let my mother die! I cannot afford her burial rites now."

Ibe is a petty trader with a titled mother. The woman, who suffers from diabetics, and had just suffered a second stroke attack that left her paralyzed and highly sick. Seeing his position and hearing his outcry, one would have thought that his heart was rent in sympathy for his ailing mother and not the underlying financial implications of the possible aftermath.

Sadly, he is not alone in this disposition to an ailing loved one. Amaechi Uzokwe, a business man, had threatened his brothers saying that, "I will run away and abandon all of you, should papa fail to recover from this illness and die as a result. I don't have even N1.00 for his burial rites."

The dispositions of the above mentioned people, leave much to imagine. One, what really is the immediate or intermediate cause of the "heaviness of heart" or "deep sense of loss" that precedes the "with gratitude to God almighty" one finds legibly written in posters of various sizes and colours announcing the death of a loved one? Two, is it really a heavy heart arising from losing the dead or the financial costs that will be directly or indirectly involved in giving the departed a befitting funeral? Three, along what lines does one begin to define a befitting burial?

In Igbo land, burial rites vary from one community to another as even within the same cultural zone, burial ceremonies are not uniform. However, the fundamental issue is that be it in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu or Imo State, the cost of a burial ceremony is becoming high as the bereaved spend fortunes to give a befitting burial to the dead. Thus, for some people, despite the fact that the whole essence of a burial is to commit the dead to mother earth, and even coupled with the biblical injunction to "let the dead bury the dead," various activities and communal rites (Omenala) seem to have made the actual burial secondary.

However, regardless of the laid out procedures and requirements for the performance of obsequies, the level of honour varies and is dependent on the background, title, gender, relationship within the family and circumstances of death. Though this does not, however, change or alter the standard requirements, this is the plight of Ibe and Amaechi. Though they do not have the financial strength to meet up with these demands, necessity is laid upon them to do so.

In Ibe Ihenacho's village and its neighbouring communities in Imo State, you cannot even tell the kinsmen of a deceased woman that their daughter is dead. It will be assumed that you killed her. You only send word to her people, telling them that she is seriously ill and they should send someone to come join send her to a good hospital.

After seeing for themselves that she is dead, her children and members of their family will go at various times, in groups of male and female, with assorted types of drinks, food, kolanuts and all the stipulated items to inform their maternal relatives officially of their mother's death (though they are already aware). This is usually before any other rite can be performed and even the burial itself.

Ndi ogo- in-laws especially sons-in-law, are usually also compulsorily required to contribute and to a large extent finance the burial. The husband of the first daughter, the ada usually pays the highest. In Umuezearole in Onitsha, Anambra State, for instance, the husband of the first daughter of a titled man, the ozo title in this case, is required to present N1, 000,000 to the group to inform them of their colleague's death before any further arrangement can even be made towards the burial.

In some cases especially in Njaba, Isu and Orlu Local Government Areas of Imo State for instance, they may be required to present a cow and other items stipulated by the community. In parts of Mbano, Imo State, there is usually what is called iha akwa wherein in-laws of the deceased give gifts of various types of choice wrappers that are customarily presented to their sister-in-law, who is the daughter of the deceased as well as other female mourners in the compound of the deceased. And this is not usually without the aim of wanting to make them show how much they value the dead.

Further investigations revealed that in some parts of Nsukka in Enugu State, horses and native cows are used for burial ceremonies to earn the traditional title "Ogbuzuru", meaning the person has killed everything expected of him as far as burial rituals are concerned. Each horse cost over N70,000.00 while cow is between N120,000.00 depending on the size.

In Ozalla community in Igbo-etiti Local Government Area of Enugu State, sympathizers who pay condolences to the bereaved family stock different denominations of both foreign and local currencies on dry stick of palm fronds and present them as gifts.

In Nkanu land, masquerades entertain the people during burial ceremonies with each group trying to outwit the other to draw attention of the audience at the occasion. Sometimes, a member of the troupe climbs a palm tree with bare hands, apparently to show how gallant he is.

Burial ceremonies in Igbo land are usually a colourful and communal fanfare. Hence whenever and wherever an Igbo male or female dies especially adults, he or she is usually taken back to the village for burial. This no doubt witnesses a mass exodus to the village. Indigenes of the town, in various states and regions, are usually represented at the burial ceremony depending on the distance; so long the deceased was a member of the town union. These members also lend a helping hand in the preparation of food items and the cost of footing the burial where necessary.

During the ceremony proper, guests seat under canopies and sheds to indicate first of all, the families of the various in-laws, kinsmen, maternal relatives, indigenes of the town and other classes of guests, according to the wish of the chief mourner.

Expectedly, the chief mourner and his siblings as well as the in-laws organise food, assorted drinks, and traditional dance as well as live musical band depending on the financial strength of the host to receive the people who will come to the occasion.

According to their seating arrangement, food and drinks are served. In Njaba, Isu and Orlu local government areas, it was gathered that the feeding arrangement at the ceremony is usually never complete without fufu and any native soup being served.

It was gathered that in some instances, the chief mourner and his family, spend money in two ways Christian burial rites always precedes the traditional rites consequently doubling the budget for the entire burial ceremony.

And prior to the burial ceremony, the quantity of items such as the number of kegs of palm wine, brewed drinks, tubers of yams, goats, fowls and cows to be used for the event are read out to the chief mourner to avoid embarrassment on the day of the ceremony.

Interestingly, all of the costs and items enumerated by the kinsmen or clan for the burial of the deceased, do not include other compulsory items like caskets, the services of the undertakers, payment for the morgue where the body is kept until burial, and the hiring of funeral parlour among others.

Investigations by Saturday Tribune shows that the average 6 by 4 casket cost about N70, 000 while the average morgue will charge at least N10, 000, (with a certificate of death), to keep the body for two weeks before counting extra charges. There is no gainsaying that these amounts are probably beyond the reach of the average Igbo man.

It is even worse when the deceased (females especially) was not duly married according to traditional rites before death. In this case, the husband is usually made to perform the traditional marriage rites, including the payment of bride price to the full as part of the burial rites before actual burial can take place. Of course, this eventual burial does not disregard the full rites that guide it.

Thus, just like in the past when the hike in bride price came under sharp criticisms prompting the defunct Eastern Region under Late Owelle of Onitsha, Dr Nnmadi Azikiwe, to pass a law pegging bride price in Igbo land to enable Igbo youths marry at the right age, the high cost of burial seems to have become another emerging social problem in the region. Some have even argued that if the trend remains unchecked, burial ceremonies will be solely reserved for the rich that can afford the cost.

But authorities appear not to be perturbed by the nagging issue as investigation revealed that no state or local government area in the South-East, has any customary or state legislative law pegging the cost of burial ceremonies.

A top government official in the office of Chieftancy Matters in Enugu State, who preferred to remain anonymous, said even if there was law reducing the cost of burial in Igbo land, it will die a natural death like the one passed into law by the late Azikiwe's regime.

Mazi Sam Onwudiwe, a trader, who said he lived in Awka, told Saturday Tribune in Enugu that the high cost of burial was more pronounced in Anambra State because of their robust economic power, stressing that huge sums of money is spent by mourners in the areas like Awka, Nnewi and a host of others. "Go there and see things for yourself. The kinds of wine, gifts you will see on display. It is traditional burial but a lot of money is involved, buying of cows notwithstanding," he added.

Against the above backdrop, saying that burial ceremony is expensive in almost every part of the Southeast geo-political zone, is stating the obvious. Many of the bereaved persons often go into huge debts in order to give their dead the stipulated befitting burial and this poses another question; where does one begin to draw the line between befitting burials and bankruptcy?

Ritual Aesthetics of Mbaise – Igbo Funeral through Eshe Performance art

Ritual Aesthetics of Mbaise – Igbo Funeral through Eshe Performance art

By MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU

Death among the Mbaise-Igbo of Nigeria like in other culture areas of Nigeria is a phenomenon that has deep symbolic implication between the living and the dead. Among Mbaise-Igbo, the occasion of death like the occasion of birth is celebrated with deep emotional attachment.

However, the celebration of death, as a rite of passage to the metaphysical world, is more fundamentally accorded a heightened ritual elevation, especially to that deceased parent, who apart from having lived to a good old age, had also, lived a fruitful and well accomplished life, such that the impact of his spent life is felt not only by his family, but also, by the larger members of his community.

Having lived such a fulfilled life, coupled with the people's belief in ancestral power relation between the dead and living and, their fate in re-incarnation, the Mbaise- Igbo
consider it absolutely important to accord such a dead parent a proper burial, that is manifest in the elaborate burial rites culturally defined for such passages.

Among Mbaise-Igbo, a person is not yet buried in the proper burial sense until this elaborate burial ceremony popularly known as Okwukwu or ifu onu is carried out for him. Okwukwu as a final rite of passage for the dead Mbaise-Igbo aged parent involves an elaborate feasting and ritual processes.

Deriving from the peoples belief that an accomplished parent, whose children do not bury properly by carrying out the elaborate Okwukwu ceremony will not be accorded a place of honor among other ancestral parents in the here after, and consequently may turn violent against his family members; and especially against the eldest son of the family, who on the death of his father automatically becomes the ofo title holder of his family, the family of such deceased parent continues to live on the edge of life on daily basis, out of fear that some enemies of the deceased family may capitalize of this non performance of the proper burial rites for their father to invoking the spirit of dead parent to come and demand of such sacrificial rite, without which his children will be visited with unexplainable afflictions in the form of death, undiagonisable ailments and all forms of troubles as the case may be.

Okwukwu ceremony in Mbaise

Okwukwu, as a ritual feast is a very elaborate ceremony. It is a ceremony that smacks of showing off wealth. Death being a ritual journey that connects the families of the living and the dead; Okwukwu, therefore, involves the participation of all the family lineages of the deceased person, in whose honor the ritual ceremony takes place: It is a ceremony that involves the kinsmen of the dead person, his maternal home kinsmen, the umuda (family daughters married outside) and umu okele (children whose maternal homes are identified as the village of the deceased person.)

As one ceremony, which affords the Mbaise-Igbo a meaningful opportunity to dramatize all the mythical and superstitious belief systems that shape their world and spiritual imagination, okwukwu ceremony is steeped in a lot of religious rituals.
Among some of these beliefs is that a man must have lived to achieve all that he achieved in life or not, because of the strength of his mind and his hand (hard work) or lack of these, as the case may be. Based on this thinking, on the occasion of death and during the okwukwu ceremony, a deceased person, in whose honor, the ritual feast is called, is taken through a ritual ceremony of physical and spiritual empowerment.

Among the people, the ritual killing of dog popularly called iwa nkita anya or empowering of the eye, is carried out on an Eke market day preceding the Afo market day of the okwukwu ceremony. The ritual of iwa nkita anya is carried out by an appointed person through divination. This ritual executioner of this ritual rite must also be a man of strong will and bold personality. At the appointed day of the ritual, he is expected to go on a procession with other kinsmen of the deceased( umu nna) led by a convoy of other Okwukwu honorees with the dog tied to a rope trailing behind as they walk round the market square amidst fast paced masculine song of egwu awuru a kind of solidarity song accompanying that occasions such a ritual procession. After going round the square, the divined ritual killer of the dog of iwa nkita anya is expected to slash off the head of the dog at one cut of the knife amidst high tempo egwu awuru song rendered in this manner:
Owe ghe e
Aya ghe he e
Owe ghe e
Aye ghe e.
This song, though onomatopoeic in nature, is structured to rhyme with the heroic action of the moment. The symbolic implication of iwa nkita anya ritual is that on re- incarnation, the deceased shall be reborn into the world of the living as a bold, hardworking and fearless character.

It is important to state here that fear is seen as a weakness on the part of the man among the Mbaise people. The case of Unoka, Okonkwo's father in Things Fall Apart represents a classical attitude of the Mbaise-Igbo fears about fear and weakness on the part of man. And the only explanation that can be made about such a tragic personality would be that he was denied proper ritual rites of burial in his previous incarnation; and especially the right of iwa Nkita anya.
After the Nkita anya ritual, the next stage would be the rite of evule obi literarily meaning, killing of ram for the heart. This particular ceremony is not done for every body no matter what age the person may have attained. It is rather, a ritual of respect preserved for the deceased, who lived through a lot of pains and survived them all. The symbolism of this ritual is also buried in the animal used in the ritual, the ram, which on its own, is a very stubborn animal. A never say die, kind of animal.
A day before the burial, the oldest of the okele ( external grandson) to the family of deceased shall lead a procession of all the other okeles of the village in a carnival kind of procession round the village with their den guns slung on their shoulders amidst heroic songs of egwu awuru. As they go from one family to the other round the village singing egwu awuru, they are given presents in the form of money, drinks and agricultural products. In each of the family they are presented with gifts, the Okeles as a way of appreciation,congregate to pray for their host for his recognition and hospitality.
Among Mbaise-Igbo, the prayers of Ndi Okele are believed to have a very strong intercessionary power in the hands of the ancestors at the other plane of existence. Also, on the final day of the Okwukwu ceremony, Ndi okele also go on procession round the market. As they go round the market, they shoot their loaded den guns and through such actions, add glamour to the whole ritual feasting.

Before the Eshe musical performance, which embodies the entire poetics and dramatic essence of the ceremony, the Opara or first son of the deceased, on the day of Okwukwu, which usually takes place on the market day of the community of the deceased, will dress in his best: usually in the typical Igbo dress pattern, comprising of a George wrapper tied around the waist with a fitting isi agu, (Lion head spotting) jumper top and a red cap to match. He is accompanied in this task by other members of the Opara clime, (other first sons from other families, who have done the same burial rites for their fathers), on the market round ceremony. This movement to the market is very symbolic: apart from the fact that a cow, which is the high point of sacrificial object used for the ceremony is equally costumed with different feathers of birds of symbolic beauty and strength, the essence of the market round is to announce to the whole community, that so and so children of the late deceased person are burying their father properly. As the children go round the market in the company of other ndi opara, they are hailed and praised. Often, one would hear one elderly persons or other shout at the top of his voice: Opara mara mma (A son, who is handsome) and another will add: onye nwa liri bara uba (He, who is buried by his children is a wealthy man.) And soon, the whole remark would submerge into a song, usually taken over by the excited carnival patrons and supporters:

"Onye nwa liri bara aba" He, who is buried by children, is a wealthy man.

"Onye nwa liri bara eze" He, who is buried by children is a king.

"Onye nwa liri bara aba" He, who is buried by his children, is a wealthy man.

Having gone the market round with the costumed cow, amidst greetings, praises and canon gun shots; they return back to the house, where the traditional poetic-drama of traditional oration takes place.