Funeral and Mourning Rituals in West Africa - Research Paper Example

Funeral and Mourning Rituals in West Africa The West African countries involve themselves in intricate rituals in their mourning and burial ceremonies. They have the consideration that death does not end the cycle of life. There is more to life than death. This is the main reason why they have to involve themselves with many rituals and practices before them finally burry their family members. Life and death are not mutually exclusive concepts among the people in the West African countries. They belief that death does not mean that the life of that individual has reached to an end, but only changes the conditions of the life of that person. There is evidence into this aspect through their belief in the existence of their ancestors, who are people of the community who died before their existence (Vann 668). These ancestors have the power to communicate to the living, a factor that supports their theory that death is only a rite of passage. Through the consideration of the belief and aspect of the notion of the existence of life after death, the communities in West Africa insist on treating the bodies of their dead with respect. They have the belief that the dead can retaliate and even communicate to them through various means in the case they are not happy about the treatment of their body. It is for this reason that the people of the West African countries perceive death as the beginning of a deeper relationship creation. A complementary rite of passage allows for the communication between the visible and the realm of the invisible world. The necessity of a proper mourning and burial is of importance to the dead person, otherwise the person will become a ghost, wandering through the border of the invisible and visible world in search of ace and rest. It is; therefore, correct to argue that the practices involved in funerals are more for the benefit of the living who want to ensure that they are safe from the ghosts of the dead who have the potential of causing harm to the living. There is also the existence of a strong sense of ambivalence about the issue of death in the community that borders on love and respect and on the other hand, fears and despair of the dead (Piot 483). There is, for this purpose, a sense of fear that the dead have powers over the living. The following research will analyze the various mourning and funeral rituals and practices practiced by communities living in West African countries. Mourning Traditions Mourning practice before the period of burial The mourning of the dead person in the community is a deep issue among the Africans in the west (Vann 653). The mourning process can take as long as weeks where the people who knew the dead mourn his passing into the afterlife. The status of the dead person in the community dictated the mourning period of the death. In the case, the dead member of the community was an influential person or an old person well respected in the community, then the mourning period took more time before the actual funeral. In the case the member of the community in West African Countries especially Liberia and Guinea died, the members of the immediate family had the obligation of covering up every reflective object in the room that the dead was. The reflective objects included televisions and mirrors (Magesa 739). The reason behind this aspect is that it discouraged the ghost of the dead person from roaming about since it was more attracted to reflective objects. Further, the windows and doors to the room closed as a sign of respect to the dead. The family then clears furniture from the room and especially beds. Women in the family sat down in the room wailing and keeping vigil over the body. People arrived from far places just to keep watch and look at the victim. In Liberia, the dead person should be washed by a relative of the immediate family who should be an elder to the deceased person for purposes of maintain the respect of the deceased. The women in the family and community then placed the wrapped up body on the ground and sat around it until the funeral day (Magesa 764). During mourning, people arrive to console the family that has lost their beloved one. There is a strict rule where the immediate bereaved family should not associate with other people in the form of socializing. Staying with the body at the home compound was considerably appropriate lest the rest of the community think that one had something to do with the death of the deceased. The observation of silence and sorrow is the appropriate emotion observed among the bereaved family (Irish et al 484). Other members of the community, especially the women, arrived at the home compound of the dead to assist in the preparation of food for the mourners. In Guinea, people wear black clothing to symbolize their sorrow for the departure of their beloved one. There is importance in showing the extent of mourning among the bereaved family. Another symbolic mourning act in most communities in the West African countries is the shaving of the hair for showing acceptance of the death of the deceased and respect for the dead person (Jindra & Joel 673). Hair symbolizes the concentration of life while the growing of the hair symbolizes the strengthening of life especially for the bereaved family. In some West African communities, the bereaved spouse of the deceased has the obligation of sleeping in either the same room or same bed with the dead person as an act of saying goodbye to the deceased. The mourning period continues even after the burial of the deceased. The women who have lost their husbands have to mourn their spouses for a period of one year, of which the woman should not let her hair grow back, or should have a black scarf constantly tied around her head (Geschiere 581). Further, the woman should not mingle with men or socialize for the purpose of maintain the respect of her husband until his ghost comfortably settles into the other world of the dead. In the case of the children, they should mourn their parents for a period of three months. It is customary in Liberia for the women to wear black clothing while in mourning and the children white to show their grief and sorrow over the passing of the member of their family (Jindra & Joel 676). The case of infectious diseases All these mourning practices have health effects especially due to the recent Ebola attacks and epidemics in the West African countries. The communities in the West African Countries should consider that their mourning rites of a deceased member of their community have a great impact on the health of the rest of the community (Kiskowski 988). It is a common mourning tradition in the communities of West Africa where the bodies of the dead should wash with a member of the extended family before the start of the mourning period. Physicians and Ebola experts in the West African region have raised concerns on the practices of washing the bodies of the dead (Zhang & Hao 761). Due to the Ebola outbreak in this region, many people are at a risk of contracting the Ebola virus from contact with the body; yet, the communities in the region do not want to change their mourning traditions for purposes of keeping themselves safe. Just before an Ebola patient dies, he or she emits blood that has the Ebola virus. A hemorrhagic fever overtakes the patient who is at the verge of death or has already died and the body releases many fluids. The fluid released from an Ebola patient has a lot of Ebola virus. After the death of the Ebola patient, fluids seep out of every pore of the body of the dead person, and they have a high concentration of the virus. Any contact with the fluids will make the person contract the virus that does not yet have a cure (Wolz 1083). For this purpose, there is a very high likelihood that the person handling the body of the Ebola patient after his death will contract the deadly virus. Communities in West Africa also have the tendency to care for the body of the dead through keeping it vigil, touching it and kissing the forehead of the deceased who had Ebola. These acts and contacts expose the community to immediate harm and risk of getting the Ebola virus. The World Health Organization has made efforts of discouraging the communities in West Africa from practicing their mourning traditions because they encourage the spread of the virus in the community (Bausch & Lara 882). They urge the health care workers in the countries, and especially those natives of the countries to urge the people to abandon their rites of mourning for their death, at least until the threat of Ebola subside. There exist culturally driven rules and procedures on how to handle the body in the West African countries, but these practices put a burden on the family who are at risk of exposure to the virus (Zhang & Hao 763). Direct contact with the corpse of an Ebola patient will endanger the whole community because they will in turn infect the rest of the mourners. As a control to the spread of the disease, the Red Cross organization and the various health workers in the West African countries have opted to take the burden of ensuring partial adherence to the traditions of the communities in the countries. The communities fear and refuse to abandon their mourning practices. As a result, the health workers allow them to look at the faces of their deceased beloved ones for the last time before they zip up the body bag containing the body (Wolz 1085). The family viewing the body should be at a safe distance so that they cannot touch the body. The health workers take up the responsibility of washing the body of the deceased in a strong disinfectant and chlorinated water. This act reduces the risk of further contamination with the Ebola virus. Further, the health workers have the capability of protecting themselves from contamination because they have protective gear and they have awareness and knowledge of the various ways of protecting themselves from contamination from the body. After washing the body, they put it in a body bag, close it up and disinfect the body bag before putting it in a second body bag. The second body bag ensures that there is a minimal chance of further contamination from the body that is still emitting fluids rich in the Ebola virus (Richards et al 226). Burial Traditions As a final rite of passage in human life, as according to the West African beliefs, death takes a long time before it proceeds to the next stage in the cycle of life (Vann 662). It is a passage with many interruptions. As such, the community has to ensure that it sends the deceased to a comfortable place in the afterlife through the appropriate traditions. The burial traditions in the West African communities, as with the mourning traditions, take a lot of time and depend on the status, sex, and age of the deceased. The influential people in the community as well as the people who die while in old age receive longer burial celebrations than their younger counterparts do. The communities in West Africa do not hold many celebrations for the people who die young or as infants, although they still have to consider the proper traditions when burying them. The communities believe that they should make the transition after death to be as smooth as possible (Jindra & Joel 678). Failure to do so would make the dead come back to the world of the living and terrorize the living who had not appeased them in their funeral. A major ritual in the funeral arrangements and celebrations for a deceased person is in the offer of food for the mourners and the bereaved family. The mourners and people who have come to bury the dead should feed well. It shows the respect accorded to the dead person. When an influential person in the community dies, his extended family should ensure the provision of enough food to the mourners for purposes of paying respect to the dead. Other traditions commonly observed are dancing. The mourners remove the body from the house on the night preceding the da of the burial and they dance all around it. Touching of the body has acceptance in the community, and especially for the members who have a direct relation to the dead person. The women dance around the body while the women wail loudly to indicate their sorrow. Men do not have the allowance to wait for it has the consideration of being unmanly (Jindra & Joel 674). The people in Guinea and Nigeria slaughter a bull and spill the blood on the ground before collecting some of it for purposes of sprinkling it to the people of the immediate bereaved family. The purpose of this ritual is to cleanse the family from attacks of evil spirits and ghosts. The blood poured into the ground indicates the accompanying of the deceased into the world of the dead so that their ghost can rest safely among the rest of the ancestors of the community. In some communities in West Africa, the people cover the body of the deceased in the hide of the slaughtered animal for purposes of showing their affection for the deceased. It is also a common practice for the family of the dead person to take all the belongings of the deceased and place them next to the body (Magesa 733). They act as an accompaniment for the deceased into the afterlife where the will have an easy time continuing with their activities. In the case the community believes that the diseased passed because of an evil act by a member of the community who is still alive, they bury the body with weapons such as axes, knives and machetes so that the dead person can later avenge his death. The children and women are not allowed to visit the graveyard during the funeral because they have a consideration of being inferior in the community and they might cause bad luck to the community (De Dong & Ria 388). However, the men have the allowance to meet the body during the funeral ceremony. Many communities in the West Africa practice the tradition of home bringing where after a month or so after the burial of the body, the community gathers at the graveyard and slaughters a bull. The slaughtering ceremony acts as a show that the bereaved family is still in the mood of grieving. The family speaks to the members who had earlier departed, including their dead relative and they ask them to allow them to continue the rest of their lives in peace. There is the common belief that before the family conducts the home bringing ceremony; the spirit of the dead person is still hovering around waiting to find a place to rest (Goody 226). The home bringing ceremony allows the spirit of the dead family member to return home with its family so that it can act as their ancestor and protect them from harm. In the case of a Christian family, the members of the church have a vigil at the home of the deceased on the night of the home bringing ceremony. The case of deceased Ebola patients The funeral traditions also pose great risks of infection of the community in West Africa with the Ebola Virus. The families of the deceased Ebola patients still insist that they want to come into close contact with the bodies of their loved ones. They do not understand why the Red Cross Organization officials, the World Health Organization officials, and the Health workers deny them their right to bury their own death (Wolz 1088). The health officials advice the communities against handling and burying the deceased Ebola patients. The bodies of the deceased Ebola patients still have a high rate and capability of infecting the people handling the bodies. The funeral traditions of the West African countries, and especially Liberia and Guinea, allow the community to touch the bodies of the dead (Zhang & Hao 765). The men, especially, have the traditional right and permission to touch the bodies while dancing for purposes of making the dead feel involved in the funeral and appeased. The home bringing rituals also pose problems for the community from the perspective of contracting the Ebola virus. The world health organization prefers the bodies of the dead Ebola victims to have a mass burial so that there can be less cases of contamination of the communities. There should not be a risk where the community can meet the bodies of the deceased (Oleribe et al 79). The people in the West African Countries, however, refuse to neither accept nor understand the measures taken by the health officials. To these communities, there is nothing more important than giving their dead a proper burial and appeasing their spirits. Burying the dead in mass graves and worse, without the presence of their families is a great crime in the perspective of these communities (Richards et al 204). They maintain that the men should not have the same burial as the women and children, and worse, in the same grave. The situation of disagreement has brought about a lot of mistrust between the African communities in West Africa and the health workers. Despite these disagreements, the health workers have the obligation of ensuring that they stop the spread of the virus (Kiskowski 927). They bury the dead Ebola patients themselves in double body bags and in secluded areas where there is no settlement of people. Further, they prefer burying the dead in mass graves so as to reduce the risk of contamination where there are scattered burial sites all over the area (Wolz 1086). A preferred burial method for the dead Ebola patients is through cremation, especially in communities with an Islamic religious belief. Cremation of the bodies ensures that the bodies do not raise the likelihood of the spread of the virus. The heat and destruction of the body permanently damages the entire virus present in the fluids of the body of the disease. Conclusion The mourning and funeral of a beloved one and a member of the community is a community affair where everyone shares in the sorrow of the loss. The people of West Africa have a lot of respect for their rituals and traditions in mourning and burying their dead. However, these rituals and traditions involve the community exposing themselves to a lot of risk in the case of dealing with dead Ebola patients. The bodies of the deceased Ebola patients are very lethal because they secrete fluids that have a lot of concentration of the Ebola virus. Health officials from Red Cross and the World Health Organization have tried to sensitize the communities in West Africa on the deadly nature of the bodies of their beloved ones. They propose that the community deals with the bodies of the Ebola patients with care but to no avail. The health officials and workers, therefore, have to risk the wrath of the community and burry the bodies themselves. However, they allow the families of the deceased to view the deceased for the last time before they dispose of the body. The disposition of the bodies should be in a safe manner. The method of cremation is the preferred method especially among the Muslims. However, in other cases, they burry the bodies of the Ebola patients in mass graves. Works Cited Bausch, Daniel G., and Lara Schwarz. "Outbreak of ebola virus disease in Guinea: where ecology meets economy." PLoS neglected tropical diseases 8.7 (2014): e3056. De Jong, Joop T., and Ria Reis. 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