THE BI-KPACHLIB TRADITIONAL FUNERAL RITES AND ITS PASTORAL CHALLENGE
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Date
2005
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
In the northern part of Togo, people had seen and still have in mind that
Christianity is a threat to social, religious and cultural values because of the negative
attitudes that the first missionaries had toward the local cultures. Today there are a
lot of efforts to use the local cultural values to promote Christianity. Firstly, it is in
this line that I have chosen to investigate the funeral sacrifices in the Bi-Kpaciilib
culture with the aim at using its cultural values to promote a process towards
inculturation. Secondly, my choice is also motivated by the fact that these funeral
sacrifices deal with the cosmic and social disorder caused by death and the
restoration of communion among the living — on the one hand — and on the other,
reflection upon the relationship between the living and the "living-dead"' can offer a
possibility of constructive dialogue between the Church and the Bi-Kpaciilib culture.
The funeral sacrifices that are being performed from the moment of the
announcement of a death until the closing of the funeral concern an adult person
who had children or at least one child. In the context of Bi-Kpaciilib culture, one
should keep in mind that "death is the passage from life in this world to life in the
world of the spirits, the world of the living-dead."2 The study of funeral sacrifices
within the Bi-Kpaciilib culture is being carried out as a contribution to the
inculturation process that allows "local cultures to discover those fundamental
elements that must be purified, those which need substitutes, those which have to be
rejected without a substitute and those which can be incorporated in Christianity and
J.S. MBITI, African Religions and Philosophy, 58. 2 J. BRAGOTH, - al., We Pray and Sing w the Lord, 183.
2
without change."3 Somehow, I would like to contribute, at least in small way, to the
Church's ongoing efforts to find a more suitable way of making Gospel values
meaningful to the Bi-Kpaciilib by using the values found in their own culture.
In my research, I interviewed some of the Bi-Kpaciilib in order to get to
know more about the funeral sacrifices. My informants are female and male. I also
read various books and articles dealing with African religions, sacrifices, and the
inculturation process issue. Also, as a native and someone who has grown up in Bi
Kpaciilib culture, I will use my own experience.
I have structured my work into three chapters. hi the first chapter I discuss an
overall view of the Bi-Kpaciilib cultural concept of death, funerals and sacrifice, and
how the people relate to and understand the world in which they live, and their view
of Christianity.
The second chapter will focus on one of the Bi-Kpaciilib traditional funeral
rites at the various ritual stages before and after the burial. I will show how these
values and aspects can be used theologically as the means of promoting the Christian
faith or can be purified in the context of the Christian faith.
In the third chapter, I will deal with the pastoral challenge that lies in the
burial of a Christian among the Bi-Kpaciilib. Secondly, I will see how to use these
values found in the traditional funeral rites as channels to communicate the Gospel
values to the Bi-Kpaciilib, in their own culture
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Keywords
THE BI-KPACHLIB TRADITIONAL FUNERAL RITES AND ITS PASTORAL CHALLENGE