Walk with me

In my response to this prompt, I would like to take us very far into a traditional practice that is still being practiced, and each time I think about it, I keep wondering…

In my hometown, there is an age grade that handles a certain set of activities in the town, and any youth who grows into that age grade automatically gets enlisted. If a youth wants to play hard and refuses to identify with the age grade in the different families, the youth gets fined heavily.

When I was still at home, my dad happened to be among the leaders of the group. They were the ones who gave directives to the younger ones.

One of the activities this group is involved in is burial. Yes, it is mandatory in the land that the age grade handles the burial of the deceased. The burial here mainly involves digging the grave and laying the corpse in the ground in the traditional way.

Because my dad was a leader at the time, each time a burial was done, the group would assemble in our compound, where they made a lot of noise all through the evening and into the night of that day.

One day, I got curious and went to check one of their bags, which they kept at a corner in the room where we stocked things. I found hand gloves of different sizes, knives, and other items. I went on to ask my dad what they used the hand gloves and other tools for, because I had been to burial grounds and had never seen people use such items.

He went on to tell me that the ones I had been seeing were the simplest of their tasks, and that there were cases where they made use of hand gloves, scissors, razors, and knives.

My curiosity got to its peak, so I asked further.

Guess what?

That was when I learned that a dead pregnant woman cannot be buried in one grave. The baby must be separated from the mother’s womb before burial. Unbelievable, right?

Did you get where the knives, hand gloves, and scissors are used for?

Let me stop here before this post gets into another realm.

Thanks for reading.

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