Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

Now, this is a statement that ought to serve as the foundation tenet for a philosophy of funeral for any rational person. But as David Hume said decades ago, we deceive or delude ourselves if we think rationality defines us human. Dr Ikedife's statement just undercuts the stupidity of a "befitting burial" that constitutes a significant part of our religious and cultural lives. If the spirit has left the body (if indeed there is a spirit that leaves the body), what then is left? Why the hustle and bustle over a mere corpse? Why the extravagance? 

I have noticed that those aged parents here do not want you talking about the death of their parents, even though they labour under the crippling financial burden of their sandwich years, locked between responsibility to their immediate family and to their aged parents. And the reason is so simple: It isn't the affection they feel for those parents, but the enormous cost of burial. The useless corpse stays in the morgue for months while the family and siblings search the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Oceans, as well as the Sahara desert looking for money for burial. The when enough debts have been accumulated, a very expensive coffin is purchased, accompanied by even very expensive clothing and accessories for the corpse, followed by wining and dining. 

Dr Ikedife nails it! This statement should be laminated beautifully and served in class to the coming generation. It is so beautiful as a philosophical notice to rational human beings in a poverty-ridden economy that demands wisdom and not cultural correctness. 

This is what i keep telling my children...do not waste your hard-earned money on my corpse. Fund a library project. Donate to the orphanage. Endow a university chair. Do something enormously positive.  

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

On Friday, December 14, 2018, 3:15:33 PM GMT+1, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:

"For me, a befitting burial is when you are sure I am dead, dig six-feet, wrap me in a mat, put me in the ground and cover it. I will not be celebrated when I die. I don't want a funeral. Once I am dead, put me in the grave and go away. Don't come on condolence visit. Don't come for funeral ceremony. I don't want it; is it of any use to me, a dead person?  You are just wasting your time and giving yourself trouble. If you invite the whole Nigeria it doesn't mean anything to me. If you invite 10 people it doesn't mean anything to me. If you fire 100 gunshots, it means nothing to me. People waste energy and sometimes money; sometimes they borrow or sell things to give somebody what they call a befitting burial. I don't need it."

-Dr. Dozie Ikedife

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Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement"Awardee Of Maritime Watch Newspaper(Nigeria), Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

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