Funerals and the war dance

It’s funeral season here, in the Upper East region of Ghana. Everything seems to have its season in this part of the world, and they are all new to us. There’s rainy season, dry season, harmattan season (when cool winds blow on down from the Sahara and bathe us in their cool glory), sowing season (many different ones for different crops), growing season, harvesting season, festival season, a season for raising guinea fowls, mango season (a particularly delicious season), and on and on……

So funeral season is not a particular time of the year when everyone decides to drop dead, it’s actually a period of time during the dry season that everyone puts on their funerals. Burials and small ceremonies happen immediately after a death, but then you need to follow that up with a lavish, several daylong eating, drinking, dancing, singing, sacrificing – sleeping very little – and then drinking, dancing, dancing, drinking party. Some families need to save money for years before they can put on a proper funeral for their loved ones.

The people we live amongst just put on a funeral for a man who was the oldest community member. It was a fulneral-palooza lasting over a week, full of dancing, drinking, and soothsaying, you know – everything good in life. I collected music and pictures from the funeral and I interviewed a couple people about the rights and traditions of the funeral. So, what follows is that collection. You only have to read a little more before you can watch the slide show and listen to the music below.

After attending a couple of funerals I still don’t really know what’s going on fully. There are traditions o’ plenty, and unfortunately we are usually unable to communicate well enough with those around us to demystify the whole process. The most conspicuous part of the funeral is the war dance. People come from different communities and perform the old old traditions involved in the war dance you will see in the pictures below. They dress in animal skins, wear traditional helmets, carry bows and arrows and they go to war in the style of their ancestors. There are drummers, singers, and then the warriors and they dance in the style of warring, fighting. And I forgot to mention that most of these warriors had been drinking for a couple days at this point, serving to inject a large dose of mayhem into the scene. During and after the performance of the war dance the other people at the funeral join in, and the drumming and dancing will go on all night. They will light fires, roast goats, donkeys, and cows. They will shoot gun powder into the air and drink pito (local alcohol drink made from fermented millet – kind of tastes like beer). Hundreds of people come from all around to honor and to celebrate the life of the deceased. The funerals are kind of like weddings in the states (but with more animal sacrifice). We would wake up in the morning and the funeral faithful would still be awake, taking some morning drink.

The origins and meaning of the war dance were explained to me: Generations ago the people of this area were scattered into small tribes, and deaths during these days were more often a cause of a tribal conflict than natural causes. And after such a death the tribe would ready themselves for war and the act of retribution. As generations progressed tribes became more intertwined and with this twining peace laid its roots into the foundations of life. The war dance was an extension of that warring tradition, a way to honor the bravery of the deceased.

In the midst of all this celebration, there are many traditions and rights performed. We have caught glimpses of many of these, but they still remain a bit shrouded in mystery. We saw the widow of one man being enclosed in a small thatched area with various objects and her children. We were told that she needs to spend the night in this enclosure. At the funeral we just attended in our community we witnessed the part of the funeral ceremony when the family consults the soothsayer. A family member sits with the soothsayer surrounded by various ceremonial objects. The soothsayer holds a stick, fashioned from wood from a particular tree, and the family head holds the other end. The family asks questions concerning the death of the family member, and the questions are answered by the motion of the stick they are both holding. If the stick falls on a particular spot the answer is yes, if on another spot the answer is no, etc. Neither person is supposed to direct the motion of the stick, the movement is supposed to be a result of the spirits involved in the consultation. The soothsayer is mainly consulted to find out the cause of the person’s death, and to find out what precautions they should take to protect themselves from further suffering. The soothsayer will make recommendations about what animals should be sacrificed to ensure the strength and health of their family. An interesting part of the soothsayer consultation is the testing of the soothsayer. The family will test the soothsayer by taking a small object and placing it near a random tree, and the soothsayer will need to divine the tree. If the soothsayer fails at this they will know that he doesn’t speak the truth, apparently the soothsayer we saw picked the right tree. (How embarrassing would it be to pick the wrong tree?)

So I will let you get on to the slide show now. I have also included a small portion of an interview with a local fra fra man (fra fra = the name of the tribe in this part of Ghana). The man is talking about the soothsayer’s role in funerals and in general. It may be a bit hard to follow, but the info from above will give you an idea of what he is talking about. At the end of the interview is an audio recording of the soothsayer saying his soothe (the soothsayer shakes a rattle throughout the ceremony, supposedly it has the eyes of a bird called a kite in it to help the man see far….. Enjoy.