Funerals in Africa by Michael Jindra Joël Noret

Author:Michael Jindra, Joël Noret [Michael Jindra, Joël Noret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782381280
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Published: 2013-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

The Rise of “Death Celebrations” in the Cameroon Grassfields

Michael Jindra

In the Anglophone Northwest Province of Cameroon, the practice that links the living and the dead to the greatest extent is called the “death celebration” (“cry die” in Pidgin), normally held months or years after a death, but varying from place to place (Page 2007; Jindra 1997). While some ritual mourning may occur, it is normally a festive event that can last for days, with the family of the deceased calling upon all of their financial and social resources to put on a successful event that involves feasting, performances by dance societies (Argenti 2007), gun firing, and other performances and rituals. Such events dominate social life in the Grassfields, drawing family and friends from far away. Whole villages turn out. As in other parts of Cameroon (Geschiere 2005; Jua 2005), they can be crucial for identity and politics, and a showplace for elites. While this event may seem “traditional” to most observers, it actually evolved into a very common, large, and crucial cultural event only in the last decades of the twentieth century (Jindra 2005).

Over the last century, the mortuary cycle has been radically transformed. Different parts of the mortuary cycle are now emphasized at the expense of others. There is less concern with pollution and purification, and there is more attention paid to honoring and beseeching the ancestors. The corpse and death itself were feared more early in the century. Death celebrations are bigger now, and people “celebrate” more than before. Many include contemporary popular music, and Christian choirs and clergy now play a major role. (Muslims are a relatively small minority in the province). As in other parts of Africa, refrigerated mortuaries are now used in some areas (Page 2007). The attitude toward masks that dance at funerary rites and other events is more casual, especially in more urban areas. In general, these changes indicate a decline in the perceived “pollution” of death, and a possible increase in beliefs about the power of the ancestors to bless, beliefs expressed most visibly in the rise of the grand death celebration, an event that is believed to involve the ancestors. The death celebration has become the central event of Grassfields social life, one in which all sectors of society can participate, traditionalists and Christians, young and old, men and women, rich and poor. This chapter will highlight how this celebration has been adapted over the years, offer the larger historical context within which it has changed, and explain the crucial and ongoing sense of ancestral presence, even in an area that has become largely Christianized.

Death celebrations range in size and duration from small and short to large and long (over several days), and the nature of a celebration depends on a number of factors, including the importance, age, and family status of the deceased, as well as the wealth of the family and supporters. To give the reader a sense of the event, I will include a description of a

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