Death, Funerals, and Voodoo

As far as universal cultural norms go, ceremonies and rituals for the deceased is one of the most common, what changes from culture to culture is how they do it. During the time that I have lived in my village two elderly people have passed away and just today a 20-year-old young man was laid to rest.

The families of the elderly folks who past away claim that their mother, grandmother, great-grand mother lived in one case to be 114 and the other 94. There was not a ‘birth certificate’ system here until recently and thus it is impossible to know the exact age of either of the women who passed away. All I know is that life expectancy is much shorter here than other places, but I suppose a few can defy the odds. As they were old and families often marry other families in the same village and add to that the fact that people love to have lots of kids, nearly everyone is related to everyone else in my village of ~2000 people. For the elderly the immediate family members are almost obligated to host a party celebrating the life of the person. For one woman, I counted at least 12 different parties. They take place on the weekends and people often dance, drink, and eat for 48hrs straight. The funeral happens on Sunday, preceded by a large procession following the hearse with the casket to the Catholic Church, and afterward the party continues until the early morning of Monday.

The biggest departure from our rituals surrounding death is that while back home we mourn, cry, and tell stories to remember the person, here, they play loud music and dance until exhaustion. Ohh, they also think it is completely bizarre that we cremate the remains of our loved ones.

As Catholicism is becoming the predominate believe system in my village, despite it being fused with aspects of Voodoo, people believe in the biblical version of life after death. Where Voodoo comes in, and not, necessarily in a good way but it makes sense all the less, is the understanding of an unexplainable illness/death.

Yesterday afternoon, an young man of 20 years passed away after traditional medicine failed to cure him. I did not know him personally. Today he was laid to rest and there will not be any parties and no one will be dancing. The funeral resembled much more what we do back home, mourning the loss of the person as opposed to celebrating their life. The reason for a complete lack of celebrations is because this kid had not lived a full life, which is something to mourn rather than celebrate, in the eyes of the residents.

I was told that five days ago this young man began suffering from acute and intense stomach pains and the pain quickly spread to his back and his chest, a high fever, and a painful sensitivity to any pressure applied to his abdominal region. I immediately said that that sounds a lot like appendicitis but as I was told this after the fact, I did not have the opportunity to tell the family that he needs to immediately go to a hospital. This young man’s father is a traditional healer and thus he used plants, prays, and creams to cure his son. Unfortunately, if my gut feeling (no pun intended) is correct and it was a ruptured appendix that quickly poisoned his system nothing can be done other than to get in and remove it. When I ask people why they think he died or what killed him, they are quick to blame gri-gri, or evil Voodoo. Many residents believe that a curse was put on him; for what reason I ask, they say that as his father is a prominent observer of Voodoo practices, perhaps he angered another person and a retaliatory curse was laid on his son.

I have explained my appendicitis theory to a few friends in village and none of them had ever heard of such a disease. I also talked to a guy who was helping with the care of the young man and he said that they did eventually call a doctor, who came out, diagnosed the appendicitis, and then they immediately jumped into a car on route to the local hospital. Unfortunately, the boy died on the way.

The consequences of thinking this was gri-gri probably not only contributed to his death by depending on traditional medicine but it also explains the death away and puts it in a realm where nothing can be done. If this was a curse and they just failed to lift it then there is no accountability on a family who did not take him to a hospital or call a doctor in time even though both are trusted institutions in Benin, no accountability on a government for not educating people in schools about this disease, and because there is no accountability, then nothing will be done. The disease is explained away to a point that absolves anyone of any responsibility and when there is no responsibility there is no reason to change.

Why this all makes sense, too much sense, is that the lack of education means no one knows what appendicitis is, thus they depend on traditional medicine, but they still need a way to explain the death, which is where Voodoo and Gri-Gri come in. The unfortunate thing is that the answer to curses will be found in roots, prayers, and ritualistic bathing, as opposed to a hospital, if people were to see this as a disease.