The Great Beyond by Cyprian Ekwensi
"The Great Beyond" by Cyprian Ekwensi is a poignant narrative set in Lagos, Nigeria, exploring themes of life, death, and the mysterious connections between the living and the deceased. The story begins with the funeral of Ikolo, a beloved and humorous man who unexpectedly comes back to life during the procession to communicate a message to his grieving wife, Jokeh. The atmosphere of the funeral is marked by disarray and an eerie sense of foreboding, underscored by strange occurrences, including a distressing noise from within Ikolo's coffin.
As Jokeh receives her husband's wordless instructions, the narrative delves into her transformation and newfound confidence as she embarks on a mission to fulfill his Last Will. This request leads her to confront a trader to collect a debt owed to Ikolo, which serves as a catalyst for her growth. The story raises questions about perception, belief, and the nature of spiritual encounters, emphasizing the profound impact of Ikolo's return from the Great Beyond not only on Jokeh but also on the pastor, who grapples with his faith in light of her experience. Overall, "The Great Beyond" invites readers to reflect on the unseen forces that connect us and the importance of understanding messages from those who have passed on.
On this Page
The Great Beyond by Cyprian Ekwensi
First published: 1975
Type of plot: Sketch, fantasy
Time of work: The late 1960's or the early 1970's
Locale: Lagos, Nigeria
Principal Characters:
Ikolo , the dead manJokeh , his wifeThe well-fed Pastor Little Raifu , a fourteen-year-old son of an undertakerThe Patey Street trader , who owes Ikolo money
The Story
The story opens with the funeral of Ikolo, a jovial, convivial man who had predicted that on the day of his funeral he would return "if only to have his last laugh." In Lagos, Nigeria, the length of a funeral procession usually tells "the sort of man who had died." However, although Ikolo was quite popular and was known and appreciated for delighting in making people laugh, his funeral procession is unusually short. Everything about the funeral and the day on which it occurs is strange and ominous: the dreary rain, the "disturbed" singing, the disorganized procession, the general lack of coordination, and the rather awkward, irreverent atmosphere, all of which are noted by the onlookers who line the procession route.
The hearse bearers lead the bare-bones procession, attended only by a small familial group of mourners consisting of Ikolo's mother-in-law, aunts, uncles, sisters, and nephews. Over the combined din of the unsynchronized singing, the mourners' weeping, and the grinding wheels of the hearse, a strange noise arises. At first the sound is barely audible to anyone except Ikolo's mother-in-law but later is loud enough to be heard by others, particularly the hearse bearers, who soon determine that the now thunderous knocking sound is coming from inside the sealed coffin. The mourners are stopped cold in their tracks by a muffled voice, calling out the name of the dead man's wife, Jokeh, asking her to open the casket. Shocked at the now distinctly violent knocking from within the coffin, the panic-stricken hearse bearers drop the casket and flee as if possessed, as do the rest of the mourners and onlookers. Even the pastor momentarily forgets his duty and dashes off, then returns, mortified. He runs frantically from house to house, seeking help in opening the coffin. Little Raifu, the brave fourteen-year-old son and apprentice of his father, an undertaker, offers the pastor tools with which to pry open the coffin. They manage to open the coffin, revealing the cherubic-faced Ikolo, who sits up, decked out in his favorite forty-pound suit, and calls for his grieving, frightened wife who stands rooted before her husband's coffin.
More than one half hour later, Jokeh lurches forward suddenly and carefully lays her husband down in the coffin, and as if to ensure certainty, she nails down the coffin lid for the burial. With bewildering certainty, she acknowledges that she has understood her husband's wordless message and his clear instructions that were otherwise inaudible to the confused pastor who had been standing beside her the entire time. What did Jokeh hear that nobody else could hear? How could they "hear" when they all committed the cowardly, irreverent act of running away? Even the pastor who stuck around did so reluctantly, out of duty, having first indulged his "instinct of self-preservation" like everyone else.
Two weeks later, Jokeh visits a trader, a stranger whom she had never seen before. How she knew exactly where to go and whom to ask for remains a mystery. Emboldened by the transforming power often believed to come from an encounter with spirits from the Great Beyond, Jokeh confidently confronts the Patey Street trader, who tries to dismiss her attempt to execute her dead husband's instructions to collect forty-five pounds, ten shillings, two and a half pence, a debt owed him that he was to have collected on the day he died. Carrying the money carefully wrapped in the folds of her garment, she heads for the pastor's house and tells him that the money is to be distributed as alms on a Friday to the poor and needy, according to her husband's wishes. His faith rattled to the core and befuddled by Jokeh's transformation and ability to hear what he himself could not despite "his daily devotion to the Great Beyond," the pastor recognizes the mystery of the great power of the Great Beyond and the important message of repentance and atonement from one who has experienced it firsthand and returned to tell it to a devoted wife.