wy we bury people

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

One of the many mysteries of the world has always doing to be death. Why do we die, who decides our death, and why do we do the rituals we do after we are dead? One ritual that is emphasized in a Nigerian tale titled Why Dead People are Buried tells a story of just why that is. Here the Creator gives dog a message to tell the people that whenever anyone dies the body was to be placed in the compound, and wood ashes were to be thrown over it; that the dead body was to be left on the ground, and in twenty-four hours it would become alive again. He sends him off then our story begins.

    Along the way the dog who was tired from his journey saw a bone in a woman’s house and made it his meal and with this he forgot entirely the message he was sent to deliver. In turn the Creator gave the same message to a sheep to tell the people after the dog did not return. The foolish sheep began to graze in the fields and he too forgot the message he was sent to deliver. When he finally remembered what he thought was the message he told the people whenever anyone died they should be buried underneath the ground.

            Now Dog who happened to remember his task went to tell the people what they must do, everyone did not believe him because sheep had  already told them the wrong information. In the end dog became untrustworthy as a messenger and people are forever buried in the ground after they die.

This story gives an interesting take on this situation. Now if the Creator wanted a message to be told, why didn’t he just do so himself? Also when he realized that people were doing the incorrect thing when people died, why didn’t he correct it, or are we the victims of our own choices and decisions? Are we guided by the word of God yet we make the final decisions in our own lives? The story can be viewed from many different angles but however you look at it, the story does hold true, when people die we do bury them in the ground, that’s the way it will always be regardless of the reason why we do it.