Greetings People!
This is my entry to the contest in freewriters community titled A picture is worth a thousand words.
It's a story about a community's Tradition I met some years back that looked totally weird to me.
It was 2019 when I was posted to the southern part of Nigeria for NYSC(a service for graduates to Nigerian Government). When i received the call up letter, I quickly Googled about the community and I got weakened when I saw that it's a very interior village. I'm not the type that does sorting to move to a favourable location, so I decided to go because I was sure I was ordained to serve there.
I got there
I got there and of a truth, it's really an interior village, I could count the number of beautiful houses there but I didn't bothered because fellow corpers(previous NYSC members) have survived ther, so if they did, I can do it too.
I was lucky enough to get a house in a family compound where Landlord and his family lives there, so I was feeling at home because of how I was welcomed. I got acquainted with them to the extent that I get free raw food on a regular basis.
It came to pass
It was my two months there when a tragic hit the family, a news came that one of his sons Schooling in a nearby school was dead. It was said that he died of stomach pain(he's been suffering from ulcer). The news broke down the family and I felt it too because I was part of the family.
They moved the corpse of the young boy home to bury and I was assuming because he's a young boy he'd be buried instantly the way it's done in my region but hell no, the case was different here.
I was told that the community is Keen to obeying the tradition of the land and any family that refused to obey would have the gods to battle with.
I asked about the tradition
One of the daughters of the landlord that I'm close with dished out all the terms she knows about their tradition to me.
Things like;
- how they bury a pregnant woman that died which they have to locally operate the woman before laying her to rest.
- How they bury a man that died a virgin. She said if a guy dies a virgin, he's not easily buried like that, they have to perform some rituals so as to allow the guy's spirit go to heaven because he merits it for dying a virgin (like, sexual stuffs is a sin for unmarried ones).
Yes, they have a spiritual tool to check on any dead unmarried man to detect if he was a virgin or not to know how to go about the in order not to act on Ignorant to their law.
She said they would have to locally balm him for 7days with harsh local chemicals which they'd be going into the room he's kept daily to perform some Rituals for 7days before finally laying him to rest.
I was shocked to hear all the barbaric acts, and couldn't believe myself that things like that still exists in this morden world.
The first first day
This was the day that the boy's corpse was brought from school, the corpse was taken inside, some people came which I believe were native doctors, they entered and did their work for an hour. They left and the room was locked. The whole scenario never seized to amazed me.
The fourth day
They opened the room for me to see
It was the fourth day when they announced that anybody could enter the room to offer a word of prayer for the corpse so he'd be accepted fully in heaven.
I was supposed to be scared, right? No! That was not my first time seeing a corpse but my challenge was the smell because I detest smell. I was told that he's not smelling because he's been well balmed. I noticed that too because for the four days living in the compound(amidst the death saga) I didn't had issues with any foul smell.
I entered inside with the mindset to see the lifeless body lying on the bed with cotton wool on his nostrils, mouth and ears but I met a shrunk body, just like the photo below;
I was more shocked but I bravely stayed a minute and offered my prayer for the dead body. When I came out, I quickly went to the daughter to explain to me why the body was like that and she said it's the chemicals they used on him hardened the body like that.
Long story cut short
Seven days reached, the last Ritual was performed and he was buried at the back the window of my room(my block is different from the main building). On a normal, I was supposed to be scared of sleeping in my room knowing that I have a grave close to my window but my body system doesn't work that way. I wasn't scared at all...so far I'm not the one that killed him. Lol🤣
This is the end of my story.
Incase you're wondering if it's true or fiction🤔🤔🤔, let your thought justify that lol🤣.
Thanks for reading