THE CHURCH GRAVEYARD: UNDERSTANDING MISSIONARY MORTUARY PRACTICE IN IBADAN, 1853-1960
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Date
2013
Authors
Adeboye, O.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ibadan Journal of History
Abstract
Missionary activity took root in Ibadan in the nineteenth century as religious agents immediately
began to engage with local cultural practice. Several interesting compromises and negotiations
were made in the mortuary sphere. While Christians introduced the idea of the Church graveyard
and its accoutrements such as wooden coffins, several aspects of local funeral rites found their
way into the evolving Christian mortuary culture. In the twentieth century, colonial authorities
attempted to enforce the idea of the public cemetery. But while the Church graveyard became
increasingly popular within the Christian community, the colonial public cemetery was avoided
like a plague by the local populace. The paper argues that the popularity of the idea of the
Church graveyard was due to the religious privatization of the graveyard through a Christian
discourse, whereas colonial cemeteries remained distinctly secular and ‘public’, far removed
from domestic engagements and impervious to any form of privatization. This highlights the
‘public’/’private’ debate and also underscores popular irritation at what was perceived as the
intrusive policies of the colonial authorities.
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Missionary activity , Cultural practice , Religious agents , Church graveyard , Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Education
Citation
Adeboye, O. “The Church Graveyard: Understanding Missionary Mortuary Practice in Ibadan, 1853-1960” Ibadan Journal of History, 1 (2013), 44-61