The Daily Nation of July 28 carried an article by David Kigo on why we need to rethink cremation as a way of human body disposal. Many people may avoid this route due to reservations because of our African culture, religion and other baggage. But there are developments that are making it increasingly desirable for the society to practice cremation.

To start with, it is a hygienic way of body disposal. Covid-19 taught us some mannerisms that we can practice, especially in funerals. We don’t have to attend funerals in our thousands. A whole village doesn’t have to mobilise itself to ‘escort’ a dead person. A few people are enough to perform the rites.

During the pandemic, I interacted with some funeral homes to evaluate the safety of people working in and around health facilities. I saw how morticians struggled to protect themselves from the disease. I wondered whether it made sense for people to pick a body and take it to be handled by other people for a week, endangering more people. Why not have some two men incinerate the thing once and for all?

There is the issue of land. The land size is diminishing fast. The population growth is high, and there is serious competition for the agricultural red soil. We have families that have children inherit land from their parents. Yet, the land is so small for anything other than a small two-roomed house. When a family insists on cementing a tomb, it should think of how this will impact on the available land. Some 100 years from now, over 50 million of us will have died. If we all want cemented tombs, no land will be left.

Let’s stop this and opt for the modern ways of cremation. Do your rites, then hand over the body to the cremators. People talk of religion to discredit cremation. This is hypocrisy. The same religion recognises that the spirit leaves when one dies and the body is just an earthly carrier of the spirit.

Then why put so much emphasis on disposing of that which is not important?

Even early brewers in their experiments, after carrying out the distillation of some fermented beverages, recognised that the distillate was where the real ‘spirit’ was.

This spirit has since been given different names like vodka, gin, whisky and others and is highly recognised as a quality beverage, whereas the remnants of this distillation, called residues, are disposed of as waste.

The law requires that any development that is not in tandem with its surroundings be subjected to an environmental impact assessment for approval by the authorities. Cemented graves qualify under this and should be subjected to an EIA study. The proponents need to show their plans for decommissioning (debuilding) the graves once they are no longer required.

Let us rethink cremation, as it will save our red soil and save us from diseases.