This article examines bereavement and mourning practices among African families during World War I by focusing on traditional modes of mourning, grieving, and remembering the dead. It also looks at the participation and death of African soldiers in the war, and the factors that often led to injury, illness, and death among African servicemen during World War I.
Colonial rule spread Western ideas, values, and practices to African culture beginning in the latter half of the 19th century. The colonial influence on African culture was particularly evident during World War I, when the wartime experiences of African families and soldiers led to major changes in African ideas, beliefs, and practices pertaining to illness, death, burial, and remembrance.
More than 2 million Africans participated in World War I and around 200,000 African soldiers and carriers lost their lives during military service. As a result of African participation and experience in the war, many African families began to adopt Western mourning practices related to grieving, burying, and remembering the dead.
Africans universally believed that life was sacred and that every person had a right to proper treatment and care in life and death. The vast majority of Africans believed in treating the ill, the injured, the dying and the dead with care. However, different African communities - ethnic, regional, and religious, to mention only a few - traditionally dealt with matters of illness, death, bereavement, and mourning in different ways.
The way the Yoruba of Nigeria mourned, grieved and remembered the dead was not always the same as that of the Gikuyu of Kenya. Take for example, the manner in which the Nandi of Kenya and the Igbo of Nigeria handled the bodies of the dying and the dead: the Nandi would often move the very ill and dying out of their homesteads to be left out in a faraway open field. If a sick person recovered from this ordeal, they would be welcomed back into the homestead, but, if they died, the body would be left for the hyenas to devour. The Igbo kept the ill and dying within the homestead to receive treatment until they died or recovered. If a person died, they would be buried in a grave within the homestead.
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Nearly all African communities regarded illness and death with great trepidation. Human beings were expected to live and enjoy a normal life until death in old age and many African families believed that an early death was not a natural occurrence. Many African families took such steps caring for the ill and the injured not only out of love, but also out of a strong belief in life after death; more specifically, the belief of power of the dead over the living.
Nearly all African communities believed that when somebody died, their spirit passed on to another world where they could continue communing with the living, dispensing favors and misfortune. African families often tried to ensure that the dead were given a proper burial and their families were provided with moral, material, and spiritual support.
Death was an occasion for every member of the community to come together to mourn, remember, commiserate, and send off the spirit of the dead into the next world. Nearly all African communities believed in burying the dead in their ancestral land, where the spirit of the dead would join with the spirit world.
Among Ghana’s Ashanti, families, relatives, and members of the community would mourn at the homestead of the deceased. During such occasions, the Ashanti performed solemn rites on the dead, offered sacrifices in his memory, and participated in elaborate burial ceremonies. Every able-bodied, adult member of the Ashanti community was generally expected to attend burial ceremonies because it was believed that the dead would notice those present and those absent and would offer their blessings and curses accordingly.
The Abanyala sub-group of the Abaluhya of Kenya performed ceremonies commemorating the end of mourning by slaughtering and eating chickens and cows at the homestead of the deceased. Among the Baganda of Uganda, “the state of mourning or ‘death’ (olumbe) was ended by a ceremony called ‘destroying death’ (okwaabya olumbe).
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Apart from performing elaborate funeral ceremonies, members of African communities also took other measures to commemorate the dead. The Nyau Society among the Chewa of Malawi staged complex masquerade ceremonies complete with death masks to commemorate death and other important social occasions. The Luo of Kenya named their children after the dead believing that this was one of the best ways to keep their memory alive. The Shona and the Ndebele of Zimbabwe built shrines for the spirit of the dead in their homes.
Many African communities observed mourning, bereavement, and remembrance ceremonies that sometimes lasted for weeks, months, even years.
Map of Africa
African Soldiers in World War I
African soldiers served in World War I mostly in the armies of the British, French and German colonial powers, some as volunteers, but the overwhelming majority as conscripts. While some soldiers served as combatants on the frontlines, the majority served as carriers (porters). Many were killed in combat in Africa and Europe and many more were killed by health problems brought about by exhaustion, exposure to the elements, and disease.
It has been estimated that about 1,800 African soldiers in the German Schutztruppe and about 1,377 African soldiers on the British side were killed in combat during the East African Campaign. About 30,000 African soldiers were killed while serving in the French army in Europe. Of the nearly 2 million African soldiers who served in World War I, almost 200,000 died during the war. In East Africa alone, nearly 1 million African servicemen were involved in the war in one way or another, and about 10 percent of them lost their lives.
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Many African families were shocked by the sheer number of casualties and deaths. They knew the number of soldiers who went to the war together, and they also knew the number of soldiers who came back. So no one had to tell them their sons were dead; they guessed it on their own. But afterward, we told them how they died. Those of us who knew how their sons died explained to their families what had happened to them…I had to do this once… A son from my grandfather’s family was lost in Champagne…And they knew that we went to the war together. But when I came back, they did not see him. And after a while, they began to ask me where he was.
Nevertheless, the modes of mourning and burial of dead African soldiers across and beyond Africa during the war were not uniform. Among the Chewa, who upheld traditional practices and funerary rites, bereaved families would often invite members of the feared Nyau Society to perform death rituals at funerals during and after World War I. Among traditional Luo families, respected family members of the deceased and community elders would lead the family in mourning.
Members of the community would visit the dead soldier’s home, singing his praises and reciting dirges while condemning the evil spirits for taking away a great member of their community. Young and elderly men would run helter-skelter about the dead man’s homestead, wielding spears and shields and bows and arrows, in mock battles with the evil spirits. Members of the community would slaughter animals to feed mourners attending the funeral and to pay homage to the dead soldier’s memory.
Many African families performed traditional funeral rites without the bodies of the dead as many African soldiers died far away from home, in places where bodies could not be retrieved. In such situations, families were often compelled to conduct funeral rites for their dead soldiers in accordance with their traditional customs. The Luo, for example, usually buried the fruit of the yago (Kigelia africana) tree in a grave in the dead soldier’s homestead in the same manner they would have buried his body. Other African families ceremonially buried various types of objects to represent and commemorate the death of their soldiers whose bodies were absent.
African Troops in World War I
Changes in Traditions Due to Colonialism and War
The experience of African families and soldiers during the war, in particular, and under colonialism, in general, led to major changes in African ideas, beliefs, and practices pertaining to illness, death, burial, and remembrance. We see this change during and after World War I, when, for example, African families that had converted to Christianity and adopted Western customs began to bury their dead soldiers in the Christian style.
Exactly how many Africans had converted to Christianity during the early colonial period is not clear. It is clear, however, that when families had converted to Christianity, they often observed Christian rituals and practices during burial ceremonies. Among the Zulu Christian converts, for example, many bereaved families would invite, not their traditional elders, but, rather, an ordained minister to lead the mourners in grieving and burying the dead.
African families also yielded authority to the colonial military officials to bury their dead in war cemeteries both in Africa and Europe. Instead of insisting on traditional ceremonies, they began to accept and observe colonial military customs. In the same vein, African families began to recognize colonial monuments built to honor and glorify the sacrifices and heroic accomplishments of living and dead African soldiers during the war.
African families in Kenya, for example, were often in awe of the statue of three soldiers that stands on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi, Kenya, a monument built in honor of the East African contingent of the British army. While some African families perpetuated traditional modes of mourning and others adopted Western practices, still others tried to straddle both traditional and western spaces in funerary customs and other facets of life.
Over the course of World War I, African families mourned, buried, and honored dying and dead soldiers with both traditional and Western/colonial practices.
Corpse Carried On The Shoulder At A Funeral In Ghana
Traditional African Culture: Death as the Continuation of Life
Within traditional African cultures in general, life does not end with death, but merely progresses into another realm. Thus, death within such a context does not terminate or end a person’s life in an absolute sense, but rather causes a change in the state or condition of existence. When looking at the ethical discourse surrounding death within such a context, the effect of this perception is that the notions of “life” and “death” are not caught up in an absolute, opposing binary, as they are within a more western, modern setting.
Crucially, this lack of mutual exclusivity implies that there are no solid, dividing lines between the two concepts, and that linguistically, the connotations of ‘death’ within such a context are far less harsh and severe as what they are in the settings described in Part A. Superficially, the stance towards death within an African traditional setting is the same as any other culture, whereby death is a naturally feared and unwanted occurrence. It is in no way glorified or glamorised, and remains a culturally and universally difficult and challenging thing to overcome.
However, the underlying philosophy of the Tshivenda tribe for example, perceives death as the start of someone’s “deeper relationship with all of creation”. Furthermore, the implied role of death within such a culture is to complement life, and to introduce the deceased to the realm of communication among the living and non-living, or the invisible and visible worlds.
Hereby, ancestral worship comes to the fore, which is a crucial component of traditional African culture. In family and community settings in particular, a deceased family member does not merely get celebrated, mourned and remembered, but rather gets venerated to the extent that he or she becomes an “important extension of the living”. Deceased family members thus become ‘living dead’ or ancestors, whereby their existence has not ceased, but has merely changed in terms of ontological form.
Transition to the After Life
Thus, in light of the above-mentioned transition or ‘crossing-over’ into another spiritual realm, death can be understood as the catalyst for this transition. In better understanding this secondary, ‘spiritual’ world, it is significant to note that in Western religions and cultures such as Christianity, such transitions also occur, whereby it is for example believed that death implies the loss and decay of the physical body, but the continued existence of the soul in a new spiritual realm, such as heaven.
In a traditional, African context however, with the Tshivenda culture in mind specifically, there is no distinct, clear cut dualism that distinguishes “physical” from “spiritual”. Rather than merely a “part” of somebody living on, such as their soul, the person continues into the spiritual world in a whole state, equipped with a new body that identically resembles the earthly one, “but enhanced with powers to move about as an ancestor”.
In further understanding this alternative, spiritual realm from a Tshivenda perspective, Mbiti notes that the deceased go to a spatial “place” that resembles and replicates the real world. This can be understood as an “extension” of the present, whereby the geographic and social contexts remain the same, except with the absence of negative experiences such as pain or hunger. In further making sense of this perception toward the after-life, it must crucially be noted that a belief in the post-humus spiritual life “does not constitute a hope for a future and better life”.
Crucially, a break away from the monotheistic religions of the world hereby occurs in that, as Mbiti notes: “To live here and now is the most important concern of African religious activities and beliefs…Even life in the hereafter is conceived of in materialistic and physical terms. There is neither paradise to be hoped for nor hell to be feared in the hereafter”.
Ultimately, this perspective towards the after-life as a form of continued living represents a softer and more approachable understanding of death, in that it does not imply the strongly dualistic dichotomy between life and death that is so commonly perceived in more modern, westernised settings, whereby death is ‘othered’ and implies the absolutely final sequestration from life.
Ancestral veneration
The ‘Good’ Death
In any society, the general perception toward death is constructed as a form of social phenomenon which is directly informed by religion, language and culture. Thus, death as a social phenomenon is approached differently from culture to culture, and depends on history, social context and religious affiliation.
In social discourse surrounding death, each culture can be understood as having its own idea of a ‘good death’. As paradoxical as the notion of a ‘good death’ may seem, the concept itself can be traced back to Greek etymology. Two divergent sources hereby emerge, whereby the one meaning entails ‘to die well’. Similarly, the other etymological meaning is ‘to die nobly’, which entails the condition that a person is prepared to meet his or her own death.
Although every culture may have its own understanding of an ‘appropriate’ death, the Tshivenda culture has its own, particular and unique conception of a ‘good death’. Specifically, such a death should occur “as a public event”, whereby a person dies in his or her own home, surrounded by family members, friends and members of the community. In this context specifically, social and community support are of crucial importance, both to the dying person and to the remaining friends and family.
With deaths in a traditional Tshivenda cultural setting, a strong emphasis is placed on including the dying person in decision making relating to their own care. This has the effect of not only reducing a feeling of helplessness, but also of acknowledging such a person’s integrity, resulting in the promotion of a “healthy psychological state” both for the dying person and family members.
In further understanding the perception of a ‘good death’ from a Tshivenda perspective, it is a “natural prolongation” of the dying process which is seen as ideal, in that the dying person has the opportunity to say farewell to family and friends, as well as to make peace with their own death. Crucially, it has hereby been emphasised that a strong opposition exists to the notion of machine-aided prolongation of life within a Tshivenda setting.
Thus, a good death within this context entails the opportunity for a person to die at their home, surrounded by loved ones and with access to necessary and important rituals that allow for the “separation of the body and the soul”, and which promote a peaceful and natural death. In understanding the positive effect of the construction of the ‘good death’ notion, it can be argued that this form of death, as idealistic and rare as it may seem, is “more conducive to coping with death”. Crucially, it is here worth noting that even in a traditional Tshivenda setting, the conception of a good death has changed due to the fact that many people are rather dying in hospitals.
Rites and Rituals
In an African context, rituals and rites surrounding death are of absolute and pivotal importance, in that traditionally, it is believed that the absence of particular rituals and practises will lead to the failed transition of the deceased from this life to the afterlife, in which he or she becomes an ancestor. Thus, in understanding the way death itself is perceived in such a context, it can be defined as a brief interregnum period between life and the transition into the spiritual realm.
In traditional African communities, the bereaved family members and relatives of a deceased person have to perform particular rites and rituals that respect and reinforce prescriptions of culture. Crucially, a deceased person is not acknowledged as being among the living, nor among the dead, before such rituals have occurred.
Examples of Rituals
In looking at the rituals surrounding death and grieving within a Tshivenda culture specifically, the most universal of them is that of publically displaying grief. Such a display can occur through funerals, prayers and memorial services, whereby bereaved family members of the deceased are granted the opportunity to publicly mourn. Crucially, Radzilani notes that in her culture (she herself is of Tshivenda descent), experiences of grief need to be acknowledged, validated and approved by members of the community, in order for such experiences to carry legitimacy.
Furthermore, a great variety of particular rituals and rites exist within a Tshivenda context that serve the purpose of assisting the deceased to the afterlife. For example, some of the deceased’s personal belongings (such as clothes and dishes) are placed with him or her in the casket, based on the belief that such items may be needed during the journey to the world of the dead. Similarly, the custom exists whereby a dead body ought to be removed through a hole in the wall of a house rather than through a door. This has the effect of making it more difficult for the deceased person to memorize his path back to where he or she came from, because the hole would be sealed immediately after. When removing a body, it is also ensured that the corpse is removed “feet first”, in that this has the objective of “symbolically pointing away from the former place of residence”.
In Tshivenda (and other African) cultures, there is also a general requirement for the mourners to be ‘purified’ following the death of the deceased. This is because the family of the deceased is seen as being polluted or “contaminated” after coming into contact with the dead. Crucially, the purification process is not characterised by a malicious othering or ostracising of family members, but rather by a community-orientated, participatory ceremony in a public setting whereby all members of the community take part in order to remove contaminating spirits, following which the mourners can be re-introduced into their normal social contexts.
Crucially, rituals and mourning practices in such a context occur within a community-based manner. Funeral rituals are thus performed socially, whereby they serve the purpose of confirming a change in status for both the bereaved and the deceased. Thus, a wife’s social status will for example be changed from that of a wife to a widow through the particular rituals. Similarly, the status of the deceased will change from that of living, to that of the “living dead”, whereby they will still be perceived as living, but in a different state or form.
