Have you been looking for the Ebira Women Traditional Funeral Rites in Ebiraland? well! this article is of 2 parts and will be explained thoroughly, keep reading below.
Part 1: Ebira Women Traditional Funeral Rites
The respect and honour enjoyed by Ebira woman is comparable to none. It continues even after the death of the woman. After the death of a married Ebira woman, Its a taboo to start funeral arrangement without the consent cum the approval of the woman immediate family.
Her eldest child is sent to deliver the message of his mother death to his maternal family: he is not going to tell them that their sister/daughter is dead rather he will tell them she’s seriously sick.
The maternal family on their part will send one person to go with the son and confirm the status of their daughter/sister. After confirmation, he will return home with the woman’s eldest child, an elder from the husband’s family and the husband to officially tell them that the woman is dead. They will give account of the cause of her death and the treatment she received before death.
This is done to make sure that their daughter/sister did not die out of negligence
Part 2: Ebira Women Traditional Funeral Rites
After the woman’s family have accept their daughter/sister’s death as the will of God, the husband and the people who accompanied him will return home, they will shoot a gun into the air upon reaching home, this will serve as awareness to the community and beyond while waiting for the woman’s family to come before they could start the burial arrangement.
The family members will come with some piece of clothes, which will be used among other pieces of clothes to shroud the corpse. During the corpse bathing, they (the woman’s family members) will be the first to pour water over the corpse, they will repeat it 3 times before the bathing commence.
After the bathing, they (the woman’s family member) will make a frantic cry (ogá), this is a sign that the bathing has concluded. During Shrouding, the woman immediate family member will be the first to lay their clothes, after they have wrapped her with their clothes other extended family members will bring their clothes one after the other, which will all be used to shroud the corpse.
After they have shroud the corpse, the immediate family members will also be the first to chant a funeral song before others follows. The funerals now starts proper, there will be Anuva through out the night as the corpse will be kept till the next day, there will be Onyimuruwei (a type of song which is normally display by women only) and Enyiohu…
The funeral continues till 3, 5, 7, 9 or even 14days after the burial, depends on the husband’s or children’s capability. NOTE: The first part (part 1) is still in practice today regardless of the woman religion’s believe but the (part 2) is now restricted to a woman who didn’t accepts any foreign religion in her lifetime.
