alexander isiko - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by alexander isiko
Journal of African Studies and Development, 2019
Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulati... more Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulating religions and faith-based organizations, there have been contrasting responses from those this policy intends to regulate. The mainstream religious groups especially; the Moslem community, Anglican Church of Uganda, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox church and generally all those that subscribe to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda have welcomed the State's proposal. On the other hand, the proposal has met both stiff and liberal minded resistance from both the born-again churches and relatively newly founded religious faiths and groups. This is partly so due to the historical relationship between the State and Religious institutions which has been characterized by uncertainty at one time, and flowering at another. The contemptuous attitude of the born-again church towards the State's proposed religious and faith based organisations policy (RFBOs) calls for renewed interest in analysing church-state relations in Uganda. Using the institutional approach, this paper analyses the historical relationship that has subsisted between the state and religious institutions in Uganda, over the years, showing how this influences reaction of religious institutions to a State's attempt to provide a regulatory framework over them.
E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
The ideology that customary marriages are celebrated according to ancestral traditions and custom... more The ideology that customary marriages are celebrated according to ancestral traditions and customs is rife in Africa. There is however continuous invention and evolution of institutions associated with customary marriage rendering it burdensome to trace the visibility of ancient ‘traditions’ therein. This argument is anchored in the theoretical perspective of ‘invention of tradition’, to analyse the extent to which the celebration of customary marriages in Uganda has maintained the ancestral ‘traditional’ status quo owing to the influences of colonisation, westernisation globalisation and modernisation. Busoga, a predominantly Bantu ethnic society, is used as a representative case for this analysis. Using a historical and ethnographic approach, it was established that there is a lot of fluidity and hybridity of contemporary traditions upon which these marriages are celebrated. The notion that customary marriages are celebrated based on past traditions is a fallacy, although at best,...
This thesis represents a discussion of gender roles in traditional healing practices in the Bantu... more This thesis represents a discussion of gender roles in traditional healing practices in the Bantu ethnic society of Busoga, in the Eastern part of Uganda. Traditional healing practices are an integral element of the life of Busoga society. Traditional medicine is practiced within the parameters of the socio-cultural, economic, religious and political constructions of society. Traditional healing practices among the Basoga are an important resource to all socio-economic groups. The rich and poor, rural and urbanized, illiterate and educated, men and women, seek the services of traditional healers during their lifetime, though each of the social class’s access to traditional medicine is determined by its social positioning and gendered expectations. Traditional medicinal practice is an arena for the production and maintenance of social power relations between men and women. Power relations prevalent in traditional healing are a continuum of the wider gender relations between women and...
Journal for the Study of Religion
The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020... more The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020. Globally, numerous treatises on the relation between religion and Covid-19 exist with scholars inclined on religious explanatory models of the disease and its impact on religious practices. This has been counterfactual for Uganda, with immense scholarly attention devoted to analyzing the impact of the pandemic on socio-economic variables. Uganda, being a highly religious nation, provides an ideal case study as classical theoretical postulations stand firm on a positive sustained correlation between religiosity and natural disasters. Using the postmodernist innovative qualitative approach and unconventional 'remote' research methods of data collection due to the bitingly restrictive Covid-19 measures, the study established that this virus variably impacted religiosity. Those hitherto religious became stauncher and more stalwart. The former religiously unenthusiastically forsook ...
International Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, 2019
The concept of witchcraft is shrouded with mystery as it means different things to different peop... more The concept of witchcraft is shrouded with mystery as it means different things to different people. There existed a defining point of difference between pre-colonial societies of Africa and medieval Europe with regard to witchcraft. The former attributed witchcraft to intra group conflicts and competition for leadership and resources, whereas the latter noted witchcraft to be the practice of magic aimed at manipulating nature for the benefit of the practitioner or his/her client (Mesaki 1995). In both cases, the overriding effect for witchcraft was to provide power and prestige to the practitioner (Meel 2009). Pre-colonial African societies had the experience of witches but knew how to live with them. Witches and witchcraft were part of their everyday reality (Wyk 2004). Criminalisation of witchcraft was a colonial invention in Africa, and therefore, was unheard of in pre-colonial African societies (Diwan 2004). The fear and ostracization of witches were introduced by European colonial rulers, as an extension of the witch hunt craze prevalent in medieval Europe (Bauer 2017; Meel 2009; Mesaki 1995; Mufuzi 2014). In his seminal work on witchcraft in Africa, Evans-Pritchard (1937) does not indicate the Azande witches of Sudan as experiencing witch hunt as it was in European societies. Azande witchcraft was different from European witchcraft (Kapferer 2002). This brings a presumption among scholars that the concept of witchcraft was a western invention, simply imposed unto Africa. Therefore, the general understanding and description of witchcraft by western academia, colonial church and rulers is shaped in the context of power processes in Africa. It must also be understood as part of the larger discourse of "othering" Africa (Ciekawy 1998; Kapferer 2002). They described and made witchcraft in Africa the way they wanted it to be, using western lenses of subjectivity. No effort was made to represent what constituted witchcraft from an African perspective. This eventually
Journal of African Studies and Development, 2020
This article presents empirical analysis of religious attitudes and interpretation of pandemics i... more This article presents empirical analysis of religious attitudes and interpretation of pandemics in Uganda. The study sought to analyze the religious explanatory models of pandemics offered by the three major religions of Uganda: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional religious belief system. The COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the whole world, Uganda inclusive, was used as a case study. Based on a qualitative research process, the study relied on key informant interviews, media reports and online sources of information. It was established that pandemics have been part of human history. Pandemics provide an opportunity for human reflection on transcendent life since they are a challenge to science and human wisdom. Pandemics draw people closer to religion and the spiritual due to the fear, panic, and uncertainty with which they are associated. Religions are left with the responsibility of providing theological answers beyond what human beings can comprehend. The hope and trust that society has in religious institutions make them ultimate institutions to provide solace to millions of people affected with a pandemic for which scientists and politicians have no immediate answers. The study unravels the complementary role that religion and theological studies can make in understanding effective management and prevention of pandemics in society. It also adds to the continuous debate on the relationship between science and religion, arguing for the significance of religious ideas in making science effective enough to combat societal challenges like epidemics.
Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2019
Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines... more Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines, including; anthropology, sociology, religion, and medicine. The study of use, practice, organisation, measurement and social distribution of traditional medicine has, over the years, been a case of sociological inquiry. On the other hand, anthropological studies are engrossed in the confluence of traditional healing with witchcraft practices. Whereas the world of medicine academia has been preoccupied with analysing the medicinal values of herbs and their efficacy in the treatment of infections; religious and theological scholars have discussed traditional healing as an extension of spirituality beliefs. None has ventured to analyse the relationship that exist between traditional healing and society organisation since traditional healing practices are society specific. My major proposition is that unlike biomedicine that operates on universal principles, traditional healing practices d...
EUREKA: Social and Humanities, 2021
Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted tho... more Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted though their preoccupation has been with the religious and spirituality perspectives. There has been a great deal of theologizing about the spiritual connection between the life here and life after death. Most studies in the humanities have zeroed on burial rituals and rites as means of transition to the spiritual world. Others have concentrated on how different societies cope with the misfortune of death; through grieving, mourning, choosing an heir or heiress and the succession disputes that are always part and parcel of such a culturally acknowledged process. Death is largely constructed as a challenge and misfortune, and many a scholar in the humanities are concerned with how different societies define, perceive, handle and cope with this catastrophe. Most scholarly works have paid a deaf ear to the social value that comes with the demise of an individual. One such social value is the d...
Extensive research has been done on Pentecostal churches over the past years. Several studies hav... more Extensive research has been done on Pentecostal churches over the past years. Several studies have focused on their history and robust growth, some on their economic and developmental ethos, while others have focused on their theological stances, and growing political influence in society. Amidst these kinds of studies, is the need to address the overt challenge posed by religious conflict among Pentecostal churches. Whereas there is growing scholarly interest in religious conflict among Christian churches, this has been narrowed to intra-church conflict. However, studies on inter-church conflict, between separate Pentecostal churches, that are independent of each other, are rare. Yet inter-church feuds and conflicts among Pentecostal churches in Uganda occupy a significant part of public space and discourses. Through analysis of both print and electronic media reports and engagement with twenty key informant interviewees, this article sought to establish and analyse the nature, man...
International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 2021
Despite the scientific and specific medical interventions, nodding disease with neither a cure no... more Despite the scientific and specific medical interventions, nodding disease with neither a cure nor plausible explanation to its cause continues to affect the people of Acholi sub region. The disease continues to be a mystery to both the medical professionals and its victims. The World Health Organisation (WHO) affirms no known aetiology. It is so mystical that it affects only children between the ages of five and fifteen years; the disease has only been reported in Acholi sub region in Uganda without a previous history of existence in the area. In spite of the disease’s association to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war and Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps, other areas like Lango and Teso sub regions affected by the same have not experienced this disease. Nodding disease, therefore, seems to have defeated Western science of biomedicine and needs a different approach to explain its existence. Overtime, African societies, the Acholi inclusive, find solace in their cultural a...
Journal of African Studies and Development, Oct 31, 2019
Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulati... more Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulating religions and faith-based organizations, there have been contrasting responses from those this policy intends to regulate. The mainstream religious groups especially; the Moslem community, Anglican Church of Uganda, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox church and generally all those that subscribe to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda have welcomed the State's proposal. On the other hand, the proposal has met both stiff and liberal minded resistance from both the born-again churches and relatively newly founded religious faiths and groups. This is partly so due to the historical relationship between the State and Religious institutions which has been characterized by uncertainty at one time, and flowering at another. The contemptuous attitude of the born-again church towards the State's proposed religious and faith based organisations policy (RFBOs) calls for renewed interest in analysing church-state relations in Uganda. Using the institutional approach, this paper analyses the historical relationship that has subsisted between the state and religious institutions in Uganda, over the years, showing how this influences reaction of religious institutions to a State's attempt to provide a regulatory framework over them.
Journal of Arts & Humanities, 2019
Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines... more Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines, including; anthropology, sociology, religion, and medicine. The study of use, practice, organisation, measurement and social distribution of traditional medicine has, over the years, been a case of sociological inquiry. On the other hand, anthropological studies are engrossed in the confluence of traditional healing with witchcraft practices. Whereas the world of medicine academia has been preoccupied with analysing the medicinal values of herbs and their efficacy in the treatment of infections; religious and theological scholars have discussed traditional healing as an extension of spirituality beliefs. None has ventured to analyse the relationship that exist between traditional healing and society organisation since traditional healing practices are society specific. My major proposition is that unlike biomedicine that operates on universal principles, traditional healing practices d...
EUREKA: Social and Humanities, 2021
Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted tho... more Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted though their preoccupation has been with the religious and spirituality perspectives. There has been a great deal of theologizing about the spiritual connection between the life here and life after death. Most studies in the humanities have zeroed on burial rituals and rites as means of transition to the spiritual world. Others have concentrated on how different societies cope with the misfortune of death; through grieving, mourning, choosing an heir or heiress and the succession disputes that are always part and parcel of such a culturally acknowledged process. Death is largely constructed as a challenge and misfortune, and many a scholar in the humanities are concerned with how different societies define, perceive, handle and cope with this catastrophe. Most scholarly works have paid a deaf ear to the social value that comes with the demise of an individual. One such social value is the d...
Journal of African Studies and Development, 2019
Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulati... more Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulating religions and faith-based organizations, there have been contrasting responses from those this policy intends to regulate. The mainstream religious groups especially; the Moslem community, Anglican Church of Uganda, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox church and generally all those that subscribe to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda have welcomed the State's proposal. On the other hand, the proposal has met both stiff and liberal minded resistance from both the born-again churches and relatively newly founded religious faiths and groups. This is partly so due to the historical relationship between the State and Religious institutions which has been characterized by uncertainty at one time, and flowering at another. The contemptuous attitude of the born-again church towards the State's proposed religious and faith based organisations policy (RFBOs) calls for renewed interest in analysing church-state relations in Uganda. Using the institutional approach, this paper analyses the historical relationship that has subsisted between the state and religious institutions in Uganda, over the years, showing how this influences reaction of religious institutions to a State's attempt to provide a regulatory framework over them.
E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
The ideology that customary marriages are celebrated according to ancestral traditions and custom... more The ideology that customary marriages are celebrated according to ancestral traditions and customs is rife in Africa. There is however continuous invention and evolution of institutions associated with customary marriage rendering it burdensome to trace the visibility of ancient ‘traditions’ therein. This argument is anchored in the theoretical perspective of ‘invention of tradition’, to analyse the extent to which the celebration of customary marriages in Uganda has maintained the ancestral ‘traditional’ status quo owing to the influences of colonisation, westernisation globalisation and modernisation. Busoga, a predominantly Bantu ethnic society, is used as a representative case for this analysis. Using a historical and ethnographic approach, it was established that there is a lot of fluidity and hybridity of contemporary traditions upon which these marriages are celebrated. The notion that customary marriages are celebrated based on past traditions is a fallacy, although at best,...
This thesis represents a discussion of gender roles in traditional healing practices in the Bantu... more This thesis represents a discussion of gender roles in traditional healing practices in the Bantu ethnic society of Busoga, in the Eastern part of Uganda. Traditional healing practices are an integral element of the life of Busoga society. Traditional medicine is practiced within the parameters of the socio-cultural, economic, religious and political constructions of society. Traditional healing practices among the Basoga are an important resource to all socio-economic groups. The rich and poor, rural and urbanized, illiterate and educated, men and women, seek the services of traditional healers during their lifetime, though each of the social class’s access to traditional medicine is determined by its social positioning and gendered expectations. Traditional medicinal practice is an arena for the production and maintenance of social power relations between men and women. Power relations prevalent in traditional healing are a continuum of the wider gender relations between women and...
Journal for the Study of Religion
The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020... more The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020. Globally, numerous treatises on the relation between religion and Covid-19 exist with scholars inclined on religious explanatory models of the disease and its impact on religious practices. This has been counterfactual for Uganda, with immense scholarly attention devoted to analyzing the impact of the pandemic on socio-economic variables. Uganda, being a highly religious nation, provides an ideal case study as classical theoretical postulations stand firm on a positive sustained correlation between religiosity and natural disasters. Using the postmodernist innovative qualitative approach and unconventional 'remote' research methods of data collection due to the bitingly restrictive Covid-19 measures, the study established that this virus variably impacted religiosity. Those hitherto religious became stauncher and more stalwart. The former religiously unenthusiastically forsook ...
International Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education, 2019
The concept of witchcraft is shrouded with mystery as it means different things to different peop... more The concept of witchcraft is shrouded with mystery as it means different things to different people. There existed a defining point of difference between pre-colonial societies of Africa and medieval Europe with regard to witchcraft. The former attributed witchcraft to intra group conflicts and competition for leadership and resources, whereas the latter noted witchcraft to be the practice of magic aimed at manipulating nature for the benefit of the practitioner or his/her client (Mesaki 1995). In both cases, the overriding effect for witchcraft was to provide power and prestige to the practitioner (Meel 2009). Pre-colonial African societies had the experience of witches but knew how to live with them. Witches and witchcraft were part of their everyday reality (Wyk 2004). Criminalisation of witchcraft was a colonial invention in Africa, and therefore, was unheard of in pre-colonial African societies (Diwan 2004). The fear and ostracization of witches were introduced by European colonial rulers, as an extension of the witch hunt craze prevalent in medieval Europe (Bauer 2017; Meel 2009; Mesaki 1995; Mufuzi 2014). In his seminal work on witchcraft in Africa, Evans-Pritchard (1937) does not indicate the Azande witches of Sudan as experiencing witch hunt as it was in European societies. Azande witchcraft was different from European witchcraft (Kapferer 2002). This brings a presumption among scholars that the concept of witchcraft was a western invention, simply imposed unto Africa. Therefore, the general understanding and description of witchcraft by western academia, colonial church and rulers is shaped in the context of power processes in Africa. It must also be understood as part of the larger discourse of "othering" Africa (Ciekawy 1998; Kapferer 2002). They described and made witchcraft in Africa the way they wanted it to be, using western lenses of subjectivity. No effort was made to represent what constituted witchcraft from an African perspective. This eventually
Journal of African Studies and Development, 2020
This article presents empirical analysis of religious attitudes and interpretation of pandemics i... more This article presents empirical analysis of religious attitudes and interpretation of pandemics in Uganda. The study sought to analyze the religious explanatory models of pandemics offered by the three major religions of Uganda: Christianity, Islam and African Traditional religious belief system. The COVID-19 pandemic which ravaged the whole world, Uganda inclusive, was used as a case study. Based on a qualitative research process, the study relied on key informant interviews, media reports and online sources of information. It was established that pandemics have been part of human history. Pandemics provide an opportunity for human reflection on transcendent life since they are a challenge to science and human wisdom. Pandemics draw people closer to religion and the spiritual due to the fear, panic, and uncertainty with which they are associated. Religions are left with the responsibility of providing theological answers beyond what human beings can comprehend. The hope and trust that society has in religious institutions make them ultimate institutions to provide solace to millions of people affected with a pandemic for which scientists and politicians have no immediate answers. The study unravels the complementary role that religion and theological studies can make in understanding effective management and prevention of pandemics in society. It also adds to the continuous debate on the relationship between science and religion, arguing for the significance of religious ideas in making science effective enough to combat societal challenges like epidemics.
Journal of Arts and Humanities, 2019
Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines... more Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines, including; anthropology, sociology, religion, and medicine. The study of use, practice, organisation, measurement and social distribution of traditional medicine has, over the years, been a case of sociological inquiry. On the other hand, anthropological studies are engrossed in the confluence of traditional healing with witchcraft practices. Whereas the world of medicine academia has been preoccupied with analysing the medicinal values of herbs and their efficacy in the treatment of infections; religious and theological scholars have discussed traditional healing as an extension of spirituality beliefs. None has ventured to analyse the relationship that exist between traditional healing and society organisation since traditional healing practices are society specific. My major proposition is that unlike biomedicine that operates on universal principles, traditional healing practices d...
EUREKA: Social and Humanities, 2021
Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted tho... more Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted though their preoccupation has been with the religious and spirituality perspectives. There has been a great deal of theologizing about the spiritual connection between the life here and life after death. Most studies in the humanities have zeroed on burial rituals and rites as means of transition to the spiritual world. Others have concentrated on how different societies cope with the misfortune of death; through grieving, mourning, choosing an heir or heiress and the succession disputes that are always part and parcel of such a culturally acknowledged process. Death is largely constructed as a challenge and misfortune, and many a scholar in the humanities are concerned with how different societies define, perceive, handle and cope with this catastrophe. Most scholarly works have paid a deaf ear to the social value that comes with the demise of an individual. One such social value is the d...
Extensive research has been done on Pentecostal churches over the past years. Several studies hav... more Extensive research has been done on Pentecostal churches over the past years. Several studies have focused on their history and robust growth, some on their economic and developmental ethos, while others have focused on their theological stances, and growing political influence in society. Amidst these kinds of studies, is the need to address the overt challenge posed by religious conflict among Pentecostal churches. Whereas there is growing scholarly interest in religious conflict among Christian churches, this has been narrowed to intra-church conflict. However, studies on inter-church conflict, between separate Pentecostal churches, that are independent of each other, are rare. Yet inter-church feuds and conflicts among Pentecostal churches in Uganda occupy a significant part of public space and discourses. Through analysis of both print and electronic media reports and engagement with twenty key informant interviewees, this article sought to establish and analyse the nature, man...
International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 2021
Despite the scientific and specific medical interventions, nodding disease with neither a cure no... more Despite the scientific and specific medical interventions, nodding disease with neither a cure nor plausible explanation to its cause continues to affect the people of Acholi sub region. The disease continues to be a mystery to both the medical professionals and its victims. The World Health Organisation (WHO) affirms no known aetiology. It is so mystical that it affects only children between the ages of five and fifteen years; the disease has only been reported in Acholi sub region in Uganda without a previous history of existence in the area. In spite of the disease’s association to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war and Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps, other areas like Lango and Teso sub regions affected by the same have not experienced this disease. Nodding disease, therefore, seems to have defeated Western science of biomedicine and needs a different approach to explain its existence. Overtime, African societies, the Acholi inclusive, find solace in their cultural a...
Journal of African Studies and Development, Oct 31, 2019
Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulati... more Since 2016 when the government of Uganda announced its intention to enact a policy about regulating religions and faith-based organizations, there have been contrasting responses from those this policy intends to regulate. The mainstream religious groups especially; the Moslem community, Anglican Church of Uganda, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roman Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox church and generally all those that subscribe to the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda have welcomed the State's proposal. On the other hand, the proposal has met both stiff and liberal minded resistance from both the born-again churches and relatively newly founded religious faiths and groups. This is partly so due to the historical relationship between the State and Religious institutions which has been characterized by uncertainty at one time, and flowering at another. The contemptuous attitude of the born-again church towards the State's proposed religious and faith based organisations policy (RFBOs) calls for renewed interest in analysing church-state relations in Uganda. Using the institutional approach, this paper analyses the historical relationship that has subsisted between the state and religious institutions in Uganda, over the years, showing how this influences reaction of religious institutions to a State's attempt to provide a regulatory framework over them.
Journal of Arts & Humanities, 2019
Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines... more Studies on traditional healing have received a lot of attention from several academic disciplines, including; anthropology, sociology, religion, and medicine. The study of use, practice, organisation, measurement and social distribution of traditional medicine has, over the years, been a case of sociological inquiry. On the other hand, anthropological studies are engrossed in the confluence of traditional healing with witchcraft practices. Whereas the world of medicine academia has been preoccupied with analysing the medicinal values of herbs and their efficacy in the treatment of infections; religious and theological scholars have discussed traditional healing as an extension of spirituality beliefs. None has ventured to analyse the relationship that exist between traditional healing and society organisation since traditional healing practices are society specific. My major proposition is that unlike biomedicine that operates on universal principles, traditional healing practices d...
EUREKA: Social and Humanities, 2021
Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted tho... more Numerous studies on death in African societies with no doubt have been successfully conducted though their preoccupation has been with the religious and spirituality perspectives. There has been a great deal of theologizing about the spiritual connection between the life here and life after death. Most studies in the humanities have zeroed on burial rituals and rites as means of transition to the spiritual world. Others have concentrated on how different societies cope with the misfortune of death; through grieving, mourning, choosing an heir or heiress and the succession disputes that are always part and parcel of such a culturally acknowledged process. Death is largely constructed as a challenge and misfortune, and many a scholar in the humanities are concerned with how different societies define, perceive, handle and cope with this catastrophe. Most scholarly works have paid a deaf ear to the social value that comes with the demise of an individual. One such social value is the d...