The Great Beyond (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Cyprian Ekwensi
- First Published: 1975
- Type of Plot: Sketch, fantasy
- Time of Work: The late 1960's or the early 1970's
- Setting: Lagos, Nigeria
- Principal Characters: Ikolo, Jokeh, The well-fed Pastor, Little Raifu, The Patey Street trader
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, 1970’s, Africa or Africans, Blacks, Twentieth century, Death or dying, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Bereavement or grief, Afterlife, Morality or morals, Mortality, Nigeria or Nigerians, Urban life
- Locales: Lagos, Nigeria
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...
[The entire page is 1296 words long]
