Afterpants: Nether Regions pt 15 Kibu

Today's Nether Region is truly fascinating. It's called "Kibu" and it comes from the aboriginal peoples of the Torres Straight Islands (their tribal name is Mabuiag). Before you go looking it up...that's a series of islands just below Papua New Guinea and just above Australia. Apparently, their culture developed independently from the mainland Australians 1st Nations people.

As with many smaller cultures/island cultures, their afterlife doesn't seem to be affected by Christianity. IOW, there's no "hell"

Kibu is simply another island where the dead travel. But, there are some interesting differences.

Kibu is thought to be not only a permanent home for the dead but to also have crossroads and byways by which the dead can come and go. IOW, their dead are thought to be always present or at least have a ear to the spiritual ground.

Here's another fun fact. They apparently believe/believed that there are 2 states of being dead. Directly after death a person becomes a Maki...the color of the Maki is black (I'm assuming something like a Shadow Person or the like) and once they pass the sand banks west of Boigu (actual place) they enter the spirit realm and become "Markai"(the color of which is white...and I'm thinking white like Yurei are white) now...I may be mispronouncing the word in my head...but "markai" is an AWESOME word...sounds like a Star Trek NG race that would be a threat to the Borg...lol

(full disclosure: these are not the sand banks west of Boigu...these are in Canada...)

In yet another interesting point, Kibu is believed to "surround the world" so the dead can basically go anywhere they want. They can be seen walking on roads, dropping in from the clouds or rising from under the earth!

Honestly...this is my FAVORITE sort of afterlife. It's ancestor veneration, it's islands, the dead don't seem to need punished , they can travel freely! (I mean, I think all cultures believe in SOME sort of Divine Justice but the information here is lacking.

Regardless, Kibu and the Markai is a GREAT story. It's like having a drawer full of all different kinds of underwear that you love and every day is a new experience.

Now, I know, anyone who's been reading the Nether Regions series knows I tend to keep the rating between 2-4 out of 5 Hellbriefs but I'm throwing caution to the wind and giving Kibu a shocking 5 out of 5!