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.

Nke Onye Chiri Ya Zaa!(On Igbo Titles)

To the uninitiated, Ndigbo are a show-off race, what with their big titles and ceremonies but such allegations are far from the truth. Ndigbo are proud and traditional people and so are other races, but in the case of Ndigbo not even the ‘civilisation’ brought by the Whiteman as depicted in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart  could rob them of their Omenani. Agreed the Whiteman may have desecrated the land and committed alu upon alu in Alaigbo but Ndigbo as a people have always produced several Okonkwos who have ensured that the flames enkindled by their ancestors never burn out.

While some may say that tradition is gradually disappearing in some areas or aspects of Igbo culture, it is still thriving in several others especially in the taking and bearing of titles. Sometimes titles are given, and taken to reflect the character of the title bearer or holder. In some other cases the titles are just symbolic, and become a mere symbol of greeting during social interactions. In typical Igbo communities, people are not known, called or greeted by their names but rather by their titles. Some of these titles are self explanatory, but majority require hard thinking to fully decode their meanings, but still each title signifies something or else it becomes a mere nickname.

The titles are a deep reflection, and an extension of another aspect of Igbo culture, that of speaking in parables or communicating with proverbs. Just like the proverbs which are not expected to be translated else as Ndigbo would say, it would be deemed that the bride price paid on behalf of the mothers of the persons requiring translation of the proverb is in vain. The meanings of titles are not meant to be interpreted either by the title bearers, especially to fellow Ndigbo. An exception of the rule may be applied if the persons/people requiring interpretation are non-Igbos.

In Igbo land, titles could be either assumed without any ceremony or fuss, or taken through elaborate feasting and fulfilment of other conditions. Hence Ndigbo would often say that there are titles and there are titles whenever they wish to mock an Ofeke who they feel has not merited the huge or bogus title he or she bears.

The average Igbo man by tradition is expected to have a title, either given to him by his father or one that he assumes and takes up himself. However, there are titles that one can only bear after going through some traditional rituals and practices such as Nze na Ozo, Ichie, chieftaincy or other Igbo traditional titles. Any one who successfully goes through the stipulated processes would have been considered to be fully initiated, and his peers will no longer have any inhibition in giving him the traditional Igbo 3 – back hand slap and hand shake (ina ito) - a social greeting ritual that is reserved only for the initiated.

During formal title taking events, the titles are symbolised through sticking a feather or feathers in red caps (red capped chiefs) and then placed on the recipients head, by hand beads (Iga) made out of elephant tusks or by a piece of woven thread tied to the title takers ankles (ata). Title holders may also be presented with a specially carved working stick (Mkpo), or a metal staff (Oji) in addition to a fan made out of animal skin (Akupe) with the person’s name and title engraved on it. Women receive thick arm bracelets carved out of elephant tusks (Odu).

It is customary to hear Ndigbo making expressions such as Ichi zu lu echi zu; such people (the initiated) are accorded more respect within their communities and have more opinion in traditional matters including traditional marriages etc.They may also have a say during land disputes, especially if such a community has no constituted Ojiani group.During feasts and other ceremonies, the fully initiated title holders are rewarded with extra portions of thighs of goat or tubers of yam and other items, and their food which must include pounded yam and soup stocked with anu mkpo and azu mkpo are usually prepared separately by umu nwanyi di ocha.

Although there is no general expectation for people to formalise their titles, there is however a class system within the Igbo cultural system. More respect and honour are accorded to those who have formalised their titles. The act of formalising one’s title is indeed not something for weak hearts and requires some elaborate preparation which culminates in series of events. The title holder will be expected to fulfil certain conditions including feasting his Umunna, Umuada, initiated title holders and other relevant stakeholder groups in the community .

In the olden days, such feasts will cost lots of cowries, manilas, and shells. It would require regular trips to the village market where the cowries will be exchanged for goats, tubers of yams, jars of nkwuenu and other food items. Depending on the title being taken, it may sometimes involve wrestling with (killing) a lion or any other task that may be assigned by the custodians of Omenani. Fable has it that bearers of the Ogbuagu title, Maverick politician Francis Arthur Nzeribe’s title, would normally be expected to have either wrestled with a lion, or killed one with a spear, they would then peel the dead animals’ skin which would be dried and hung in the title holder’s Obi as evidence. Many would have lost their lives during this process but for those that succeed, the honour and respect they receive afterwards makes it worth it as their stories are told far and wide.  In the end, such people are applauded and congratulated by all, including the initiated and non-initiated for as Ndigbo would say Odiro Ofele.

Some titles are also hereditary, passed on from generation to generation, in such cases while all the male children born to a family may be addressed commonly by such titles by which their father or grandfather was known, in the long term it is only the eldest male child that eventually retains the title. Preference in this instance always goes to the first born son. The younger siblings will be expected whenever they can, to assume or take their own titles.

In Igbo land, there is no compulsion by any native law or custom for men or women to bear titles; however any one who does not may find himself being the odd person during age grade, community or village square meetings, and during other community festivals and events where people are only addressed by their titles.

The culture of titles in Igbo land has often been chided by certain commentators who call it a craze, but in fairness there is really nothing wrong with it. By doing it, Ndigbo are only trying to uphold their tradition, just like other cultures would in other ways. On the subject of titles in Alaigbo, Charles Ikechukwu Okoli, an Awka indigene who goes by the traditional title of Nwa Ezeoku says that it is good that the Ndigbo have carried on with the practice, “Perhaps an aspect of this that Ndigbo should look at is in the abuse of titles, which sometimes sees less deserving members of the society being rewarded with big titles. Such practices usually send the wrong signals to the younger generation”, he concludes.

Some Igbo titles offer a mirror or parody into life, especially when the titles are juxtaposed with the personal circumstances of the bearers. A few ones come into mind here especially titles that suggest that the bearers are people of great financial and material means but in reality they may not be, examples include such grandiose titles such as Udu ako mmiri, Aku n’ata ka si, Okpata ozuo oha, Akuluouno, Ide ji ogwugwu, Ono n’ikpo aku, Ide, Eselu enu ego, Eze ego, etc.

Titles can also be restraining tools, for example, I have found that my title Ezeudo has on several occasions served to restrain me from acting when provoked, it serves as a reminder to me always to ‘watch it’, else I will be ridiculing myself, title and culture.

I know a man who goes by the title of Ome mgbe oji, in retrospect I think that the title is quite befitting, a very clever chap he is as his title forecloses any expectations relatives may have of him for financial assistance, he would make promises but with a clause that the promises can only be fulfilled whenever it is possible, a smart title indeed.  

There are also absurd cases, for example when known charlatans or cowards in the community bear titles that are too big for them such as Ochi agha, Ekwueme, Dike ana agbara izu, Aka gbajiri igwe, Dike eji eje mba. In some other cases, some titles may be considered off-putting in an increasingly modern Igbo society which has largely embraced Christianity, such titles connote the impression of idol worship for example titles such as Agbara ahuru gbuo okuko, Alusi n’ejere onye nwe ya ozi, Eze Udene, etc. 

As with men, so also with women, there is no evidence of discrimination against women in the Igbo culture with regards to title taking; in fact the women are holding their own and giving the men a run for their titles. They do have their class system as certain titles can only be taken by the initiated, usually into the much revered and influential Iyom society.  If you are an Igbo woman looking for a title, perhaps the following may get you thinking; Oso di eme, Agbala nwanyi, Oche eze, Mkpulu nma, Nwanyi gbue efi, Asa mpete, Nwanyi ma uche di ya, Ugogbe, Ola edo, Ada eji eje mba, etc.  

Interestingly, men and women do not normally bare similar titles in Alaigbo as they would some Igbo names such as Uche, Ngozi, Chinyere, Chika and Udodiri which are unisex names, but it does seem from the sound of some Igbo traditional titles, that both the women and the men already know which titles they could bear and which is exclusive to the opposite gender.

Ndigbo are also very accommodating and have been known to show their appreciations of friendships and beneficial relationships with other races through the bestowing of honourary titles, some Igbo in-laws are known to have bagged titles such as Nwanne di n’mba.

Afa otutu will continue to play prominent roles in the cultural and social lives of Ndigbo, and no matter who you are; Onye Igbo, Ogo, or enyi Ndigbo – Zaa kwa nke ichiri!

By Uche Nworah

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Article Word Glossary Alu – Sacrilege or abomination  Afa otutu - Title Alaigbo – Igbo land Alusi n’ejere onye nwe ya ozi – The deity that does the bidding of its owner  Agbara ahuru gbuo okuko - The deity that triggers the killing of a hen (n allusion to a person’s supposed ‘great’ standing in the society) Agbala nwanyi – An elegant and powerful woman Ada eji eje mba – A daughter/woman that can be relied on in far and near places. Asa mpete – A beauty Akuluouno – Only repatriated wealth are safe. Aku n’ata ka si – A ‘money-miss-road’ (one in possession of excess wealth) Aka gbajiri igwe – the strong hand that bends the iron Dike eji eje mba – A warrior that could be taken on journeys to other lands (one who is to be trusted, brave and courageous) Dike ana agbara izu – A brave man and warrior that enemies conspire against Ezeudo – King of peace or someone that makes/likes peace.  Ekwueme - One whose word is his bond (‘talk-and-do’ in popular parlance) Eze Udene – The king vulture (Vultures supposedly signify bad omens in Alaigbo) Eselu enu ego – The Literary meaning is to peel off a slice from a cash bundle or pile, but is actually an allusion to the fact that what the title bearer is spending is still ‘chicken change’ to his overall worth. Eze ego- King of money (this title is no longer popular in Alaigbo since the death of Victor Okafor, an alleged 419 kingpin who made the name very notorious) Ichi zu lu echi zu – You are fully initiated. Ide ji ogwugwu – Wealthy stronghold   Ide – wealthy person Ichie – a revered title for elderly men in the community Ina ito – A special form of greeting in Alaigbo, requiring 3 back hand slaps and a hand shake. The uninitiated are not expected to be greeted in this manner. Iyom – A revered society of women requiring initiation. Omenani – Culture or tradition  Obi – A small outpost in a compound usually used in receiving visitors. Ola edo – This means gold but is used to adulate the tile holder as being precious.  Ogbuagu - A traditional title. The literary meaning is killer of lion.  Okpata ozuo oha – A person who extends his wealth to others.  Ome mgbe oji – He who does, or helps out when he is able to Ojiani – Overseers of community lands and traditional holders of title deeds, they have the last say in land disputes in most Igbo communities and were very powerful in the days when there were no law courts.  Odiro Ofele – It is not easy at all (no mean feat) Oso di eme – The husband’s helper Oche eze – The throne of royalty Ofeke – A wayward person Ochi agha – Battle commander Ono n’ikpo aku – He who dwells in wealth Mkpulu nma – Epitome of beauty  Nwanyi ma uche di ya – A loyal woman who knows and respects her husband’s heart desires and wishes Nze na Ozo – A highly revered ancient Igbo traditional society  Ndigbo - Igbo people Nwa Ezeoku – A child from a wealthy man/family Nwanyi – Women Nka ona adi – The rightful place (Things never cease to be where they belong) Nkwuenu – Undiluted Palm wine (known as ‘Upwine’ in local popular parlance) Nwanyi gbue efi – The literary translation means a woman that has killed a cow (or caused one to be killed), because cows are expensive in the old days, women who achieve such feat are very much revered. In modern usage, it means a woman of mean. Nwanne di n’mba – The relative in a foreign land Nke onye chiri, ya zaa – May each answer to his/her title Umunna – Kindred relatives  Ugogbe – Mirror Udu ako mmiri – The earthen pot that is always full of water Umuada – Women born within a particular community or kindred Anu Mkpo - Dried roasted meat Azu Mkpo – Dried roasted fish Umu nwanyi di ocha – (Clean women) Women who are not in their menstrual cycle

The Igbo age grade system

The age grade system has long been in existence in Igboland, and has been recognized and used by Igbo traditional leaders to champion causes for the social, cultural, political, infrastructural and economic development of communities.

The main objective of this article is to get the Igbo youths, to become accustomed to Igbo culture and tradition as well as the role, which they play in community development through the age grade system. In fact, this piece is written to motivate the younger generation to actively participate in community development.

Age grades are groups of persons who, according to societal norms and values, are regarded as people of the same age. But, they do vary from one community to the other. For instance, they go by several names such as OtuOgbo, NdeUke or NdeEbiri according to the community where they are practiced.

In some communities, persons within a specific period of three, four or even five years age bracket form an age grade. Each age grade is given a special name that helps define its position in the community, relative to other age grades.

In some communities, they are gender segregated while in others, like in Obinwanne Age Grade in Atani-Arochukwu, they are mixed (men and women). But each age grade is clearly distinguished from one another.

However, as years pass by, the younger groups ascend the ladder and takeover the older age grades.

According to Ugiagbe and Uguagbe (2015), “The Igbo of Eastern Nigeria, for example, have a culture of segmenting into different age grades which can be likened to teams in management and platoons in war games”

Among the members of these different age grades can be found those with different roles which enable them to act as teams.

Generally, age grades serve as avenues for social interaction among members and, more importantly, as agents of community development.

In some communities, entry into an age grade, often gender separated, is usually marked by an initiation rite which may be the crowning of a long and complex preparation.

In the pre-colonial period, the newly formed age grades had to prove themselves for maturity by defending the community against hostile neighbours or enemies.

Members of each age grade are meant to know one another fairly well, to choose leaders among their members, to meet regularly to discuss issues of mutual or communal interest, to willingly help one another and defend the community when the need arises.

Despite the onslaught of modernization, industrialization and urbanization, the roles of age grades in Igbo land remain significant and impactful chiefly as a symbol of unity that is; unity among members.

Some of the roles of age grades play in Igbo land include: maintaining security of lives and property, enforcement of law and order, developers/executors of community initiatives and projects, crime control which is a growing area of need in many communities today, conflict resolution within the age grade/within the entire community, and community warfare in both physical and spiritual affairs.

Other roles of age-grades include; serving as agents of change and modernization and sophistication; role models and community conscience; educators and socializing agents; managers of projects; advocates of best practices; power balance in community initiatives; providing voice and support to the poor and the disadvantaged; enforcers of ancestral wishes and protectors of cultural values and norms; power balance in community initiatives; and pulling the community ahead and ensuring good value orientation.

Where there is unrest, high level of criminalities and social dislocations in communities, the age grades are trusted and called upon to bring about sanity.

In any Igbo community where there is unrest, high level of criminality and social dislocations, the first question to ask is “Where are the age grades?”

Imagine what would be the situation of many Igbo communities if our ancestors did not come up with this social engineering mechanism called age grades.

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.

OBI NWAKANMA - VISION OF A RENASCENT ONITSHA CITY

By Okenwa Nwosu

It was the city that drew the great generation of Igbo, and indeed Southern Nigerian modernists. The city of the great Zik, whose statue still adorns an important historical site of the city; the city of Denis Osadebe, Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, Ikejiani, Raymond Amanze Njoku, Pius Okigbo, Chike Obi, Sylvanus Cookey, Birabi, Ben Enwonwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, and too many others too numerous to mention. 
It was the city, whose centrality in the evolution of modern Nigerian culture has been recorded permanently in Emmanuel Obiechina’s canonical study of the literature now called, “Onitsha Market Literature,” produced in the great forges of its little presses, much like the grub street, which basically disseminated the most significant tradition of city penny literature in that march towards the modern. Onitsha once had a great newspaper too: the Nigerian Spokesman, which gave this city its certain flavor. 

The city exhibits the marks of dystopia. Yet it is a city of possibilities, if only the Anambra state government, can think slightly out of the box and commence an ambitious City redevelopment plan, by bringing a number of things to bear: the reconstitution of Onitsha as a Metropolitan district with its own city government, and execution of a plan that would integrate Ogidi, Obosi, Nnewi, Oba, and the surrounding districts, as part of the conurbation of a new Onitsha Metropolitan District. 

This metropolitan authority should then think about raising property and other municipal taxes and begin the very clear process of redesigning and rebuilding Onitsha as a modern, 21st century city that should integrate the grandeur of its own history as the first epicenter of Igbo modernity, and promote that history as part of its culture and image, and its new offering. 

This is what great cities do. It should also work inexorably towards the development of its valuable water front into a great residential, business and culture district, with splendid private and public residential facilities, fine offices, great restaurants, galleries, theatres, well designed public parks, and such a place that would draw people to its profitable use, and that would enrich the city significantly; and in some ways, connect it to its twin city across the river, Asaba, for the benefit of all.” 

Obi Nwakanma 

IF you asked most people today to go to Aba or Onitsha to settle and live, the first impulse would be to think that you are placing a curse on them. And I am totally serious. Young men and women, the most productive and active catalysts of city life, do not find any incentives to go to these once thriving cities of the East to settle, and live a full life. 

I once asked a friend of mine who grew up in Onitsha, and who now teaches at the University of Denver, Colorado, if he could ever think about living in Onitsha or raising his children in Onitsha, and his response to me was quite frank: “there is nothing for me in Onitsha!” he said. 

It was no longer even the city in which he grew up. The decay of a city like Onitsha is so terrifying that an encounter with both the image and reality of the city is nightmarish - a true ghostly miasma that is. 

Until you have felt and seen it, it is quite unimaginable. The sludge of human and industrial waste that runs on the public and private spaces; the sense of the brokenness of everything; the disorder in city planning; in code enforcement; in street planning; in the general ordering and layout of the city makes Onitsha today, one of the most polluted and certainly one of the most ungainly sites of human habitation anywhere on God’s earth. 

Yet encrusted in that pod of waste is a possible gem; a once well planned city which becomes only clear from the air, which has only been distorted by the barbarous rage of a most philistine generation for whom beauty and civility are alien values. 

Onitsha still has some of the finest colonial architecture which are indeed great set pieces and which could just be rehabbed with a little imagination, care, and some respect for heritage. Yet also, Onitsha is dotted with some of the most monstrous forms of architecture, a pretence at the high-rise apartments, which give little room for aesthetics. The buildings are often largely utilitarian. 

They are most times constructed with little rhyme or reason, possibly inspired by the competitiveness of the Onitsha landlord who draws the design on the sand, and builds just to prove to everyone else that his “four decking is higher than yours.” 

The result in Onitsha, as one drives in, is a sense or an impression of a vast project – those low income, box-like constructions of high-rise apartments that dot the landscape of American urban ghettoes that are infested with drugs, prostitution and poverty. I have nothing, of course, against urban housing, but let it be built with respect for the people, with a sense of spatiality, with some aesthetic purpose. 

Onitsha’s image suffers from its certain lack of awareness of its own history or importance. My early vision of Onitsha was shaped by an early encounter with Chinua Achebe’s novella, Chike and the River, a book I read in primary five. 

I also associated Onitsha with what one imagined to be the magnificent bridge across the Niger at Onitsha, which even now, remains as powerful as New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, as an authentic symbol of Nigeria’s entry into high technological modernity. 

The Brooklyn Bridge has been celebrated in the epic poetry of great American Romantic and modernist poets like Walt Whitman and Hart Crane, but not the bridge across the lordly Niger in Onitsha. Onitsha was for many years the cultural and commercial center of the East – something of the Boston of Southern Nigeria – with its place as the epicentre of Christian missionary movement into the Igbo heartland. 

For many years, it was the headquarters of the Church of the Niger. It was the city of Basden and the Archbishop Denis, as well as the Joseph Shanahans. Those icons of the Roman and the Anglican churches, who ironically were also figures of early Igbo modernity of the late 19th century. 

Onitsha was the intellectual capital of Southern Nigeria, with its famous parochial schools, like the Christ the Kings College, the Catholic boarding school for boys, or the Denis Memorial Grammar School, the Anglican equivalent, or the Queen of the Rosary School, the Catholic boarding school for girls, or the famous St. Charles Teachers College, and so many pioneer schools that made Onitsha the gathering of the early Igbo towards cultural modernity. 

It was the city that drew the great generation of Igbo, and indeed Southern Nigerian modernists. The city of the great Zik, whose statue still adorns an important historical site of the city; the city of Denis Osadebe, Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, Ikejiani, Raymond Amanze Njoku, Pius Okigbo, Chike Obi, Sylvanus Cookey, Birabi, Ben Enwonwu, Cyprian Ekwensi, and too many others too numerous to mention. 

It was the city, whose centrality in the evolution of modern Nigerian culture has been recorded permanently in Emmanuel Obiechina’s canonical study of the literature now called, “Onitsha Market Literature,” produced in the great forges of its little presses, much like the grub street, which basically disseminated the most significant tradition of city penny literature in that march towards the modern. Onitsha once had a great newspaper too: the Nigerian Spokesman, which gave this city its certain flavor. 

I could go on and on, but I hope the picture is clear, that from the time of the Saro and Caribbean middle class of lawyers, doctors, teachers, and so on, who first constituted the society and culture of Onitsha, of the Onitsha Literary Society, funded by a remarkable whiteman whose grave is still marked in one silent corner of the of the Onitsha city cemetery, to today, a city like Onitsha has undergone radical transformation. A cultured middle class seems absent. 

The city exhibits the marks of dystopia. Yet it is a city of possibilities, if only the Anambra state government, can think slightly out of the box and commence an ambitious City redevelopment plan, by bringing a number of things to bear: the reconstitution of Onitsha as a Metropolitan district with its own city government, and execution of a plan that would integrate Ogidi, Obosi, Nnewi, Oba, and the surrounding districts, as part of the conurbation of a new Onitsha Metropolitan District. 

This metropolitan authority should then think about raising property and other municipal taxes and begin the very clear process of redesigning and rebuilding Onitsha as a modern, 21st century city that should integrate the grandeur of its own history as the first epicenter of Igbo modernity, and promote that history as part of its culture and image, and its new offering. 

This is what great cities do. It should also work inexorably towards the development of its valuable water front into a great residential, business and culture district, with splendid private and public residential facilities, fine offices, great restaurants, galleries, theatres, well designed public parks, and such a place that would draw people to its profitable use, and that would enrich the city significantly; and in some ways, connect it to its twin city across the river, Asaba, for the benefit of all. 

This is the only way to stimulate growth and economic development on a scale that is purposive and significant. I have used Onitsha clearly as a foil even in my description of the other city, Aba. I have always said that one of the most important reflections of the kind of mindset that have destroyed once well-made cities like Aba, designed by Pius Okigbo as Development Officer in 1947, is in the destruction of the Aba golf course and its parceling off to speculators who quickly turned this once beautiful place into a monstrous space. 

Aba and Port-Harcourt are also inevitably bound to shake hands and rejoin themselves at the hip, as it was once conceived, sooner than later. 

And so it is important for the authorities in those two cities to begin the process of joint planning and remodeling, including creating joint sewer districts, protected forest areas, river and lake recreation areas, that would link the triad development from Owerri, Aba and Port-Harcourt, starting at the Owerrinta Port, near Okpala. 

But as it is, it seems like very little thinking is going on at a grand scale in government. These cities cannot recover their economic powers, if they do not attract the right kind of human energy. It is imperative therefore, to draw people back, with great schools, great city hospitals, great museums and galleries, and generally, great environments to live and nurture families in a healthy and sustainable way.