COVID-19 and the Cultural Challenges of the Rights of Contemporary African Ancestors

Benson Ohihon Igboin ()
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Benson Ohihon Igboin: Adekunle Ajasin University

Chapter Chapter 13 in Socioeconomic Dynamics of the COVID-19 Crisis, 2022, pp 269-288 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The emergence of COVID-19 has disrupted almost every aspect of human life globally. The first reaction of various governments was to place restriction on human movement, which raised questions about the right of free movement. While scientists and sociologists have mostly focused on human health, economic and political situations of nations in panic, little or no attention has been paid to the cultural rights of the dead, particularly from the African perspective that believes in the hereafter of the dead as ancestors or as legends. This chapter thus intervenes in this gap by critically analysing the rights of the African ancestors, particularly those that transited in the fight against the pandemic. Phenomenological methods are used to elicit data, which are subjected to cosmotheandric theory. It argues that since proper burial is a prerequisite for attaining the status of ancestorhood and it can be conducted via e-burial processes, it would then be reasonable to adopt it at this moment of the pandemic in order to keep the living safe from the novel coronavirus and accord the dead their rights.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ancestors; e-burial; Rights; Grave; Cremation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-030-89996-7_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89996-7_13

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