Burying a Married Woman in Igboland: Facts vs Myths

Burying a Married Woman in Igboland: Facts vs Myths

I have two questions for those who argue that burying a married woman in her father’s house was never a general Igbo practice.

Also, these questions go to Igbos who claim once you pay bride price on a woman in their community, the woman now belongs to you to do as you please. In fact, in their words, you own the woman.

These two questions are:

1. What is the meaning of this igbo adage, Isi nwa ada anaghi atọ na mba? Who is the nwa ada in this saying? And, where is the mba nwa ada went to that necessitated the reminder that her head should not be allowed to rest/buried there?

2. Why is it that till date, once a married woman dies, the first people to be informed is her father’s family? In some places, you dare not move, bury or put her in a mortuary without a member of her father’s family coming to properly examine her dead body?

If you truly own a woman to do as you please because you paid her bride price why are these two realities still existing amongst the Igbos?

For those that keep saying igbo na asụ na onu onu, please do not forget the ending part of the same Igbo na asu na onu saying that goes thus; mana egbucha ikiri ọbụrụ ofu.

What is that ikiri, that general practices that we spot in our communal diversities that make us know we are one as Igbo?

How we bury our dead, how we pray with Kolanut, how we conduct marriage, the premium we place on Ofo are those general practices (Ikiri) that unify us. Your community can tweak how they do any of these, but look closely, the devil is always in the tiny details.

Written by Nze Tobe Osigwe

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