Our Culture, Our Heritage And Inheritance

We all belong to one ethics group or the other. I'm from Nigeria and we have diverse cultural traditions that vary among the different ethnic groups. There are practical beliefs that are normal in one community and it is considered as a great taboo in another, because each of these communities has their own unique heritage and cultural beliefs, which most times are different from their neighborhood communities. Although there has been a drastic change in education, people have been exposed to light and have been enlightened, some people still love the belief of these traditions and sometimes this leads them to disregard the belief and feelings of others.

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Growing up I can to hear of a story that has been an used to set an example for many, a man who had four children from different mothers died and just as death is not always something we do expect, now for the fact that this was a polygamous family there's always this fight when it comes to sharing of inheritance especially in a case there there was no will to direct the other of sharing. Here in Nigeria you will mostly see family members fight for inheritance like houses, cars, money that was saved in banks and other things like that.

The woman who was officially married to the man has access to the man's wealth and all the details to his bank account, when it was time to share the wealth of the man, according to their traditions all the properties possessed by the man most be revealed and brought to the family council meeting for proper sharing, but in this case this woman decided to keep a part of this man's money that was in the Bank to herself and children, this lead to argument and fighting between the man's first children and the official wife and children, According to traditions when there is case like that where trust is the issue, the two parties or the accused person will have to swear by the gods and take some oath to prove that he/she is guilty.

According to my mom, this woman instead of telling the truth that she has hide some of the man's property for herself and her children, had the man to swear by the gods and took the oath of innocency, well the properties were shared, the man's burial was done and dusted and everyone went back to their different houses, since there is a law that when you swear the oath of innocency and you are guilty you will be terribly sick and start getting fat than the usual body fat, this was what happened to this woman, before she could realize it and returned the properties to the family council shrine to plead for mercy it was too late, because the law have it that when you swear before the gods and you are guilty you will surely die and that was the end of that woman. She died leaving all the inheritance she tried to hide for herself and family, she couldn't live to enjoy those possessions.

Listening to this story, I was scared at some point, but this is the belief system of some people in this part of the world, when you lie you will be taken to the shrine to swear. One of the things that really captures my attention in this story was that this woman didn't live to enjoy this wealth and that means, there is really nothing in this world to fight for, when it comes to inheritance we should not kill ourselves because when there is live, there is hope and you can still possess wealth if there is life, there are families today who are not in peace because of inheritance and it has moved from just the family to affecting the society and the world at large.

As we reflect on these cultural practices, and beliefs, it's essential for us to recognize the need for evolution and adaptation to ensure fairness and equity within families.

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