Secondary funeral rituals among the Konkomba of Northern Ghana : the Bichabob tribe example

Robert Hertz introduced a term "double funeral" into ethnology. Among the nonliterate peoples it comprises both the burial rituals and the rituals of the secondary funeral. The Konkomba perceive death as a process of several years. The author participated in secondary funerals from the second half of February till the beginning of May, 1991 in six villages: Nalongni, Sobib, Kumawateek (Bichabob tribe), Puo Tindaando (Bigbem tribe), Lemo (Nakpantiib tribe), Sambul (Bimonkpom tribe). -- The article describes and analyses the secondary funeral in the Bichabob tribe on an example of the inhabitants of three villages: Nalongni, Sobib and Kumwateek. Important events of secondary funerals, which last from six to seven days, include: purification of widows, dances, the widows' visits to the homesteads, divination rites, visits of a large number of guests, visits on yam farms belonging to the dead old men made by the widows, shooting at a pole (lipil) and a rooster in the case of the death of the oldest member of a clan, farewell of dead women descending from other clans to the inhabitants of the villages where they started to live after getting married, and division of the dead old men's property. -- The costly celebration of the secondary funeral is held in every village every three or four years in remembrance of all who died since the last secondary funeral. It is only after the secondary funeral that a dead person can attain the dignity of an ancestor and his property is inherited and taken over via mediation of the oldest member of the lineage by the dead person's relatives who are his lineal descendants. Through the rites of the secondary funeral the dead person is transformed from somebody who threatens the community into its guardian as a member of the invisible community of the dead. The secondary funeral ultimately finishes the mourning period after the dead, it confirms the triumph of the community over death, emphasizes the value of life and leads the community through the hard time of sorrow.