ACADEMIA Letters Cultural Strictures to the Practice of Body Donation Programme in Africa Chike Anibeze, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria. Introduction: Despite the recent advances in technology, teaching and research in anatomy seem incomplete without the use of human bodies for dissection. Yet, in all cultures and religion, human bodies are sacred in comparison to other living beings. Hence, bodies of the dead are by human tradition subjected to proper funeral procedures. Medical ethics which is about the things done to the human body must of necessity consider the source and manner of acquisition of human bodies for teaching and research in anatomy. It is in this regard that the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA, 2012) recommended that all countries of the world must embark on body donation programmes as a means of sourcing cadaver for anatomical teaching and research. This short report used the reviews of works already established on cadaver acquisition in Nigeria (Anyanwu et al 2011, Anyanwu et al 2014, Ihunwo 2014) and elsewhere in the world (Jones 2016, Habicht et al 2018, Ball 1928, Singer 1957, Hilderbrandt 2007) as well as the author’s traditional documentations of ancient Igbo and Yoruba societies of Africa (Anibeze 2019) to draw attention to some traditional strictures hindering body donation programmes in Nigeria. It concludes on the need for awareness creation for the programme as it frmly deduced from surveys that despite the traditional strictures, the reasons for the non adoption of modern cadaver sourcing has a lot to do with literacy and awareness creation. Academia Letters, August 2021 Corresponding Author: Chike Anibeze, chikeanibeze@gmail.com Citation: Anibeze, C. (2021). Cultural Strictures to the Practice of Body Donation Programme in Africa. Academia Letters, Article 2961. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL2961. 1 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0