Weekend at Bernie's

Not long after I arrived this trip, the father of some of my kids died, apparently of heart failure. It was a sad day for the family and also for the neighborhood. Although the man had been in the hospital for about a week before he died, which sad to say almost certainly means death, in Ghana, he was not an old man and his youngest child, called Chief by everyone around here, is six.

As is often the case here, the funeral was not held for several weeks. This is often done to ensure various family members and friends have time to plan their schedules and travel to town for the funeral weekend. Funerals are almost always held over the weekend because they are not just a one hour event as is typically the case in the U.S. and perhaps other parts of the world. A traditional funeral is a three day event in Ghana.

On Friday, mourners dress in traditional black (and red, for family members) and go, along with the ambulance, to the mortuary to collect the body which has been in cold storage since death. Then a long procession that includes the ambulance with the body (not yet in a casket, but dressed for viewing), a hearse full of flowers, the vehicle carrying the casket, and all the mourners, often in busses, trotros, taxis, and private cars, passes through the deceased’s neighborhood.


All the mourners that did not join the procession come out of their houses, also fully dressed in funeral attire, to meet the procession, view the body through the windows of the ambulance and pay respects to the family. Then the body is taken and interred at the cemetery with all the mourners and family in attendance.

On Saturday, the funeral is held and lasts about 7 hours, from early morning until mid-afternoon, including eulogies, prayers, very loud music, food, gifts for the family of the deceased and often even professional wailers. There does seem to be a bit of “keeping up with the Joneses” as far as wailing is concerned. The amount of carrying on, entirely by women, at a funeral seems to be believed to show how much the deceased is loved and missed and no one wants to under-mourn in this regard. So, apparently, wailers can be hired for the funeral of the much-beloved dearly-departed.

On Sunday, there is often a funeral church service at the church of the deceased. In that case, I guess the Sunday church service becomes another funeral service but heavier on the singing, preaching, and praying.

I’m told the widow will wear black for a year and then they’ll have another big memorial on the one year anniversary of the death. At this point, I really have to say, with no disrespect, how relieved I am not to be Ghanaian. First, there are the power outages – with a body in storage at the mortuary. I just hope they have enough fuel for the generator. Then, wearing full black dress clothes three days in a a row (or for a year!) in this heat would be the end of me. I’m taking Oral Rehydration Salts about twice a week as it is. And, sitting in the heat in $2.00 plastic chairs for seven hours with man-height speakers blasting beyond their technical limits would put me over the edge. I’d keep the wailers, though. I’ve felt like wailing before and it would be nice if someone else were doing it louder, longer, and more dramatically. It would sort of open the door of acceptability for what I wanted to do anyway.
XO