Death, corpses and funerals; probably, no-go topics to pursue. But this week, we will go after one of them – the trend of extended refrigeration of corpses and allowing decomposition to occur before burial. Let’s yank this stinky matter up to the surface and shoot it straight so we can resolve this increasingly ridiculous phenomenon in our society.
On the surface, this topic appears to be a gloomy subject matter but it is one of the run-away issues that is going down, sinking fast, degenerating, and needs to be knocked right back up. Come with me please, for a brief but cold examination of this matter. I will be gentle. “I promise on my honour, to be…”
You are born. You live. You die. That is the order of nature. Imagine trying to delay nature by delaying child birth! Picture this: all tactics unethical and unnatural adopted to delay a pregnant woman from giving birth because the family is not ready for a grand “out-dooring.”
A husband tells his wife: “Akos, please wait for two months for my back-pay to enable us organize an impressive welcoming for the baby.” We do not do that. Yet, we have unquestioningly adopted the ridiculous habit of pushing the dead into refrigerators for prolonged periods, while we plan elaborate burials and funerals. That is unnatural. It is unsanitary. We forget that it is not called a “corpse” for nothing! A corpse is not useful or viable no matter how much we try to force it.
We place the dead very high on the agenda, soak in grief and compassion to undo our very purpose for living. We heighten the drama and immediacy of the dead by holding on to the corpse. This might be a way to stay in touch with our own mortality while we trivialize our lives. On the subconscious level, it could be our excuse designed to rob us of the opportunity to live and to thrive.
Muslims seem to have a better grip over this matter; Christians are in a sorry state. Wiser counsel must therefore prevail. Although Muslims have access to the same refrigeration opportunities, they promptly bury their dead. Surprisingly, the two religions are sibling faiths that originated from the same region of the world. Ghana is a predominantly Christian country; some even pride themselves to be super-Christians. The church and Christiandom must therefore initiate a national conversation on this subject matter and come up with solutions.
Enduring Questions: What is the matter with us Christians in Ghana? What kind of Christianity is this? What kind of civilization is this? Why are our Christian leaders condoning this? Why do we use funerals to show off non-existent wealth instead of investing in the education of children, our future? Why do we prolong mourning and suffering for the living? On a deeper level, what does that say about us as a people? Isn’t it about time, as a country, we did a cost-benefit analysis of the effects of the funeral craze on national development?
We did not use to wait forever to bury our dead. In the past, you died and loved ones scurried around to bury you. Then later, your funeral was planned and loved ones from far and near travelled for the funeral rites to say final farewells. We did not use to stare at decomposing faces in their stinky grand-standing last-show just to bury them. This increasingly ridiculous act is uncivilized, to say the least. It is NOT our culture. Or, has it become our NEW culture?
We have now invented a funeral torpedo that is eating us up. The need for a corpse to organize a funeral has become amplified. The balance has tipped from ridiculous love for corpses and funerals to downright abuse. Some corpses are kept for months and years, while the senseless grand planning and posturing continues, stressing out loved ones whose responsibility it is to finance a funeral
The typical excuse given is: “Let’s keep the corpse for a while so we can find the money.” That’s a cock-and-bull excuse because delaying a burial only increases the cost and complexity of the funeral. Some extended family members and leeches gladly use it as an ideal opportunity to move in to suck dry the bereaved relatives.
Stories abound. If you buried a relative promptly without doing the forever waiting, you stand the risk of being insulted: “When your father died, didn’t you bury him hurriedly in just a month like a goat?” To which you are not supposed to have a defence. One month of freezing a corpse should in itself be an abominable act but now it is about the minimum. That, in no doubt, signifies a sad deterioration and rottenness in our Christian culture.
A POPE has died in very recent memory. He was buried within five days. Yes, the Pope! Pope John Paul II. More recently, operatic legend Luciano Pavarotti died and was buried within four days. Lest we forget: Jesus the Christ, the one we claim to fashion our lives after, was buried on the same day so he could rise on day three!
Technology appears to be the perpetrator – refrigeration to store corpses. Just because you can do something shouldn’t become the reason to do it! Refrigeration presents convenience, of course. In the so-called developed world where the refrigerator was invented, the dead are buried promptly, as should happen, unless there is the need to conduct forensic investigations into the cause of death. But we unashamedly abuse the refrigerator to clutch on to corpses. It is as if we try to live vicariously through the dead.
As a result, we attend funerals to mourn over de-frosted corpses, decaying corpses, stinky corpses, scary corpses, unidentifiable corpses, mutilated and deformed corpses as well as cases of refrigeration and preservation gone badly. Corpses are handled crudely in mortuaries, a phenomenon that takes away the dignity of the dead. It is abusive but the dead cannot speak for themselves. Let us therefore speak loudly for the dead and especially for us, since that is the way we are all going.
While the departed remains in the fridge, nothing much happens with and around living loved ones. The focus is shifted onto the dead. The living wait, perpetually entangled in grief, and drained by the extended funeral drama. The burial is what brings some closure.
We have short life spans. Probably, the logic of extended refrigeration of corpses lies in a deep-seated and unmet need to prolong our lives – after the fact! So if you lived for 46 years, your corpse could be kept for five more years. That quickly puts your age at time of burial at 51! Brilliant! We seem to forget that when you are gone, you are gone.
This trend gives me a certain premonition of an impending ridiculous future when things might degenerate further. Someday, every hamlet, every street, every family will need its own ultra-modern mortuary! Yes, mortuaries must be ultra-modern because it appears to be very important to us to refrigerate corpses for prolonged periods. We would even need to build many more mortuaries than hospitals. Family-heads will be in bigger business. Official job description: Funeral Directors!
+233-208286817; dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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