Umunna (Nigerian Kinship Group)

The Umunna

The Umunna is a powerful group of Igbo men! It is the overarching center for family disputes in Eastern Nigeria.

They are much more than this, though. The Umunna accompanies the bride to meet her husband. Their representatives dig the grave for someone who is being buried. They settle disputes between family members.

We recently heard about the Umunna because the younger members had dug the grave for my husband. This was their time-honored commitment to their brother. He had died months earlier. His body was flown back to Nigeria for burial and was awaiting the Governor’s statement.

After initially declaring a burial should take place with a limited number of people, he finally declared no burials!

Finally he agreed to the smaller burial. My son called the people in the village. They called the funeral home where my husband’s body was waiting. The funeral home delivered the body to the village. A few people from DMGS came to sing.

They kept the coffin open so people could see his body lying in peace. Then they closed it, placed it in the grave side, and said prayers over it.

People from several branches of the family came for the event.

In taking the daughter to her husband’s family, they are the caretakers, while the family is regarded as the witnesses. When the Umunna have to hold a burial, their young people are the preparers of the grave. And when they are called to settle a dispute between family members, people are supposed to listen!

This custom of holding family members and the larger clan accountable is a treasure I value! The Umunna exert influence in their ways of operating and in the solutions they create. No other institution holds itself accountable in the same way.

New Year’s Celebrations

New Year is first awarded on the small Pacific island nations of Tonga, Samoa, and Kiribati. Those islands give New Year’s its first celebrations. They are already over by now!

New Zealand follows next, then comes Australia, Japan and South Korea. The last place to celebrate New Year is Bakers Island. This lies in the central Pacific Ocean!

“That does not mean we are not celebrating. Inside lighted rooms, we will raise glasses to the people who sacrificed for us, to the triumphant performance of our health care workers, and to a thousand small kindnesses already receding from memory,” says one.

In London Big Ben will ring as its clock tower is restored. It is one of the standout moments for this year!