Rev. Fr. Gabriel Ekpe, Parish Priest of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Gwagwalada in Abuja has condemned the traditional practice of making women swear on their dead husband’s bodies.
Ekpe, during the inaugural Cultural and Feast Day celebration with a theme “Unity in Diversity: A Moment of Celebration” asserted that these practices were contrary to the teachings of the Church.
He stressed the importance of embracing the positive aspects of African culture, such as respect for elders, hospitality, communal life, and reverence for the sacred, which had been integrated into the Christian message.
According to him, the Church does not oppose culture, but rather seeks to integrate the beautiful aspects of African culture while discarding the negative ones.
“The Church is not against culture. For instance, the beautiful aspects of our African culture such as respect for elders, hospitality, communal life, respect for the sacred etc have all been integrated into the Christian message.
“Whereas, the wrong aspects of our culture such as human sacrifice, idol worship, making a woman to swear on a dead body in the event of the husbands death etc are all shunned by the Church,” he said.
The priest emphasised the importance of celebrating the different cultural identities in Nigeria, especially in view of contemporary times when culture was fading away.
