Abstract:
In Ovoko Akpxrxokwe Igbo, death is easily personified. Ovoko people describe death as (QNWX). They use different concepts in describing the nature of death and how mysterious death is. That was the reason when death occurs; they refer to the situation as using these expressions – “chi eji n’eshushe”, etx atq, ike agwx, oke oshishi adaa, xkwx awxsh[r[ ma ije asha, xta agbakqrx qch[r[ qnx, Mkpxkpq akpq, Qkpqbe iga etc. All these words are expressions used in describing death as something very mysterious. Death is as something that is beyond human understanding in Ovoko- Akpxrxokwe by using some words like these – Qnwu d[ egwu, Qnwushiri ike, Xwa bx eja. Death is also seen as no respecter of person – when it occurs, the Ovoko people will say – qnwx amagh[ Eze, qnwx anagh[ eri ego, qnwx bx ogbu onye mgbe ndx na-aso ya, qnwx amagh[ onye ukwu, qnwu emrie. In Ovoko Akpxrxokwe, they believe in life after death – reincarnation, this they say dialect ndx d[ n’qnwx, this is what they show in their life by names they give to their offspring. They believe in the spirit world, the world of ancestors and the law of Karma. That is the reason they give their children such names like – Ogbonne, Azxbxike, Nnenna, Ogbonna, Ugwuja, Ezeja, Oyodoja etc. They also believe in transformation which they call “life after life” That when this life here on earth ends that life begins again in the spirit world. All these expressions are used to show that the deceased has lived long life that is worthy of emulation. It was also discovered that this type of death causes no harm to the bereaved. The second category of death is called Pre-mature death (qnwx mbxji). Under this type of death, it was discovered that Ovoko people have two sub-types – Qgbanje and Ekagburu. These type of deaths are seen as bad deaths called – Ejq qnwx in Ovoko dialet. Furthermore, in Ovoko Akpxrxokwe, it was discovered that these types of deaths mentioned above demands a lot of ceremonies and rituals to perform. They also believe that rituals performed for the deceased is enactment of myths. They also believed that every ritual, there is a myth behind it in Ovoko land. These rituals are performed mainly for the natural deaths; the one performed for the pre-mature deaths or bad deaths is mainly for cleansing. Some of the ritual for the natural deaths is {da ekwa ritual, {wxshi ritual (final bath of the deceased), ritual for titled men Ozioko, the cleansing ritual for Ozioko, inyo arua ritual for Onyeishi, and Igba qba ritual. It was equally discovered that these rituals are gradually disappearing from Ovoko Akpxrxokwe Igbo and these is due to some factors such as high mortality rate, different belief system, death and the individual, the period of bereavement, mortuary system, poverty, ignorance and migration/emigration. Finally, it was discovered that the mysteries of death in Ovoko Akpxrxokwe has its negative and positive effect to Ovoko Akpxrxokwe people of Igbo.
