The Diary Game Season 3|| Traveling from Abia State to Imo State

Introduction

Welcome to my blog once again friends. I have been away for the past few days courtesy of the fact that I traveled and so there was no chance and steady network to blog on this platform. I am back to base at the moment. I am particularly happy that we all are still alive and blogging, life is indeed a gift from the almighty God.

In this post, I intend to share my travel experience last week. The journey was basically for the burial of a close relative and so it is important that I come home for the funeral. I left the house here in Aba, as early as 7am and made my way to the Aba motor park where I will board a vehicle going to my hometown.

Luckily, when I got to the park, it was remaining just one passenger to complete the vehicle, so I bought a ticket and completed the passengers, in a matter of minutes, the vehicle took off: this was the beginning of the journey. The vehicle was a sienna bus and the driver- a young man.

Since it was morning time, the road was somehow free and we plied through the Osisioma flyover and on to the express road leading to Umueka junction. Then we had to divert left to the Owerrinta axis passing through the Nigerian Navy Centre and then the Imo River. Imo River is the boundary between Imo state and Abia state. Once you cross it, it means that you have entered Imo state which is my destination.

Getting Home

Now we have entered Imo state proper, atleast the journey is halved 😊. And surely, in a matter of an hour or so, i would be home(I said to myself). Finally we got to my hometown. It was a great experience to home after a long while. I was welcomed by my parents. And I was served food. In a short while, the ambulance carrying the corpse arrived and so I left to the venue to observe the lying in state. After a few minutes of the lying in state, the corpse was taken to the church for the burial mass.

After about 2 hours of the burial mass, the corpse was returned to the family house for interment. The reverend father in company of a few clergy said a prayer and song at the grave side, and the coffin was lowered down the dugged grave. This moment of lowering the coffin attracted tears and outcry by the family members and other relatives and friends. Gradually, the coffin was covered with sand, with funeral hymns on the lips of the choir. Now, it is obvious that the death is painful, seeing the coffin covered completely with sand.

At the Grave Site

Food and drinks were served to everyone and members of all the unions that the deceased belong to while he was alive , came one after the other to reel out condolence speeches/messages and gave the immediate family members, his rites.

Now the priest and other clergymen are gone. It is now time to perform the traditional rites according to our custom. When a man dies in my hometown, custom demands that the first son will kill a goat in the public space. Infact, this goat killing ritual is always the high point of the burial, because everyone wants to watch it. Remember, it is a tradition.

So when it was time for the goat killing ritual all the sons of the dead man will line up in a single file, with the first son holding a long sharp cutlass, they will dance to the tune of the local drummers called ese drummers. Once the ese drummers start playing the drum, the dance starts with the first son holding the cutlass and the goat and the other male siblings will follow suit. At a point, the sound of the drum will change which signifies that it is time to kill the goat, he will face the crowd and then kill the goat according to the tradition.👇

Performing the Traditional Rite

Everyone will hail him and shout in praise as he drops the bleeding goat on the ground. Anyone that has money will spray him as a form of appreciation. Then, they would dance to the ese drum once again to mark the end of the ritual. Now the family members can go and rest, while the goat would be roasted and shared to the kinsmen and other registered male adults in the village.

At this point, the weather is getting dark because it is almost late. I then decided to enter my room, undressed and showered. The man was given a befitting burial, that's the normal thing expected of the family. I will drop my pen here, thank you for reading.

Photo Gallery During the Traditional Rites