We do society gross injustice when we lavish extravagant praise on the dead

The loss of human life is a terrible thing. It is painful for the bereaved family and the friends. Common decency dictates that we should respect the sensibilities of those in mourning. Put differently, this has been called “respecting the dead.” Mark Antony tells us in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Here in Africa, does the converse of this Shakespearean aphorism seem to be the case? The ill that men do is interred with their bones. Indeed, it seems to die with them. Africa buries saints. All dead people are angelic. Everyone praises them, including those who never gave them a dog’s chance in life. Some have said, “What is the import of saying uncomfortable things about the dead? What will it change? Aren’t they dead?”