Your father’s wish to be cremated must be respected

Your question raises at least two issues which deserve wider discussion in our society. On the one hand, we are required to address your father’s wishes.

Put another way, we must discuss and hopefully agree on how to deal with the clear wishes of members of the family, in particular when they seem to cross cultural boundaries.

The second matter you raise is to do with cremation, and whether Africans are ready to embrace this very hygienic and cheap method of disposal of bodies.

When the late Archbishop Manasses Kuria was cremated, a heated debate ensued, with some people expressing shock and horror at what they saw as a most unchristian act of dealing with the dead.

But others like former Attorney- General Charles Njonjo saw it as an act of leadership by the late bishop.

It is not a secret that Mr. Njonjo favours cremation as a method of disposal of the dead. More recently, the Nobel Prize Laureate ,Prof Wangari Maathai, was cremated and as in the case of the bishop, raising many questions among Kenyans with some arguing that the practice is not African, while others said it was not Christian.

Among the Kikuyu for instance, and until relatively recently, the preferred disposal method was to leave the dead to the hyenas at night.

It is only with the advent of Christianity that the burial practices of the Agikuyu changed.

There is also a cultural belief among the Luo people that the body of the dead must be buried at the same place as his placenta.

For that reason, a man who dies in Lamu and whose placenta was buried in Uyoma must be transported at great expense to family and friends to his resting place, or else, his spirit will continue to wonder forever.

And that could be why Prime Minister Raila Odinga once asked Kenyans to moderate expenses for and around death.

Look at the case of the Egyptians. For them, the high and mighty could only be buried in pyramids together with their gold and silver to ensure that they go to the next life in great comfort.

Islam has very clear regulations on the disposal of the dead. Burial must take place within 24 hours— a reasonable and hygienic method in the very hot area from where Islam is said to have originated
The Hindu, possibly because of population pressure, have for many years cremated the dead.

From the foregoing, it will be evident that at different times in the history of different civilisations method of disposal of the dead have differed, but in many cases commonsense has prevailed and customs have changed to fit the times.

For example, when people lived near where their placenta was buried, it was easy to put the two together.

Now that many have moved far away from their placenta, the logic of this custom is put to question.

Because there are few hyenas around and because of demands of hygiene, leaving the dead to the hyenas is not an option in urban areas and dead must be disposed of in a different way.

My suspicion is that your father has looked at all the options in disunion here, and has decided not only to be a leader of Kenyans in death, but also to keep expenses down.

It is possible that in his mind, he is clear that the body is merely a vehicle that carries his spirit and that at the point of death.

It is the spirit that departs to a better place leaving the vehicle (body) as an empty shell to be disposed of by way of cremators, which is the Latin word for cremation meaning to burn up.

Coming back to the first issue, as long as your father is in full charge and control of his mental faculties when he made the request to be cremated, your duty is to obey and respect his wishes.