Every weekend you can make a sure bet on two things. Laundry will be hanging between every shack in the community and a half a dozen funeral tents will be erected and filled. A Xhosa funeral is easy to spot. The family puts up a big circus type tent (they actually look like our fumigation tents) and fill the yard with as many chairs as they can come up with and for a week family members from all over South Africa come and eat, drink and make merry, all while paying their respects to the departed and the immediate family.
I was struck this week by the devotion of the Mbekweni community as hundreds of people came out for the funeral of a middle aged woman who had been very active in the neighborhood and a positive influence over youth and local politics. Whether people had a relationship with her or not, they came to the funeral. It's what you do here. When a member of your community falls, you pick each other up. You all feel the effects of someone else's loss. It's really a beautiful quality that demonstrates the African Philosophy 'Ubuntu'...which means 'I am because we are'.
1 comment:
It is great how they seem to celebrate the person who has died...and how they all come together.
Thank you so much for sharing this...
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