Ancient traditional burial rites in Idoma community before the advent of Christianity

By ITODO F A

Today we will be looking at how traditional burial was been done in our land before Christianity came and liberated our people through the efforts of Mr James Itodo in 1935.

Burial ceremonies those days was far different from what we have right now in Orokam land, the reason is not far fetched, Christianity in the land by this time was not widely accepted the way it is right now and many of the inhabitants were dominantly pagans and so were been buried, it was consistently done in a traditional way.

This particular post will dwell on how traditional burials were been done by then and the aim is just to let you know and not make you revert to the old ways of culture.

It may interest you to know and more importantly that the burial requirements for men and women differ, so also is the burial items required of a chief the one for children or anyone who killed his or her self were been handled differently.

*GENERAL INTERMENT ( lying-in-state)

Due to lack of medical facilities such as mutuary and preservatives drugs for corpses, Interment always followed almost immediately obituary was announced, most likely between two or three days. The preservative measure was locally been done by families in any a very local way , this may be in form of smoking the dead body or embark on some embalmment which will only preserve the corpse for only a few number of days.

*BURIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The first thing to do when an Adult passes away then was to announce the death by family members, this is done through a message of demise which will be sent to the eldest in the family who in turns passes the message to other elders who re not close relatives, this will be done with kola and palm wine, while the daughter of deceased visits the eldest woman down to Obiokwute Ai Anya the son visits the elderly man(Obikwure Anyiro) first with kola, after this step the eldest man gives approval for the town crier to ring the bell (Agogo) notifying people that somebody has died.

*INTERMENT PROPER

On the second or third day when someone passes away, the youths will be mobilized with drinks to dig his grave at the early hours of the same day the corpse be buried.
In Orokam, a corpse of an Elder man or woman must be buried with shroud and white sack clothes then.
If it Is a family man that died, the following people must provide one shroud each
*The wife
*The first son (Okpra)
*The first daughter (Ada)
*All his married Daughters
*All his son’s in-laws
Where the first daughter is yet to marry,
The first son and daughter will present a combined shroud.
If it is a Woman (married) that died, the following people will provide one shroud each
*The husband
*The first Son
*All her married Daughters Through her in-laws

However, only two shrouds will be needed for the burial, the rest can be kept and sold later, but elderly people are buried with a special black shroud called Awuru from his first son while younger ones goes with the white shrouds or white sack cloths .
Before the man is laid to rest, there re sacrifices to be made, one of such is Ogwu Ose, he will be bathed by Ai Anya, dressed on a black shroud and placed on ochi’Ugada facing house street(Ognrogwu) , An Oyi onya whose mother is from the family of the deceased will be given a cutlass while drum (Odo) beaters take the entertainment and the Ogwu will perform as the Oyi Ona runs from far to cut the neck of the ram(Omrede) or he goat (opi)

BURIAL OF ALEKWU AFIA CUSTODIAN

It is worthy of note that the Akpa Alekwu have to be removed from the man’s house upon suspicion that he may die, it is a taboo for a man who owns Alekwu Afia to die in the same house with Akpa Alekwu.

Bodies of Men who owns Alekwu Afia and the box(Akpa Alekwu) was in their house until their death undergoes a unique burial rite, called “Unagba oyira” at this point the Ai Anya will be Chased out and Alekwu Afia would come out from Oboda purposely for Unagba rite, a fowl will be strangled, and the blood made to pass through a palm front from the window of the man, the Alegwu will ensure the blood gets to the eyes of dead body, when this is done.

The Alekwu call the Dead name and his corpse will answer, this follows a gunshot into the air to bid him final farewell before Ai Anya wi return back inside the room where the corpse was kept, this is done the day the man will be buried usually in mid day time.

The burial position then use to Men’s corpse facing Eno One, while female Corpses faces Eno Ochi.

After the interment, the Ai Anya would resume in the house of the deceased to warm the room to dancing with the family members and be sleeping there for
a minimum of 3,7 and 14 days depending on how close is the relationship, during this time the children of the deceased will come out one by one to dance and support the inner so. En with money and kola at interval.

*MORNIN

*MORNING PALM WINE (Eje Ochi Ogwa)

The following morning After the body has been laid to rest will be called palm wine morning ( Eje ochi) This is the time when men, children, and sympathizers from far and near gather to break kola nuts and drink palm wine together in mourning, there is usually a register for this to be called and marked with absentees sanctioned for failing to turn up

*SECOND (FINAL) BURIAL

The children of the deceased will set a date and communicate the date to the eldest man in the family, the Ai Ipinu will call a meeting, and agree on some certain things then approach the larger village, that is when the date of the burial will be officially announced, the children will be given list of the number of Animals to present to men, women and youths, they will be given the number of palm wine gallons to be presented that day, foods with at least one cooked goat hand in the soup.

The second burial proper begins with Ai anya resuming room warming at least three days to the final burial day.

Early in the morning on the day of the final burial the home calling (Igwu osi nmedro) rite otherwise known as “Manliness rite” will be performed and it will cost the family a he-goat or cock, this means calling home the deceased from his farm, because it was believed then that ones a man dies, he will go and stay in his farm, if not until this sacrifice is done the man will remain there and it is believed to be capable of killing his siblings in the future if the ritual is not performed. On this fateful day, all the sons of the ma, friends and the first daughter would prepare and take a walk to the deceased’s farm Ochard with holes and cutlasses with the first son taking the lead in the forefront with a strong wrapper tied around his waist, during the home calling sacrifice, The he-goat will be strangled and taking back home, but if it is a fowl cock, it will strangled, roasted and eaten there in the farm, after everything is finished, they will start going back home with firewoods,Emu etc and nobody is expected to look back, as it was believed that the man will follow them , this also follows gunshots with massive screaming from all and Sundries, (Oolo lololoo, Oolo lololoooo, Olololololoo, Olololololooooo Olololololoo ooooo) when they get home gunshots follow again.

If the family of the deceased re buoyant, they can kill a cow ( Ena ole) not the fulani type, the cow(eyes tied) will be slaughtered on a day to be announced to after the second burial to enable every family covers their road (Ukporogwu) with fresh Egbie leaf, this according to then wiil prevent the spirit of the cow from running into their houses, the slaughtering will be done at the main community street (Ofu) by an Oyi Onya (an external man whose mother is from that family) the meat will be shared based on the number present and people takes a turn to pick their share from the eldest to the youngest, later the skull of the cow will be taken to Obikute’s house for safty purposes, it should be noted that a man whose father did not kill a cow for his father will not be permited to do so except he is ready to buy two cows at once , and any individual who kills three cows at once to celebrate his father’s burial Automatically bagged a title called “Onmeta”ie he who killed three.
Another thing worthy of note is, anyone whose father is dead but could not afford to kill a cow during the burial is forbidden to partake in the sharing of the meat
In the case of women’s burial the Manliness rite is replaced by another rite which they use a goat to perform,the goat is called Ewu Utangodo. There are burial ceremonies  that the Ai Anya would bring in Egwu Ai anya (female gods) normally called (Ene), Ene is a round set of Ugweja positioned in a wide basin called Igbanjo, decorated with different types of wrappers usually used when elderly people died.

*Burial of Death of bided chiefs!

in the case of a chief, they don’t announce their death, it is called( travel) Oche has traveled, and their corpse re not buried at home, I will not talk much on this because it is very sensitive.

*Burial of youths
The burial rite of younger people differs from the way Elders were been buried, during the burial of any youth who died but he/she is not married or have a child, most of the protocols will be jumped, his burial will not be attended by elders and the elders will not eat any food prepared for the burial thereof, this was because of the beliefs that a father is not supposed to burial his own son daughter.

*Burial of a twin
When a twin brother or sister died, the co-twin will not be allowed to see the dead body of his or her second person, throughout the period of the burial the one alive is expected to put broom near him or her to chase the death spirit away, else will be will die miserably, twins are also expected not to see any corpse, that was why they were been asked to put their heads on palm until interment finishes

*Burial of Suicide case
Those who died by suicidal attempts or killing themselves in any form are buried in the forest with no formal second burial ceremony for them, such we’re usually cursed and banished