"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it."

                   UMUONUNAKA WOMEN The Umuonunaka women, a voluntary kindred group of Umuobasi-Isiama Afara-Ukwu, comprises married women or wives inducted into the group to manage local community affairs. They focus on settling minor kindred issues like marriage, burial, and related matters. Recently, they released a statement boycotting my mother's burial, claiming they were denied access to her during her illness. My elder brother, younger sister, and I were implicated, which surprised me as I was accused of a crime I did not commit. Investigation revealed Ikechi was approached by the women to visit our deceased mother but did not oblige, citing a unanimous family decision to keep her away from public view. Ikechi's disrespectful utterances escalated the situation. De Uche, a respected elder, intervened, meeting with the women's leader to pacify them and reverse their decision. Auntie Ejituru also intervened, and toge...

FRACTURED FAMILY                          " BURIAL"                            BURIAL Our mother's pre-burial arrangements, like our father's and grandmother's, were veiled in contention. Yet, as expected, harmony prevailed, paving the way for her dignified sendoff. Culture, a dominant motif in our lives, follows us from cradle to grave. As I have often lamented, culture can be a shameless donkey – stubborn, unfair, and resistant to change. My maternal kinsmen's demands seemed to echo this sentiment, as they treated our mother's burial as a second traditional marriage, according to their custom. Their exorbitant pre-burial demands were astronomical, threatening to stall the burial rites. We visited our maternal home, a select group bearing the weight of negotiation, to trim the endl...

              THE FINAL FAREWELL In the wee hours of the morning of 1st August, 2025, the sky was somber, reflecting the gravity of death, as the nightingale, Late Madam Magdalene Chinyere Beatrice Ijebuonwu, flew over the horizon of death and never to return to the land of the living. This gloomy day ushered in unimaginable grief and sorrow laced with unconsolable heartache. Two months after her swan flight to the great beyond, today, 23rd October, 2025, marks her actual final journey to rest in the bosom of her creator. The bereaved has recovered her remains from the deadhouse and taken them to her matrimonial and ancestral home. The body has moved to the church, St. Anthony's Catholic Church Ndagbo Isiama Afara-Ukwu, for a requiem, and lay in state for the viewing of loved ones, relatives, friends, and fiends alike. And finally, she was committed to mother earth. It was a dignified valediction. Entertainment of sympathizers ensued. There...