By MCPHILIPS NWACHUKWU
Readers of this review will wonder at what makes funeral, which in its deep African sense is seen to be a harbinger of pain, anguish and sorrow. Surprisingly, burial at some levels provide rich and deep cultural, religious and scholarly aesthetics, such that are embodied in Damian Opata’s brilliant offering on the subject of death and burial as captured in the book, Faith, Culture &Individual Freedom.

Revolving round 2010 traditional burial of Opata’s parents, the book chronicles an ugly account of crises of faith interest that ensued between the author’s family and the catholic parish of Lejja in Nsukka Diocese over the burial of the author’s parents supposedly dead as traditionalists.

According to the account, while the children of the deceased wished to bury their dead parents according to the faith, which they believed in and practiced and in line with the dictates of culture and tradition of Nsukka people, the Catholic church at Lejja, through the action of an over zealous parish priest, Reverend Father Asadu preferred that the burial be done in the catholic way.

As the family disobeyed the church and went ahead to bury their deceased parents in the way that seemed to them convincingly traditional carrying out all the ritual exigencies demanded of such Igbo burial rites, the Church on the instruction of the parish priest of Lejja   decided to impose an ultimate penalty of ostracisation not only on the Opata’s family, but also on all the other catholic members of the Lejja parish that attended the burial to sympathize with the bereaved family.

While the account tries to justify the option of the author in going about the burial of his dead parents in the traditional way, it equally opens up a number of other interesting issues bothering on burial rites, acceptance, freedom and culture conflict.

Most interestingly, Opata’s book provides a rich template on the pattern of Igbo burial, which is now subsumed in the religious frivolities of the Christian churches. It also provides logical account of the kinds of ritual exigencies undertaken for the burial of one’s parents in the Igbo culture areas and why such rituals are undertaken.

Through the account of the book, the reader is led into the Igbo world view about death and death/ancestors relationship and why certain cultural expectations are to be met during the burial of dead old man or woman.

Faith, Culture &Individual Freedom is also employed by the author to challenge the position of the Lejja parish Priest, who pronounced punishment of ostracisation on his family and families of other catholic members of the community that attended the said burial and therefore argues that through that action that the church deliberately and outrageously infringed on their human rights.

In a country with a constitution that provides for right to religion and  lawful association, the book further argues that the catholic church at Lejja has no right what so ever to detect for his family or for any other persons the faith to profess and how to profess it.

In presenting his case, the author, Opata exhumes authorities ranging from history, literature, ecumenical and canon laws with which he challenged the position of the Catholic Church and her priest over their interference in his own chosen religious faith.

Quoting copiously from the Bible, Opata’s book raises critical question about the Catholic Church’s position on inculturation and wonders whether the inculturation campaign takes into consideration important developments in African traditional practices.

Opata’s Faith, Culture& Individual Freedom, though written from the point of displeasure with positions does not however smack of anger. It is a book handled and written with the best of intention and the arguments presented in the manner of engaging intellectual tradition with the view to providing new materials and new insights into the study of African traditional religion and Igbo funeral aesthetics.