𝘽𝙐𝙍𝙄𝘼𝙇 𝙍𝙄𝙏𝙀𝙎/𝙍𝙄𝙏𝙐𝘼𝙇𝙎 𝙄𝙉 𝙋𝙍𝙀-𝘾𝙊𝙇𝙊𝙉𝙄𝘼𝙇 𝙏𝘼𝙄𝙏𝘼

 

There are many complex and even long rituals and ceremonies associated with death, however, circumstances surrounding the death of a person, age, sex and social status of the dead were the most important factors that dictated these death rituals and ceremonies in the past.

The tradition is that from the time when death is announced, old people gather at the homestead for wake keeping. During this time all the members of the village present a certain amount of money which vary from one village to the other. These contributions were mandatory, since records of all the contributors were kept and it was for everyone on the wake keeping exercise to cater for their needs.

It was also noted that the homestead, and especially where the wake-keepers were gathered, fire was lit to prevent darkness from instilling fear into the people performing the wake keeping. Food stuffs, water and firewood were brought by the villages, in turns from the day; death occurred until the day the burial took place. The wake-keepers were succeeded by day-watchers who stay in the homestead to help the family members mourn the dead. The villagers make visits to console the family of the deceased. Even the corpse is still in the mortuary, the day watchers and the wake-keepers continue to observe vigilance until the day of the burial of the dead.

Mourning among the Taita is mostly by the relatives of the deceased and friends. Any death of an individual leaves two parties, the person who dies and the survivors who mourn, the desolation that follows the loss of the loved one is bereavement and accordingly it the most severe psychological trauma most people will encounter in the course of their lives. The mourners would also wear black garments to signify that dark moment of their lives of losing a loved one. For from four (4) to seven (7) days they do no work in the fields, and on the day the death takes place they eat nothing as a sign of deep lamentation.

Furthermore, death throws the entire village into a mourning state and if a member of the family or village does not show openly that he or she is mourning he or she may be accused of having caused the death through witchcraft. Weeping among the family members was common as they mourned the dead. However, among the Taita weeping is more common to women than men.

The women, on the other hand, really mourn, and their mourning are audible far and wide. For from two to five days they do no work in the fields, and on the day the death takes place they eat nothing. It is usually considered inappropriate for a man to show his feelings, but even a man may be seen to weep.

After death has been confirmed, the old men go to dig the grave, which is made in the neghbourhood of the hut they often quarrelled over it and tried to get out of the work, especially if the ground is hard. Nor is the hole dug very deep, they content themselves with making it just deep enough to prevent the body being scraped up by hyenas. The minimum depth may perhaps be set at one meter. They first dig straight down and then out at the sides, so that a round hole is made. The corpse is then laid on a bier of sticks and carried out by two old men (waghosi). One man steps down in to the hole to receive the body and lay it in the round cavity. Immediately after death, and before the limbs have had time to stiffen, they are bent up towards the body, a custom which is very prevalent among Bantu peoples, which included the great Taita people as well.

The dead man is laid up on his right side, with his head resting upon his hand, as though he were sleepi ng. A woman is laid in the same manner, but on the left side.

The face is turned to the east or the west. The body is naked, except for a piece of cloth or an old blanket over the head, to keep out the soil from the face. None of the belongings of the deceased are placed in the grave. A grave is avoided after dark, for there is said to be a risk of meeting its owner .

Weeping reaches at its peak as the body is lowered to the grave, this is the most critical point of mourning as “people realize for sure, that the dead person is gone for good, previously they were in a state of denial and refuse to accept that death has actually occurred”. The mourning becomes intense, if the dead played an important role in the family.

The body was washed and hair shaved by old women past child bearing age in the village. Formerly, the corpse was always placed in the grave (kina) in an upright position. The head was covered about one foot to the earth, stones marked its position so as to enable the descendants to exhume the skulls after about 40 days and taken to a local shrine. This style of burial is nowadays is hardly practiced and skulls are seldom exhumed.

When medicine men died, wailing was not allowed, until after a sheep had been sacrificed. If death was caused by a certain epidemic, the mourners were first cleansed by medicine men before mourning.

Members of the community regarded as important and famous were accorded special burial ceremonies. The body would be buried in a hut or in a special burial place (Vinenyi) usually in the grooves near the settlement. After the burial, close relatives of the deceased were ceremonially washed at the doorway of the hut. The men then harvested a lot of sugarcane to make a brew known as Lambo for the following day.

On the first day after burial, a goat was slaughtered and the contents of the stomach put aside for sacrificial purposes. Later, it was roasted in the doorway using grass from above the door and beams from the left side of the house to make fire. The meat was eaten with porridge. The first seven mouthfuls were spewed on the ground. Chief mourners were shaved and wailing continued for four days, after which friends would return to their homes. Close relatives would continue for a further three days. On the seventh day, women would go to fetch firewood, and men went to the plains to hunt and shoot game meat as a break and then come back to mourn until a complete lunar month had passed.

Closing the period of mourning was known as kuchumbua maridia. This event was marked by scattering the contents of the sacrificial goat over crops. On the very last day, friends returned to take part in the last night of wailing, shaving themselves again. The women oiling, themselves on the doorway of the hut.

The collection of the head was done 40 days after burial, shortly after the shaving ceremony conducted for the immediate family members. A mock fight of bows and arrows, as well as spears, was done to 'chase away' the spirit of death from the homestead.

The whole atmosphere would be gloomy and people clearly shaken by the death. The village elders would say that death is eminent to everybody and in Taita language they would say Isanga ni Mwasighwa (Meaning the land will always remain but people would pass on).

Those who had helped dig the grave were old and married people, the young ones were not allowed near the graveyard, the diggers were also paid by slaughtering a cow for them on that occasion.

If the deceased had been widowed (lost a husband or wife) to death before, the hut where they were previously living would be sold for a goat or sheep and then dismantled and the poles and the thatching used elsewhere by the purchaser. Otherwise, the husband or wife would continue to occupy it.

After 40 days, the graves were exhumed, because they considered the germs must have died by then, and the most heads that were “harvested” were for those deemed clean hearten, those were the wise and the medicine men…they will later join those in the shrine to complete the HOLINESS that is we (the living) The Living dead (ancestors) and our GOD (Mulungu).

When a married woman dies, her children are given to another wife, as well as her calves and goats. A woman is buried naked too, but her ornaments are not taken off until she is lying in the grave; the other women say that they could not bear to see her' deprived of these things. Little children are not buried by , but by old women

The spectacular Taita Hills were the focus for religious activity and there are huge Rocks (Magamba), and caves known as 'Mbanga' that were considered very sacred places for the dead and for worship. In earlier times the caves also offered security and places of shelter.

At the caves the skulls of the dead were arranged according to clans or lineages. The caves also acted also as isolation wards for dreaded diseases and infected patients. The sick would be isolated and confined to the caves and food provided to them at the caves and fire lit and then he is left alone. If a patient survived he or she would be allowed to rejoin the community.

Taita spirituality was expressed in shrines (mwanjenyi) and sacred places (ngomenyi) where sacrifices can be offered. A shrine is a place marked off for religious objects and where sacrifices could be offered. As per previous observations , it is noted that some shrines belong to a family clan, such as those connected with departed family members or their graves. Others belong to the community, and these are often in groves, rocks, caves, hills, mountains, and under certain trees.

There were no family shrines….because there were no family doctors (waganga), no family prophets (walodi) were all community properties…..if a disaster befalls it befell on the land, even if it was an omen it will be cured by community doctors. The only difference is that they had jurisdictions, for instance, a doctor cannot travel all the way from Mwanda to go appease at mbololo UNLESS is a joint work or invited as a more abled doctor

People respect such places and in some societies no bird, animals or human being may be killed, if it or he or she is hiding in such places.

At the shrines and sacred places, people make or bring sacrifices and offerings, such as animals, food, utensils, tools and fowls. They regard such places as holy and sacred where people meet with God. These places are protected from desecration or misuse by unauthorized individuals. Religious articles and objects are found in many religious places. They are of different shapes, kinds, sizes and colors. Some are kept in the houses while others are kept in the forests. The graves of ancestors usually serve as shrines. These objects are material expressions of religious ideas, beliefs and practices like praying, making offerings and sacrifices and major ceremonies and rituals.

Story Contributed by © Fred Mmbololo