Factors determining her burial programme
Lasun Alagbe
As more people continue to mourn the late culture icon, Prof. Sophie Oluwole, indications have emerged that she will be buried about the same time as her elder sister who died a few weeks before in her Benin, Edo State base.
A family source told phenomenallagos in Oluwole’s Ibafo, Ogun State home on Thursday that the elder sister died at the age of 92.
The source said, “Before prof. Oluwole died, the family had been planning to hold the burial programme for the elder sister this January.”
The source added that although there was a consideration to take Oluwole’s body to her Igbara-Oke, Ondo State family home, it was her wish that she be buried in Ibafo.
The source said, “in some parts of Ondo State, when you give out a lady in marriage, it is her lifetime you are giving away. Not her death. This means that when the woman dies, the parents have the right to ask that the corpse be brought home for burial. Indeed, that is why some people, for instance, say Ikale people always take their dead home.”
The source, however, added that Oluwole gave a word that she be buried in Ibafo.
An indication that this is what is going to happen is the fact that, as phenomenallagos observed while on a visit to the Ibafo home on Thursday, Oluwole’s house, which has a sprawling compound, is already being repainted.
Meanwhile, several people have continued to visit Oluwole’s family to condole with them.
Among other dignitaries, President Muhammadu Buhari has paid tribute to her, describing her as a great philosopher and promoter of the Yoruba culture and language.
