African Death Rite Of Passage, Dialogue And Inculturation
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Date
2000-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
One of the objectives of this paper is to lead to a deeper understanding of
the mystery of death and the rituals surrounding it. The term "death" is commonly
understood as "end of life" - and human experience seems to echo this.
From the African context, death is looked at as a moment of passing from
the earthly life to another realm of life. It is a rite of passage like birth, Initiation
into adulthood and marriage. Philosophically, death is defined as a separation of
the intertwine aspects of the human person. That is, the body and the soul. From
the christian perspective, death is a mystery which can be answered only by
another mystery, the death of Jesus Christ.
From the clinical or biological definition, death is the point when the brain's
functioning stops.
Because of the complexity and depth of the African death rites, only a few
ethnic groupings have been considered in this paper for the sake of clarity and
particularity. These are: The Luo and Abaluyia of Kenya; The lteso, Baganda,
Jopadhola and Bakonzo of Uganda, The chagga, Hehe and Bena of Tanzania; and
the Ndebele of Zimbabwe.
An attempt has, however, been made to discern some similarities and
differences between the Christian and African Traditional concepts of death. The
conclusion proposes the need for dialogue and inculturation of the compatible
African death rites with Christianity. During the course of research, I used certain methods. This includes
interviewing aided by a tape recorder. The informants are mainly from Uganda
and Kenya and are from different walks of life. I also used questionnaire and
library work.
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Keywords
Inculturation, Dialogue, Death, rite