I have become an aged ose tree
I will no longer die
I have become two hundred mountains rolled into one
I am immovable

And of the goods the Yoruba pray for, three are prominent: wealth, children and immortality (ire owo, ire omo, ire aiku pari iwa). Our sages try to allay the fear of death by a conception of the afterlife which makes it an extension of life- at least for those who qualify. The qualification for participation in afterlife is determined by the nature of one’s life and the nature of one’s death. Therefore, conceptions of the meaning of life and the meaning of death are important for understanding the meaning of life.

That life has meaning is an important presupposition of the Yoruba. It is encoded in attitudes to others, to the community, to the ancestors and to the deities. We are not just here without purpose; we are here to deliver a message, and the meaning of our life is determined by how well we deliver it:

The meaning of life then consists in the effort made to deliver the message in accordance with the wishes of the creator. What could these wishes be? The deity wants human beings to promote the good. Hence the insistence on the capacity for good judgement and moral uprightness for the achievement of personhood, and this is evaluated in accordance with a set of criteria which include (i) goodness to self, (2) goodness to community, and (3) goodness to ancestors.

First, a person must be good to self, for this is a precondition for being good to the community. One must develop oneself through hard work to avoid poverty. One must attend to one’s health and not over indulge the appetite. One must have a good sense of humor and avoid unnecessary tension. One must conduct one’s life prudently and wisely. In short, one must assume responsibility for one’s life and one’s death:

Let one conduct one’s life gently
That one may die a good death
That one’s children may stretch their hands
Over one’s body in burial.

Second, a person must be good to the community. This means that one must perform the essential communal services, even if it means sacrificing some of one’s own self interests. The rationale for this is simply that the community is the primary source of one’s being and therefore it has a stake in one’s existence. However, this does not suggest the suppression of individuality, for the individual is willing to assume these responsibilities even without being pressed because s/he recognizes the priority of the community and the legitimacy of its demands: "I am because we are". This means that we must be responsible citizens without being self-centered. We must be prepared to make the utmost sacrifice for the good of the community that gave us life and nurture. We must advance the cause of good governance whatever the cost to our own safety.

This was how Alhaja Kudirat Abiola interpreted her mission on earth. What is our existence for if we would succumb to the threats of those who can kill the body but not the soul? The cowards who committed this brutal act must be downcast now that they must have realized that Alhaja Kudirat’s voice is unquenchable. They must be constantly haunted by the many voices that echo her courage in the wavelength of Radio Kudirat. They must regret their mistakes because they now know that they have unwittingly given us the Moremi of our time. Our ancestors know that the quality of life does not lie in its length, but rather in the commitment to its ideals. Ki a ku l’omode k’a f’esin se irele eni, o ya ju ka dagba ma l’adie irana. (To die young and be celebrated is better than to die old without being noticed or appreciated.) Alhaja Kudirat obviously died a good death. She made a good choice of ori, and I am pretty sure that her murderers must now be wondering how come she had such a good ori that enabled her to shine and prosper even in death. But when they ask as did the companions of Afuwape:

We do not know where people with good destiny make their choices
We would have gone there ourselves
We do not know where Asake made her choice
We would have gone there to choose

She is responding to them in her resting palace now:

You do not know where people with good destiny made their choice?
You would have gone there yourselves?
You do not know where I Asake made my choice?
You would have gone there?
But, look, we made our choices from the same location!
It’ s just that our destinies are not identical!

Third, a person must be good to the ancestors. There are three ways in which one can carry out this obligation. First, the ancestors, as the protectors of communal values, require strict adherence to these values, and one can consistently violate them only at the risk of punishment and loss of personhood status. Second, as the basis for their own ancestor-hood, every offspring is expected to take proper care of him/herself in order to stay healthy and reproduce so that the ancestors do not pass into oblivion. For if there are no longer offsprings to remember them, ancestors will cease to exist. Third, offsprings are required to take proper care of the properties of the deceased parent, and relations are required to take proper care of the children that the deceased left behind. Iya ko gbodo je omo oku orun. A person who fails to carry out the wishes of the deceased stands the risk of losing personhood status. When it is remarked of a human being that he/she is not an eniyan, the meaning is that, normatively speaking, he/she is not a person and this follows from an assessment of his/her standing with regard to the satisfaction of those requirements of goodness to self, to community and to ancestors. By virtue of their status, the dead play a large role in ensuring that these requirements are satisfied.

Alhaja Kudirat Abiola lived a good full life blessed with children and good deeds. Her death, in our traditional belief system, is therefore a good one. We belief that in death, she has acquired more power to take proper care of her children whom she loved most dearly and who certainly missed her motherly love and care. But she has passed on the torch, first to you the children, and to all of us. She is watching us and what we make of the struggle she led and died for. She wanted a society in which there is true freedom and justice. She struggled for the democratic reformation of Nigeria, a country whose future is being negated daily by the barbarism of a feudalistic cabal and its military front.

The question now is this: are we all going to continue where Alhaja Kudirat left off? Or are we going to be bogged down by childlike wrangling derived from self-centered analysis of events? As advocates of and fighters in the battleground of democracy, we all need a united front to attack the forces of retrogression. Is this too much to ask? We have a president-elect languishing in detention. A dutiful mother and loyal wife was gunned down in broad daylight. We are here celebrating her short but memorable life with children who miss her and who are not now sure what is happening to their father. If we are truly sincere in our commitments, we will come out of this hall today to embrace one another with a renewed and honest dedication to the course of the struggle, leaving behind our various selfish concerns. We will stop assassinating the character of those who dare to provide a vision for the future. We will embrace those who have proven themselves as fighters for justice and freedom. We will join hands with compatriots who are not worried about the safety of their lives as they work to achieve the heart's desires of our beloved Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. To do any less is to betray her cause. To do as much is to assure our own immortality, even as her immortality has been assured through her good deeds. Since I believe firmly that all the attributes that made Alhaja Kudirat’s life meaningful were God-given, nurtured by God-fearing family, and are effectively embedded within the Yoruba cultural tradition, and since it now appears that the Yoruba are currently under siege, I would like to end with what has virtually become an inspiration song for all of us in Egbe Isokan Yoruba:

May her blessed soul rest in perfect peace.

Professor Segun Gbadegesin

Egbe Isokan Yoruba

Washington, D.C.