Looking at Ghana, one can see how far we have come of age in the already globalised world economy. At almost 50 years post independence, most countries in the developing world similar to Ghana will boast of economic maturity and stability, striving to follow up the ladder of the industrialised world. Despite our turbulent history of numerous coup detats, we can still call ourselves a proud and fortunate nation because we have stability and are striving to catch up with countries like Malaysia who gained independence at about the time we did. Our nation indeed has bright prospects if we can overcome issues in our society.
Ghana has gradually drifted towards a society of funeral lovers other than lovers of life. Growing up on the pleasant shores of our great motherland, I have noticed that our flare for funerals has taken a sky rocketing trend. I mean no disrespect to my brothers and sisters who have joined on the bandwagon of this new found festive galore.
Life and its course The life of an individual has three main significant periods; birth, adulthood with marriage and finally death. The former two are times of great joy and festivities while the latter a time of sadness, sorrow and mourning. Obviously we ought to celebrate the life of someone who had lived a good ripe age because this is surely a great blessing. The loss of a dear or loved one is not an easy time in any individual’s life or that of the family. I have personally experienced it and can attest to the fact that if I had the power to change things, death would have been one of the priorities of this change. This unfortunately is beyond me.
Our growing society Ghanaians have in the last couple of years developed an exorbitant taste for funerals. Gone are the times when I knew the death of an individual was a time to reflect and think of that loss. The vacuum created by death can never be filled. Irrespective of how insignificant or wicked the person may have been, almost everyone in unison felt the sorrow and lived it as such. I do not advocate we stop celebrating peoples life. Far from that but it is the way we have made it that causes much concern.
Funerals in Ghana today is a business opportunity, a time to eat and drink, find a husband or wife, and spend lavishly on parties as though it were some form of birthday party or wedding celebration. To me the popularity of funerals has fast outpaced that of birth and other festive periods in our lives.
I do not want to believe that our society has now become a showpiece for funeral parties neither do I not want to believe that people are just praying for an opportunity for someone to die so they can celebrate.
Patterns of our funerals Over weekends, our cities are packed with funeral makers, eating, drinking, dancing and making merry. Some have gone as far as even making billboards for the occasion to mention a few. I can go on and on but what is the moral justification? Are we happy that someone dies, or do we pray that people die so another “party” gets on the way? People on their sick beds are proclaimed dead by relations even before they die. Infact scenes between the family of the sick or dying person can be so nasty and distasteful that it can result in discord among families.
We may not have thought how much the money spent on the funerals could have gone a long way to make the life of the dead person worthwhile while they were alive. I have been surprised to see what grand funerals are organised for individuals who were completely neglected while they were alive. In their lifetime, times of need were completely neglected or ignored yet they are only shown love when they die signified by grand funeral ceremonies.
Funerals have indeed become a competition with people trying to outdo each other, mostly ending in huge debts. What message are we getting across to our children who see our way of life at funerals compared to how we care for the living. A ‘white’ friend of mine not too long ago asked me why we had so many grand funerals while most of us were so poor. This is really a mind and soul searching question which I wish each individual Ghanaian could answer for him or herself
We need to change I do not advocate that we have no funerals. Far be it because people will die and will need to be buried. That is the way of life and nature. What I am implying here is that we change our mindset. We need to be dignified and change our attitude to the way we have made funerals.
We need to take a critical look at how we view the living. Diverting our resources to care for the living instead of craving for death and having grand funerals is one way to start changing our society. We need to look at avenues of societal progress and our lavish funeral lives is certainly not one of them. Presently we are centuries behind the developed world. While they think of settling man in space we are stuck where we were several decades ago not making progress.
I believe that if we completely accept and embrace this culture it will stay with us and we will be stuck in the 19th century instead of edging with competition into the 22nd century.
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
