Death Across Cultures by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030188269
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Between Death and Dying

Death and dying are serious issues among the traditional Yoruba. They are heavily referenced in Yoruba oral traditions , particularly in their proverbs which serve as a repository of traditional knowledge. The traditional Yoruba recognize the mortality of humans. Death is an occurrence that put an end to the corporeal existence of man and the Yoruba “believe that death is the transformation of the physical body from the earthly plain. Philosophically, they acknowledge that death is not the end of human life. It is a transitory process to another life where the dead assume a numinous existence that not only endears them to the memory of the living, but also preserves them in the form of a metaphysical essence” (Oripeloye 2016, p. 18). Austine Okwu says that “death is … like puberty, a biological development that should occur according to the chronology of birth. It is not regarded as the end of existence, but as the rite de passage per excellence” (italics in the original 1979, p. 20). However, for our purpose, death means the end of corporeal existence. One way the traditional Yoruba face this reality is in their categorization of manners of dying as either bad or good. There are desirable forms of death and undesirable ones. The death of the old and death occasioned by heroic exploits are considered good. An average Yoruba would prefer to die as a hero or heroine even if he/she does not enjoy old age. Kaku lomode ko ye ni o san ju ka dagba ka ma r’adie irana (to die honorably as a youth is preferable to dying at an old age without a befitting end). Traditional Yoruba place more premium on dying at an old age rather than through heroic exploits. Efforts are constantly made to ensure that only the aged die and that the youth are prevented from dying an ‘untimely’ death. Right from childhood, as early as the eighth day when the naming ceremony of a child is held, the rites have a segment that is devoted to inducing long life and repelling death for the new born.

This rite of inducing long life is an exercise of the spiritual which constitutes a recurrent aspect of the totality of life of the traditional Yoruba. During the naming ceremony, three of the traditional materials for the rite of naming such as water, kolanut and eda rat are meant to avert early death for the child. A finger drop of water is put in the child’s mouth in symbolic demonstration of what the traditional Yoruba refers to as water of life. The child is then wished a safe life in which water does not gag her/him. He/she is welcome into a society of humans to whom water serves as a life-giver. When the child’s tongue is touched with a lobe of kolanut, the Yoruba is fortifying the new born baby against death and invoking long life upon the child thus: Obi ree o; obi nii bi iku;

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