‘Wet’, ‘dry’ funerals give the dead dignity

As a Wuod Ugenya and indeed member of the human race, I am still numbed by the impersonal manner in which the body of James Oyugi was disposed of in the wee hours of April 12.

Significantly, it was Passover, when Jesus Christ is believed to have defeated death and risen — one reason human dignity runs from conception to after death.

The concept is used about 25 times in the Constitution. It is a basic minimum core. The battle against Covid-19 disease is equal to a fight for human dignity.

Our diverse cultural groups derive identity individually and collectively through “collective representations”. None lacks values such as honour, kindness, respect and compassion, which compel us to ask such questions as, what kind of beings are we? How do we appropriately express the beings we are?

This is a claimable human right — to take part in cultural life under the International Covenant on Socio-Economic Rights and to freely participate in a community’s cultural life under the Banjul Charter.

RIGHT TO GRIEF

The Luo of western Kenya, as with many creeds, language groups and collectivities, have developed rituals of collective representations such as goyo dala (building a home), nyombo (marriage) and liele (funeral). These may vary based on kido (variety) and individual preferences, but the sense and quest for humanness does not.

In bereavement, the right to grief and mourning does not change. The funerary rituals are conducted based on their significance to the survivors: what did this person mean to me and to this community? What does this death mean? What does this life mean?

These communities have two phases of funerals: ‘wet’ and ‘dry’. The former entails the numerous rituals and activities to inter the body. Varieties include laying the body for overnight stay, viewing it on the day of burial, dressing and interment from noon to 4pm.

The latter comprises post-burial rituals and ceremonies. They include mourning in the deceased’s home or on the grave; cleaning of the widow or widower and their house on the fourth day after burial; covering the grave when in-laws come for the dry funeral, and tero buru.

Oyugi’s interment did not meet the threshold of, or constitute, a Luo burial. Besides the trauma and dejection it has caused to bereaved family and the Luo nation, there is fear of how Oyugi’s spirit will respond to his mistreatment.

SEARCH FOR BODIES

The family shall have to conduct a dry funeral. Under ordinary circumstances, the grave nature of the matter would require that Oyugi be exhumed and buried with dignity.

Since 2000, I have been part of the Kimathi Movement, which advocates the retrieval and burial of the freedom icon Dedan Kimathi, whose remains were allegedly dumped in unmarked grave at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been about recovery and reburial of missing bodies. The government had to establish the Missing Persons Task Team (MPTT) to locate, exhume, identify and return mortal remains to their families.

While communities shall have to renegotiate their ‘wet funerals’ in the context of Covid-19, the Oyugi issue can only be concluded in a burial giving dignity to not just his remains but person, the human.

Dr Akoth is a legal anthropologist. [email protected].