Nigeria, Jan. 7 -- Some years ago, I visited Nanjing, China, walking through the Massacre Memorial Hall, the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, and the Nanjing Museum. Names etched in stone, artifacts preserved with reverence, and the silence that demanded reflection-all whispered a lesson: a culture that honours its dead preserves its soul. These were people who lived, who sacrificed, and whose memory continues to teach the living.

Across history, cultures have remembered those who die answering the call of tradition:

Japan, 1703: Forty-seven samurai died for honour; their graves at Sengaku-ji Temple remain sacred.

Ancient Greece, Olympia: Deaths during sacred games were immortalised in stone and story.

India, Prayagraj, 1954: Pilgrims killed ...