Reading Notes: Nigeria, Part B

Nigeria unit

Why Dead People are Buried
(Story source: Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).)

• In the beginning, the Creator made men, woman, and animals
• Everyone lived in the creation land
• This Creator was a very kind chief that felt sorry when people died
• Because of this, the Creator told his top messenger (the dog) to spread the message that anyone who died should be placed in a compound and left on the ground to be covered with wood ashes
• Then after twenty four hours, they were to become alive again
• So, the dog went to deliver the message
• After traveling for half of a day, the dog became extremely tired and hungry
• As he travelled by the house of an old woman, he looked inside and saw a bone with meat on it on the ground
• He went in and ate the bone, and then he went to sleep 
• He forgot about delivering the message from the Creator
• When the dog did not return for quite some time, the Creator sent out a back-up messenger that would go and share his message
• But, the sheep was foolish and stopped to eat some grass on the way and forgot what the message was that the Creator had sent him out to deliver
• After eating however, he began spreading the message but it was not the same message that the Creator had given him
• He told the people that all of the dead bodies should be buried under the dirt
• After the sheep had covered some ground, the dog remembered his message and began to share the correct message to the people
• The people didn't believe him because they had already heard something different from the sheep
• So, they ignored him and did not believe him
• Consequently, all dead bodies are now buried under the dirt
• If it weren't for the dog, dead people may still be alive...

(Sheep in profile on a ridge line. Source: Wikimedia Commons)