Nigerian Man, @MrBure, Recounts How He Saved His Mum From Harmful Traditional Practice During His Dad’s Funeral
A truly inspiring and heartwarming story has been shared by a Nigerian man who took to his Twitter handle, @MrBure, to recount his experience with his kinsmen during the funeral of his late father.
It is customary in some parts of Nigeria to have a woman’s head shaven as part of funeral rites of her deceased husband. @MrBure obviously is from one of such areas where such practice holds sway. In his narration, he told of how he heard his paternal aunts discussing how they were going to have to shave off his mother’s hair by themselves, if the widow failed to do so on her own volition.
He said the extended family had deemed him the reasonable one of his siblings because of how tactical he had been to the many ridiculous requests of his kinsmen during the funeral rites, but things came to a head when talks about forcibly shaving his mother’s hair became a major distraction.
He said he looked the emissary who was sent to deliver the verdict on his bereaved mother’s hair and calmly but coldly told her the words: “Go and tell them two things: 1) Our grandfather’s house isn’t far from here; and 2) It’s a good thing we’re already in the mood for burials.”
Checking up on his widowed mum a short while later, to make sure no one had come to harass her about shaving her head, his mother pulled him close in an embrace stating how protected and loved she felt and of course reassuring him that she had been left alone.
Read his full account below:
During my dad’s funeral, I heard that my aunts were talking about my mum’s hair and the cutting thereof. They were saying something along the lines of, “If she refuses to cut it herself, we will come and cut it for her.” Now, in the lead up to the funeral, I somehow became seen as the “reasonable” one amongst my siblings, so they tended to pass their most ridiculous requests to me instead of my brothers. And maybe I helped create that situation because I’d always listen and then say I’d see what could be done.
One time, an uncle came to me and asked for the keys to the house in the village on account of my dad promising him he’d always have a room there. I listened, and then told him I couldn’t give him the keys because we had people coming from all over for the funeral and we needed all the room we could spare. You know, reasonable like. I could have told him to geddifok out of my face with that nonsense, but Actor always said that people could call him stubborn, but nobody could ever say he was rude, and so I tried not to be rude.
Anyway, here I am now, and they’re talking about forcibly shaving my mother’s hair. So, I turned to their emissary and calmly said, “Go and tell them two things: 1) Our grandfather’s house isn’t far from here; and 2) It’s a good thing we’re already in the mood for burials.”
Maybe it was the look in my eye, maybe it was that I didn’t raise my voice when I said it, but the fellow scrambled off like a thousand demons were after him. I never heard talk about my mother’s hair again after that, and the uncles and aunts began giving me a very wide berth
I went to my mum to ask her if anyone had talked about her hair and before I could ask, she hugged me and said, “They didn’t know I brought my egbe wagers with me.” And then she laughed, and I laughed too because my own mum had just basically called me a tout. I was so proud.
See the original thread below:
During my dad's funeral, I heard that my aunts were talking about my mum's hair and the cutting thereof. They were saying something along the lines of, "If she refuses to cut it herself, we will come and cut it for her."
Now, in the lead up to the funeral, I somehow became seen— Maitre D'Image Pushkin (@MrBure) June 19, 2019