Lived Nonreligious Buried Religious: FORB, Death and Humanism in Nigeria -By Leo Igwe

The situation of freedom of religion or belief in relation to death and honoring deceased humanists in Nigeria is quite worrisome. In this piece, I highlight aspects of this situation. The word humanist is used as an umbrella term for non-religious, irreligious, ex-religious non-theistic people who identify sometimes as atheists, agnostics, or nones. The Pew Research Center and the U.S. State Department put the percentage of non-religious people in Nigeria at around 2 percent. But this is a very conservative estimate, a gross underestimation, because non-religiosity elicits significant stigma and hostility across Nigeria. Given the risky situations of humanists in the country, many non-religious people are closeted. The non-religious suffer institutional discrimination, violence, exclusion, and oppression even when they are dead or when mourning. The situation differs from region to region, background to background, class to class. Humanists from Northern Nigeria, those from poor families or areas where Islam is dominant, are worse off. In southern Nigeria, Christians are in the majority, the situation is less severe; nonetheless, at death, most non-religious people are denied secular or humanist funerals. They are buried as religious and given a Christian or Islamic funeral.

As I noted in a piece, religious families usually go against the wishes of non-religious members to be buried in a non-religious way:

“Religious family members act in bad faith. They take joy and glory in burying non-theists in a theistic way. Pious family members give flimsy excuses for dishonoring the memory of irreligious relatives. In some cases, they feign ignorance and claim not to know about any secular, non-religious funeral services. In some cases, religious family members said that humanist relatives had a deathbed conversion; that is, he or she embraced God or accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and savior while on the sickbed”. As I further noted:
“They use the deathbed conversion to shut out humanists and ensure that non religious family members are buried religiously. In a particular case in Kogi state, the born-again Christian wife of a humanist friend did not contact the humanist community when the husband passed. She went ahead and organized a Christian funeral ceremony for him. She claimed that her husband embraced Christianity shortly before he passed away. In another case in Rivers state, the family was divided over the issue of a humanist ceremony. The wife and children acknowledged that their late husband and father was a humanist. They wanted a nonreligious funeral ceremony for him. Meanwhile, some Christian family members vehemently refused. They threatened to violently resist any humanist funeral ceremony. At the end of the day, the family head brokered a compromise. A humanist ceremony was performed while the body was lying in state. And some pastors performed a religious service at the graveside”.

The case of Patrick Naagbanton illustrates the situation of FORB regarding death and honoring deceased members in Nigeria. Mr Naagbanton was a prominent humanist who died in September 2022 following a ghastly motor accident. As I explained in a piece: “A humanist funeral service was proposed, but the ‘family’ rejected it. According to the family spokesperson, Mr J: “We are a Christian family. And we want to bury Patrick in a Christian way”. Meanwhile, Patrick was not a Christian. He was non-religious! So, why bury him in a Christian way when he could actually be buried in a non-religious/humanist way? Patrick was not an atheist in the closet who paid lip service to religion. All his friends and colleagues know his stance on religion. Patrick openly and publicly identified as an atheist and a humanist. He never belonged to any church group. Patrick was a member of the humanist community and actively took part in its activities, including a humanist funeral in 2013. So, why bury Patrick in a Christian way when he was not a Christian? Why give him a religious burial when he could be buried in a non-religious way?” In southern Nigeria, religious believers reject humanist funerals for several reasons: “Many religious persons oppose humanist funeral services because they think that the humanist movement is a satanic cult, or a form of secret society. They demonize humanist ceremonies”.

In northern Nigeria, where Islam is dominant and sharia is implemented, the situation is worse for humanists. As I noted in an article, “There are two places for an atheist in sharia communities: the closet or the grave”. There is no place for humanist mourning and grieving in sharia communities.

Unlike their counterparts from Southern Nigeria, none of the humanists from northern Nigeria that I spoke to in the course of writing this piece knew or had witnessed any non-religious funerals. None anticipated getting a humanist funeral when they die because in northern Nigeria, there is no freedom of religion or belief. Non-religious people were buried in religious (traditional, Christian, or Islamic) ways. They are accorded traditional, christian, or islamic religious funerals. Apostasy and blasphemy are crimes that could lead to execution by the state, long prison sentences, or murder by muslim mobs. One ex-Muslim told me regarding humanists in muslim majority communities: “To the best of my knowledge, they (humanists) are buried as Muslims”.

Some humanists shared their thoughts and concerns about death and mourning, especially if they would be honored as humanists when they pass away or allowed to mourn as humanists. Jidda, an ex-Muslim from Yobe, said: “In the north, if a person dies, the best respect that will be paid to the deceased is a quick burial. The burial is done in accordance with Islamic rites. Before the burial, the deceased will be given a purification bath followed by a congregational prayer that people perform standing throughout the prayer session while the body is laid in front of the crowd. The significance of this rite is that only people who are respected in society will receive the honor of having their funeral attended by many people and prayed to in the manner described by many people. If one’s funeral is attended by many people, one’s family takes pride and joy from it, but it is humiliating to the bereaved to perform a funeral for their deceased loved one that fails to be attended by people. Rich people, Islamic clerics, and those who are witnessed to have dedicated their lives to religion usually have a funeral that is attended by many people who sympathize with their departure. If one is a Muslim but does not devote their life to religious practices, people may sympathize with one’s death but may not really commit themselves to attending their funeral, and such a person’s funeral is characterized by low mourner turnout. But the case is even worse for a person perceived as refusing to pray or entirely denouncing the religion. For such people, even some of their family members hardly attend the funeral, if a funeral is to be arranged for them, except that funerals are not even arranged for such people in most cases. If they have to be buried, their graves will not be dug in the same dignified manner as that of a person who died as a practicing Muslim. A whole will be dug and they will be buried without a purification bath, prayer, or even the clothes made of a white shroud that dead bodies are wrapped in before burial.
If one has family and children, they would be ashamed of this humiliating burial. His children will suffer the consequences and will always be shamed in public for being his children if they find themselves in hostile situations. Living as a humanist in the North and knowing fully well that such a fate awaits me is extremely painful, but what can I do? I can’t force myself to believe something that does not make sense to me because I want my body to be respected after my death?”

Another humanist, an ex-Christian, Ingye Dominic Dooyum, stated: “Death is inevitable, and from an early age, I learned to accept it. When I became a humanist, I fully embraced that realization, especially the understanding that there is no life after death. This awareness helped me pursue my dreams and inspired me to live life to the fullest. However, when I came out of the closet and my family discovered that I did not believe in God or follow any religion, it began to worry me deeply. After the humanist naming ceremony of my first daughter, I started thinking about what would happen when I die. Would my family give me a humanist burial? The kind I truly want and desire? The answer was obvious. I knew they wouldn’t, because my family is deeply religious and strongly opposed to my disbelief in God. No matter what legal documents I might leave behind to express my wishes, I know my family would not respect them. They believe I am under the influence of Satan, and they would see giving me a humanist burial as confirming that I am destined for hell. Out of fear of ‘damnation’ and of what people would say, they would insist on giving me a religious burial. And that worries me a lot. It worries me because the people who matter most in my family are the same ones who would make such decisions, and in Africa, families play a huge role in burial matters. I know they would likely have their way, and thinking about that saddens me deeply. They, my wife included, may even deny that I was never a humanist, even though they’ve devoted resources and time to change me, unsuccessfully. It saddens me so much that I often hope I don’t die now so that my family won’t have the chance to impose a religious burial on me. I keep hoping to live long enough to create the structures and make the arrangements necessary to ensure I’m given a humanist burial, even if my family refuses to take part in it”.

In addition, violations that humanists suffer are not only in relation to how they are treated when they die, the dishonor given to them, but also their treatment/maltreatment when they are mourning. Humanists are denied the right to mourn as humanists. In most cases, humanists are not only accorded religious funerals when they pass away; they are also compelled to mourn in religious ways. They are subjected to religious mourning practices when their partners or relatives pass away. Humanists are denied the right to mourn or grieve in a humanist way.

State authorities in Nigeria should take legal and administrative measures to protect the FORB of humanists and ensure that their rights in relation to death and honoring the deceased are respected. States should recognize secular funerals and non-religious mourning rites. As in the case of Eze Ebisike, where the family contacted and cooperated with the humanist association for his funeral, states and families should partner with the Humanist Association to ensure that deceased humanists are honored and their funerals celebrated in a humanist way. Grief is an important aspect of human life. The rights of humanists to mourn or grieve in line with their beliefs must be guaranteed.

Leo Igwe is a board member, Humanist Association of Nigeria