Sometimes I wonder why people bury their dead at home. In my previous house, when my landlady died, the children came and were going to bury her right on the balcony overseeing my living room. Even though I'm totally against burying the dead within housing premises (let alone the balcony overseeing my apartment), I didn't advise them against it or raise any objection. I knew my decision in my mind. I was going to move out the following day.
And it's not because I'm afraid of the dead.
I don't even believe in ghosts.
At the end of the day, after much argument among themselves, they settled to bury her in the backyard. That is a bit manageable for me. Fortunately, I moved out not so long after to a better apartment.
I am in charge of a private Muslim cemetery where I live. I have experienced a lot of dramas and stories that could make for movies with several episodes. An interesting one was a man coming back after a few days of willingly choosing to bury his dead mum at the cemetery. He requested that his mum be exhumed, the reason being that people were accusing him of throwing his mum's corpse away. This gives an insight into the average mentality of people in this part of the world. Once you bury your deceased loved ones in the cemetery, it's as if you're throwing them to the dogs.
Another funny drama worth mentioning was about a middle-aged man who came all the way from Lagos to bury his mother. He called me before leaving Lagos to book a space and paid the required token for the maintenance of the cemetery. When he got into town, he requested that I follow him to go and carry the corpse. All the necessary bathing rituals have been done, according to him.
On getting to the house where the deceased had been prepared for burial, we met a host of angry crowds. There were internal fracas among the family members of the deceased as to where to bury the dead. Many were staunchly against taking her to the cemetery. They wanted her buried at home. It became a serious argument that almost resulted in a physical fight. At the end of the day, we left the place empty-handed while the man angrily returned to Lagos without participating in the burial of his mother.
While the above stories are common occurrences, I often get people coming to me requesting to transfer their dead loved ones who have been buried within the house premises to the cemetery. Some of these transfers had been buried as far back as 20 to 30 years ago. Why the sudden interest in moving them to the cemetery? You might be wondering.
Most of the time, there is only one answer.
They do it either because they are now wiser and understand the importance of burying the dead Muslims in a Muslim cemetery or they are proposing to sell off the house where they were buried and wouldn't want the graves interfered with by developers. Most of the time, they do it because the presence of graves within the premises of a house often makes the house to be undervalued. Why should I even buy a house with graves around it?
In my opinion, there is no single benefit of burying the dead within the house. Some even go as far as burying their loved ones in their rooms or somewhere in the interior of the house. On the other hand, the demerits of doing so are numerous. Graves within a house are often abused by the occupants of the house. While growing up, graves are usually our go-to whenever it is time to play ping-pong.
Apart from abuse, the presence of graves impacts the value of a house. A house with graves and a house without graves will never be valued the same way even if they are of the same structure. One may think that there will never be a need to sell the house but the future may hold something different. It happens around us and I'm a first-person witness of many.
I'm a Muslim and the tenets of my religion do not allow for the dead to be buried in the house. Religion aside, however, there is not a single benefit of burying a dead person in the house. Many people do it because of the kind of security it gives the dead from ritualists or bad people who may want to exhume and steal body parts of corpses. However, instead of now burying them in the house and causing problems for future generations that will inherit the house, why not bury them in private cemeteries that are fully secured?
Let me know what you think in the comment section.
Thank you for reading.