OLAC Record oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1267863

Metadata
Title:		Captain Faloko's burial
		KWB056
		A documentation project of Baa, a language of Nigeria
Contributor:		Elisha
Contributor (depositor):		Mirjam
Coverage:		Nigeria
Date:		2017-03-18
Description:		This burial from Kwah includes some of the traditions surrounding the celebration of the deceased. The corpse is buried in a grave around the compound, non-officially, often by family and close relatives until the family can arrange for the burial celebration to hold. Since it also involves providing food and drinks for many people it gives the family enough time to prepare. In this case the burial was held several months after the deceased was buried in his grave. So the coffin that we see does not contain any corpse. If they want to make the coffin heavy they put a log of wood inside. Captain Falako whose burial is celebrated in this video was a retired captain in the Nigerian army, who had traveled both in Nigeria and within Africa, and someone who was highly respected and know by all in his community. The first part of the video shows how the drummers play different beats. There are three different drums featuring. The 'talking drum', in Baa called Kwalangwe, is significant during burials as it gives a sound and beat other drums cannot give. Then there is the ordinary drum zin, it is often carried with a rope hung over the shoulder. There is also dime the big drum held by two people, and they use a piece of rubber to beat it. The songs they sing and the rythms they beat is also specific for burials. The second part of the video (7min) features the coffin inside the family compound of the deceased. The coffin is decorated with grass and pieces of fabric, the same type women use to sow their dresses. The people surrounding the coffin are either family or friends, who have come to carry the coffin to a place outside the compound, where everyone can see it. There are friends there that make fun of the dead, by acting like the deceased or walk or talk like him, they make fun of the deceased in order to joke with the family. Other family members come to greet the deceased as a last chance to honour the dead. In this section they also sing male songs about courage and bravery. The drummers bring the coffin out and carried by men they bring the coffin to another part of the compound. (14min) they enter the sacred yyet, a shrine consisting of a stick with three branches. It is used to offer sacrifices to specific gods and spirits. The people normally remove their shoes as they enter the shrine. The coffin has to turn around the shrine before it can be presented to the public. As the coffin is being brought out for the public to see, others can come and try to steal the coffin, the young men's job is to defend the coffin and make sure it arrives safely at its final place. Normally, there is supposed to be a male child seated in front of the coffin, there is like a seat in front. The deceased had not paid due respect to the gods or traditions in order to have a child sit in front of his coffin. Since, if a child would sit there, without the necessary traditions being respected, the child might die. The coffin is then put in its position (23min) and people continue to dance and sing around the corpse. Different groups and clans and families are represented, some carry some uniform. There are women that come out and dance especially during occasions like that and spirits may decide to 'climb' such women in order for them to dance and perform. The women's groupd is called Nyaso and they feature only in the background (25min) in this video. The people will continue to dance and drink throughout the day. Hunters can shoot their guns in order to honour the deceased. It is also important not to mention the name of the deceased and it is often referred to as the dead, yen. For further descriptions of file names see the corpus manual available in the archive.
		Lives in Lagos but originally from Gyakan.
		This burial from Kwah includes some of the traditions surrounding the celebration of the deceased. The corpse is buried in a grave around the compound, non-officially, often by family and close relatives until the family can arrange for the burial celebration to hold. Since it also involves providing food and drinks for many people it gives the family enough time to prepare. In this case the burial was held several months after the deceased was buried in his grave. So the coffin that we see does not contain any corpse. If they want to make the coffin heavy they put a log of wood inside. Captain Falako whose burial is celebrated in this video was a retired captain in the Nigerian army, who had traveled both in Nigeria and within Africa, and someone who was highly respected and know by all in his community. The first part of the video shows how the drummers play different beats. There are three different drums featuring. The 'talking drum', in Baa called Kwalangwe, is significant during burials as it gives a sound and beat other drums cannot give. Then there is the ordinary drum zin, it is often carried with a rope hung over the shoulder. There is also dime the big drum held by two people, and they use a piece of rubber to beat it. The songs they sing and the rythms they beat is also specific for burials. The second part of the video (7min) features the coffin inside the family compound of the deceased. The coffin is decorated with grass and pieces of fabric, the same type women use to sow their dresses. The people surrounding the coffin are either family or friends, who have come to carry the coffin to a place outside the compound, where everyone can see it. There are friends there that make fun of the dead, by acting like the deceased or walk or talk like him, they make fun of the deceased in order to joke with the family. Other family members come to greet the deceased as a last chance to honour the dead. In this section they also sing male songs about courage and bravery. The drummers bring the coffin out and carried by men they bring the coffin to another part of the compound. (14min) they enter the sacred yyet, a shrine consisting of a stick with three branches. It is used to offer sacrifices to specific gods and spirits. The people normally remove their shoes as they enter the shrine. The coffin has to turn around the shrine before it can be presented to the public. As the coffin is being brought out for the public to see, others can come and try to steal the coffin, the young men's job is to defend the coffin and make sure it arrives safely at its final place. Normally, there is supposed to be a male child seated in front of the coffin, there is like a seat in front. The deceased had not paid due respect to the gods or traditions in order to have a child sit in front of his coffin. Since, if a child would sit there, without the necessary traditions being respected, the child might die. The coffin is then put in its position (23min) and people continue to dance and sing around the corpse. Different groups and clans and families are represented, some carry some uniform. There are women that come out and dance especially during occasions like that and spirits may decide to 'climb' such women in order for them to dance and perform. The women's groupd is called Nyaso and they feature only in the background (25min) in this video. The people will continue to dance and drink throughout the day. Hunters can shoot their guns in order to honour the deceased. It is also important not to mention the name of the deceased and it is often referred to as the dead, yen.
Format:		video/mp4
		audio/x-wav
Identifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1267863
		baa-moeller-0431
Identifier (URI):		https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1267863%23
Subject:		Discourse
		Kwa language
Subject (ISO639):		kwb
Type:		Video
		Audio
OLAC Info
Archive:		Endangered Languages Archive
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1267863
DateStamp:		2019-02-15
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		Elisha; Mirjam (depositor). 2017-03-18. Endangered Languages Archive.
Terms:		area_Africa country_NG iso639_kwb
Inferred Metadata
Country:		Nigeria
Area:		Africa