ANALISIS HISTORICO DE LAS FINANZAS MUNICIPALES.

Funeral institution is well developed among the Urhobo. Nabofa,523 Erhueh524 and Adogbo525 identified Urhobo belief in ‘cyclic’ life pattern,rotating from akpọ to erivwin

518 _Ibid. 519 _{Ibid., 253.}

520 _{Tanure Ojaide, ‘How the Urhobo People See the World through Art,’ in Where Gods and Mortals}

Meet: Continuity and Renewal Urhobo Art, 78.

521 _{Samuel U. Erivwo, ‘Urhobo Traditional Beliefs and Values,’ 214.} 522 _{Ibid., 216.}

523 _{M. Y. Nabofa, ‘Reincarnation: The Doctrine of Heredity and Hope in Urhobo Culture,’ in Studies}

In Urhobo Culture, ed. Peter P. Ekeh, 288–298: 288.

524 _{Anthony O. Erhueh, ‘Image of God in man: Dialogue between Christianity and Urhobo}

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and back to akpọ526 continuously without end. Funeral rites are important to the Urhobo because they believe that the ‘elaborate burial rites’ for a person who must ‘have lived well’ and ‘died well,’ procures for him or her a blissful abode among the ẹsẹmọ,527 and also qualifies him or her for re-incarnation into the family.528 Adogbo stated that,

The position of an individual [in erivwin] depends on how well he had lived in the physical world. Those who lived good life, free of sins, died at old age and are given appropriate funeral rites, occupy prominent positions in the land of the dead. On the other hand, those who are evil are banished from the spirit world to the ‘bad bush’ [aghwa rode] where they live a frustrated and restless life. They become malignant spirits who are responsible for some of the calamities (such as epidemics, drought etc.) of the living.529

The above quotation shows that, in Urhobo understanding, a person who lived well and long still needed an ‘appropriate funeral rites’ to enter rest. Since it is expected as cultural role of children to work in the best interest of their parents, every Urhobo person therefore desires to have responsible child (ren). Moreso, only the biological children are allowed to slaughter ẹvwe ehun by Urhobo tradition and this practice heightens the significance of children in Urhobo community and in its burial rites.

The metaphor of ‘going home’530 for death is commonly used among the Urhobo. Therefore death is treated as a journey to a far place, erivwin, and the funeral process becomes the act of equipping the deceased for the journey. This concept serves as the reason for the show of solidarity by the extended family and the community through rituals. Ilega explained the food sacrifice in Urhobo funerals as food offered for the

525 _{Adogbo, ‘The Signification of Rituals of Destiny among the Urhobo,’ 83–84.} 526 _{Nabofa, ‘Reincarnation,’ 293.}

527 _{Ibid., 288.} 528 _{Ibid., 296.}

529 _{Adogbo, ‘The Signification of Rituals of Destiny among the Urhobo,’ 83–84.} 530 _{Nabofa, ‘Reincarnation: The Doctrine of Heredity and Hope in Urhobo Culture,’ 290.}

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journey.531 Consequently the commiserating community creates the atmosphere of togetherness between the dead and the living;532 the presence of the deceased with the guild of ẹsẹmọ on one the hand and with the community on the other hand. The Urhobo people believe that the deceased is happy to see the crowd that gather on his/her behalf and with the family in time of bereavement. In this scenario, only the deceased and obuepha (‘medicine men’) are capable of seeing erivwin and akpọ at the same time. Since this research is on funeral rites, other details are reserved for Chapters 7–9, but it is important to identify the findings of the scholars thus considered on the Nigerian and Urhobo rites of passage.

It is obvious from the contributions of Imasogie, Enyioha, Ishola and Agberia, that they agreed with earlier anthropological theorists like van Gennep and Turner on rites of passage in the following ways. One, rites of passage is a journey-like process. The ọpha transports a boy or a girl to adulthood, while ẹrhuẹrhẹ (‘burial’) aids the deceased as he or she travels from akpọ and erivwin. Two, it has three phases of separation, transition, and reintegration. Urhobo rites of ọpha and ẹrhuẹrhẹ are usually in two stages. The ọpha consists of ọmọtẹ eyanvwọ and eki-eruo (‘bridal procession, into market’)533 while the funeral comprises of ebrovwiotor and ẹrhuẹrhẹ.534 The two stages point to the separation and integration phases in rites of passage respectively. For instance, ọpha separates from childhood experiences and joins the adult life. In like manner, the deceased leaves the earthly family for the company of the ancestors and simultaneously, the bereaved change their position from before and after the demise. Between the starting point and

531 _{Ilega, Gideon M. Urhobo and the God’s Kingdom Society in Nigeria, 13.}

532 _{Nabofa, ‘Reincarnation: The Doctrine of Heredity and Hope in Urhobo Culture,’ 291.}

533 _{Agberia, ‘Aesthetics and Rituals of the Opha Ceremony among the Urhobo People,’ 252–254.} 534 _{Queen Okoroleju, ‘Traditional Burials and their Problems in Agbarha Sub-Cultural Unit’ (B. A.}

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the destination is the transitional phase called ‘liminal period’ and ‘communitas’ by Turner. The second stage in each of the rites is expensive and could be postponed until the people are much financially capable.535

Three, the rituals of Urhobo rites of passage fit Victor Turner’s description of ritual as ‘an aggregation of symbols,’536 which are ‘storage units’ of ‘maximum amount of information.’537 The symbols could be in form of ‘sacred articles (relics, masks, instruments, "what is shown,"), actions (dancing, "what is done") and instructions (mythical history, "what is said"),’538 and these symbols point to spiritual realities. For instance, in Urhobo funeral, ihurhẹ is a sacred article representing the ancestor. Expressions like o kporo re jẹga (‘he has gone to unforbiden land’), o kpo re (‘he has gone home’), or o vwerhẹ (‘he has slept’) do not carry literal meanings but symbolic that the person under reference has died. The absence of crying, or announcement by word or conduct until certain things are done during the demise of a king are also symbolic actions with a message that king is superhuman.539 Bruce Onobrakpeya (1932–) also explained certain colour symbols in Urhobo funeral rites. He emphasised the generous use of ‘white’ clour to symbolise celebration of a fulfilled life and a wish of smooth voyage for the deceased.540The items in white colour during Urhobo funeral rites include the ọmọshare r’ọkpako’s dress, the okpo oyibo with which the deceased is

535 _{Agberia, ‘Aesthetics and Rituals of the Opha Ceremony among the Urhobo People,’ 251.} 536 _{Turner, The Drums of Affliction, 2.}

537 _{Ibid., 1.}

538 _Turner,

The forest of symbols: Aspects of Ndembu ritual (Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1967), 99f.

539 _{Respondent 5.}

540 _{Bruce Onobrakpeya, ‘Color Symbolism in Urhobo Art,’ in Where Gods and Mortals Meet:}

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wrapped, the ‘yellowish,’ (almost white) palm fronds and the ọrhe (‘white river bank chalk’) used to worship the ancestors and other deities.541

Others factors emphasised by Nigerian and Urhobo scholars include integration within and between the physical and spiritual realms of existence. The ọpha reinforces the Urhobo ‘tradition of age grade social system’ and promotes community wellbeing and functionality. The ẹrhuẹrhẹ also provides the link between akpọ and erivwin, the living and the dead, the natural and supernatural, and thus creates a sense of continuity instead of an abrupt end. In other words, Urhobo funeral rituals unite the deceased and the ancestors on one hand, and integrate the bereaved into the rest members of the family and the community on the other hand. The ebrovwiotor is the rite of separation while ẹrhuẹrẹ is the rite of integration for the deceased without which there is danger for both the dead and the living because ‘the ghost of the deceased, unable to gain admission into the community of the departed […] may haunt the family.’542 It is dangerous for the dead because not being ‘incorporated into the ancestral spirit-community, he [or she] becomes a ghost [which] is to be cut off from [his or her] family [and] cannot be invoked at the ancestral shrine.’543 Here lies the difference with the Nigerian Baptist funeral rites with its focus only on the bereaved, not the deceased and on the rites of separation not incorporation for the deceased. The Urhobo rites care for both the bereaved and the deceased passing through all the three stages of separation, transition and reintegration. And it is important to note that the bereaved are spiritually and emotionally at peace when they have the assurance that the ritual needs of their departed member(s) are adequately met. The Nigerian Baptist explanation is that ‘when a person dies, his opportunity to exist here on earth comes to an end but his life continues in

541 _Ibid.

542 _{Imasogie, African Traditional Religion, 63.} 543 _{Ibid., 65.}

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another world in a status consigned to him by God based on the life he lived on earth.’544 Having examined Urhobo ọpha and ẹrhuẹrhẹ separately, it is proper to enumerate their meeting points.