Enigma of death: Death a blessing, Curse, Savior or Destiny? An Ifa overview

"It is as naural to die as to born; and to a little perhaps the one is as painful as another - Francis Bacon'
           
As it is impossible to prevent or stop the manifestation of life in the flesh, so is it impossible to maintain the spirit in the flesh indefinitely. There is a law that governs all' things and the law makes it impossible to stop the spirit from passing out of the flesh whether the human being desires it or not. 

There are myths and stories formulated by people which tell about the mysterious experience of death. The mysteries surrounding Death is so grave that people feel chill up their spine at the mention of death. Some regard Death as  the great enemy, some treat it as uncanny that it requires strong nerve to enter a cemetry at night. While some have' shown unmistakable tendency to push Death aside, to eliminate it from life. The fear of Death has so gripped us that we intend to avoid direct confrontation with it and thereby using different euphemisms to describe it. For example, we say "he  has passed on", or has departed",  has' kicked the bucket" or "the demise", etc.

Death; according to'lfa is the first and one of the Ajoguns (Evil forces) who descended to Ikole Aye after the creation of the earth. The Ajoguns include Iku - Death, Arun-Disease, Ejo - Litigation, Ofo - Loses, Oran- Trouble, Ese Affliction, etc.

Death is also a super natural phenomenon which makes life a continous one and also act as a necessary end for individual. The origin of Death is as old as the beginning of life on earth with the, purpose of maintaining continuity of life and also punish those who might violate the laws of nature (God).

Without much introduction on the discourse, i will now go fully into the Origin and purpose of Death to humanity:

A Divine Blessing

In a particular stanza of Oyeku-Pose, Ifa tells us that Death is being regarded as a divine blessing to human beings which is interwoven with the ordinary process of living from the moment we are born. It described life as a continous one which goes out of the body when the cells cannot reprodce Itself anymore. Ifa is also of the view that the body wears out or depreciates like any other piece of machinery. The only difference is that unlike an Organism, an engine cannot repair itself, whereas the body is capable of renewing some of its parts.

As time goes on the cells gradually,show signs of decay, and eventually the spirit passes out of the body when
the latter has become too weak for the former to contain.  The spirit then journey back to heaven and take up a new form thus, when the stream becomes stagnant, it becomes  filthy and muddy. Ifa says that life would indeed be absurd   if we journeyed from nothing to nothing, that's why life has to  voyage to and from heaven in order to make it more interesting .

Death as a SIN
The second aspect as regards the origin of Death is SIN, which literally is to disregard God's law or to live and act contrary to the nature, whether it be intentionally or by ignorance of the law. To live according to the law is to obey God and the reward is Ogba-ltero (Garden of peace) here and the hereafter. To disobey God's law is to attract a punishment with death, diseases and other hell conditions.

Some Ifa verses show the origin of Death as a result of sin being committed by humans and how the cells gradually accumulate certain poisons which results in progressive damage and finally culminated in illness or Death. This type of Death accounts for most of the pre-mature death that occur. In Ifa, Sin is also being refered to as Eewo (taboo) as commandments from God while breaking it results tin death.

Death as a SAVIOR
Thirdly, we are made to understand that Death also acts as a saviour from a protracted illness that may not make life meaningful to someone by taking the life of such person and thereby save him or his family from prolonged agony or sorrow which may arise form such illness. Olodumare also made Death to check human atrocities and misdemeanors and possibly check over population which may make life difficult for people to live. In Odu-lfa Ogbe-Alara, a verse reads thus:

"Agbaku mogbe Isele
Adifa fun Orunmila
Baba yoo baku ja yoo si jebi iku
Ara Igbahun da
Iba se wipe aiku o
Ara igbahun da
Ebo kaye o yeni Itaba ma se"

OGBE ALA RA

Meaning
"Agbaku Mogbe Isele (name of a Babalawo)
Made divination for Orunmila
When he wanted to fight with Death and would be guilty as well 
Where are the progenitors?
If we had not been dying
Where are projenitors?
We should always make sacrifice for honour"
              OGBE ALARA

Death an aspect of Destiny
The fourth aspect is Death by destiny. Under this category death could occur maturely or prematurely but in most cases the pre-mature death also known as oriseku is usually caused by sorcery witchcraft, sin (as mentioned earlier)or Abiku (recurring birth death syndrome).

According to Solagbade Popoola, Abiku is 'a situation where a particular child is born into a family only to die before maturity and then reborn only to die again to be reborn an so on". For further explanation on abiku check issue no. 2 of 'ORUNMILA ' magazine.

Still under destiny . Ifa says that in the 

primordial existence destinies are chosen differently including fortunes, failures and even death of humans on earth. Some can choose as part of their destinies long life, while some may prefer to choose short life and so on.
In Otura-Rete, Ifa says.

"Ogbon sawo mawi
Oro ko lu Ogberi mamo
Adifa fun Alukoso aye
Abu fun Aludundun orun
Alukoso Aye se o ngbo o
Otoo to laa yan eda"

OTURA-RETE

Meaning:
"The sage bestowed with wisdom but keep mute
The uninitiated becomes ignorant of wisdom Made divination for Alukoso aye (The Terrestrial) Also did same for Aludundun Orun (The Celestial Behold (Alukoso) human destinies are chosen dif ferently".

OTURA-RETE

In the same vein, people sometimes use supernatural powers to cause death to a particular person. The witches, wizards, herbalists, etc. possess strong and magical powers to operate both in the visible and the invisible worlds and then cause harm or death to others without their knowledge. The Abiku too have powers to come to the earth several times within a short period of years and sometimes do this purposely to torment their parents. In EjiOgbe and Iwori-Wosa, Ifa enlightens the babalawo how the issue of Abiku can be handled and thereby put an end to  such premature   death.

  

The inevitability of death

Now that we have understood how and why Death came to this world, let us move to the next stage which is inevitability of death. Death as the inevitable phenomenon is a necessary end that cannot be avoided as long as we are humans: Death is no respecter of anybody irrespective of the personality. One could  be a sage, philosopher, proficient western doctor or herbalist, no one can escape the long arm of Death.

Ifa opined that the nature of human creation makes it imperative for humans to replace, reproduce or develop themselves and the physical death is a change towards Which we inevitably tend. It is the climax of our development as an individual.

Ifa tells us that death can not be avoided by humans, because death is one of the forces of energy that humans (matter) were created. All matter is composed of energy which requires two forces, positive and negative, in order to exist. The balance of these two forces is essential and must be adhered to either we like it or not. It is worthy of note that we, humans pray or wish for the good things of life (positive) only forgetting the negative without which life can not be balanced.

Ifa says that we should not be afraid of death, it should be welcomed with happiness and open heart. Ifa  describes death as a visitor that must visit man once in his lifetime. In as much as other positive phenomena such as financial success, childbearing, marriage, longevity, victory, etc are welcomed by humans, it is then a matter of necessity to welcome death as well. Death also serve as a boundary between the physical world and the invisible world (Heaven). In Odu Ifa, Ogunda Aiku, Ifa describes how the job of taking one's life was given by God to 'Death.  Death then went to a babalawo to divine on method of executing this onerous task given to him by God. Kumo(Sledge hammer) was one of the things he used for sacrifice. All he need to do was to point the kumo to his victim and soon afterwards, the person will die. 

In Africa, what happens to the soul of the dead in the next world is also important. That's why certain burial rites or rituals are performed during the burial ceremony. The status of the deceased in the society and the nature Of death determine the type of ritual to be performed. In case of the death of a babalawo, his IKIN will be used for  divination in order to hear a message from the departed and also know whether the deceased would prefer to be buried with the whole of his [kin or part of it. In most cases, it is half the quantity of Ikin that's buried along with the deceased.
In the case of the death of an aged person or a high chief in the society who has lived out the portion of his life will be accorded certain burial rites which include the killing of a fowl which is called Adie-Irano. This fowl is used to clear the way for the deceased so that he could be accepted to join the family- ancestral spirits. As the name goes, Adie-Irano the ritual "fowl that buys the road" for the deceased. This fowl is then immolated at the end of professional journey of the undertaker.

Before the corpse is finally intered, it will be washed thoroughly. Sometimes the hair of the male deceased is shaved while the female's is plaited or weaved.  After the deceased has been washed.  It will then be wrapped in grave clothes.  Thereafter, the actual burial is taken place for the deceased smooth transition to the world beyond.

In the case of accidental death, it is believed that the soul of the deceased is troubled and thereby needs to be  pacified. Certain herbal concoction with the snail are prepared by the Babalawo and then sprinkled on the floor of the deceased's house and even his grave.  The significance of snail here is it's soothing and specifying efficacy. This they believe will put the troubled soul at rest so that it could have a smooth journey to the next world. 

Oloye Fakunle Oyesanya

Extracted from: Orunmila Magazine, December 2000.