Befitting Funeral or Befitting Life? Celebrating the dead over the living

By Innocent Chia: Courtesy Dunia Magazine - Print Issue 6

At almost every funeral that I can remember attending, there has been at least one person whose eulogy has been a reminder that “we are here to celebrate the life of …” I know I said it at my mother’s passing in December 2000.

But this statement, which evokes fond memories of our loved one, has also not prohibited me from wondering ever so often whether those of us from the developing world, particularly Africa, are not exaggeratedly misplacing priorities by how much is spent and sacrificed for the dead over the living. I am wondering how much we are spending when our loved one is sick and dying on a hospital bed or at home? Is that cost more than or less than the funeral costs?

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Comments

[Dr. Peter Wuteh Vakunta]

"Above all, it needs to be written out in a living will, with black ink over white paper, how we want our remains to be disposed."

This is a powerful point you make: Wills, Living Trusts and Powers of Attorney are not part and parcel of our African cultures but we have to learn to integrate these alien practices into our modeus vivendi in the DIASPORA.

For those interested in deepening their knowledge on how death has been trivialized through the practice of professional mourners in Africa,I recommend a reading of Zakes Mda's scintillating novel titled WAYS OF DYING(2002) Mda is South African. Does it matter?

Dr. Vakunta

[J. S. Dinga]

What values can a people cherish when they abandon friends and relatives to be treated as paupers on hospital beds only to turn around at their death ceremonies with pompous display of wealth and grandeur?